Editorial 1: Single digits
Introduction
India concluded Paris Olympics with six medals. The nation secured one silver and five bronze medals, down from seven at Tokyo 2020 that included a gold and two silvers.
Key Moments in Paris Olympics 2024
Government-Corporate support: At a time when the country is looking to diversify its sporting excellence, has found exuberant support from the government and big corporates, and was aiming for a double-digit medal yield, the Olympic fortnight belied expectations.
Birth of new Athletes: There were indeed new heroes — shooters Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale, and wrestler Aman Sehrawat which are now household names.
Hockey Power: The men’s hockey team finishing on the podium for a second straight time.
Javelin’s Silver Catch: Neeraj Chopra added a silver to his historic javelin gold from Tokyo are top-notch efforts.
Obstacles encountered in Olympics Formats
Dependence on a Select Few: To repeatedly deliver on all formats and over the year performances.
Absence of participation in other formats: The near-zero presence in disciplines such as swimming and gymnastics, and wrestler Vinesh Phogat being disqualified for being over-weight is concerning.
Steps to enhance participation and performance
Funding access: To increase participation and distribute funding more equitably to usher in a grass-roots revolution.
Fix accountability and decentralise governance: Union Sports Ministry should bring errant federations to check and avoid dens of nepotism and corruption thereby aligning the sports structure in line with the National Sports Code.
Conclusion
The Olympics is not just about winning and the shaping of national identities, it is also the greatest stage on earth to showcase the triumph of human will. Past games are filled with various examples likes:
- Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, the first since Emil Zatopek in 1952 collected medals in 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon.
- Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, the first woman to win three consecutive 1,500m titles,
- Cuba’s Mijain Lopez, won a fifth individual gold on the trot in 130kg Greco-Roman wrestling.
- Novak Djokovic, who at 37 and with a surgically repaired knee, won the elusive singles gold in tennis.
- Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who braved incendiary attacks on her gender to rise to the top.
- Sweden’s Armand Duplantis broke the men’s pole vault record for an astonishing ninth time (6.25m).
- Swimmer Katie Ledecky, gymnast Simone Biles and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone achieved transcendence by stretching their numbers to nine, seven and four Olympic golds, respectively.
- France did well as a host, winning 16 golds, its best figures in a century. The star was 22-year-old swimmer Leon Marchand, who bagged four golds to position himself as the best of this generation.
- Athletics, in the post-Usain Bolt era, was on the lookout for one such champion, but as Paris proved, that is a tough act to follow.
Thus, effort in the right direction towards empowering sports person and investing in capacity building in sports infrastructure, will go a long way.
Editorial 2: Hints of the corporatisation of science research in India
Introduction
During the inaugural address of the 107th Science Congress in Bengaluru in January 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reflected on the government’s take on how science should be conducted in India. It was conveyed to young researchers in his usual aphoristic manner of speaking: “innovate, patent, produce, prosper”. By expressing it in a maxim, the Prime Minister was hinting at the birthing of a new policy on knowledge production under his leadership.
Past trends of Research in India
- Revenue streams: The ruling regime has been directing laboratories and other research centres to earn their revenue from external sources by marketing their expertise and investing the surplus to develop technologies for national missions.
- Dehradun Declaration: Prepared by the directors of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research labs in 2015, where it was decided to market patents as a means to self-finance research.
- Corporatisation of science research: A process of converting any state-owned entity into a market commodity and being able to follow the business model to support itself, rather than relying on public support.
- Research infrastructure: Science institutes are now encouraged to develop research centres registered as Section 8 companies, wherein private companies or shareholders can invest money.
The ANRF and research
- Establishment under the ANRF Act of 2023: This new mechanism is designed to fund research in the country and to improve linkages between research and development, academia and industry.
- Operationalise the ANRF: For basic research and prototype development. The “prototype development” is a significant part of the innovation cycle to assess the marketability of a product.
- Funding mechanisms: The ANRF will receive ₹50,000 crore over five years, 72% of which is expected to be from the private sector. The government intends to reduce its role in funding the research and expects private entrepreneurship to pitch in a big way.
- United States experience: Where research and development has significantly outstripped government funding over the last decade, it is clustered mostly in IT and pharmaceuticals. The knowledge thus generated through research is considered a commodity to be marketed.
- Integration of Science and Technology: What makes science different from the Renaissance period and after that is that science and technology are now more closely integrated than ever, and scientific advances can now end up as marketable products more rapidly.
- Intellectual property rights: This transformation has also led to intellectual property rights allowing universities to sell the patents to private corporations, even if the research is publicly funded.
- Neo-Liberal Policies: The adoption of neoliberal economic policies across the globe has also accelerated the greater involvement of the private sector in funding science.
Signals despite the stated objective
- The dictates of the capitalist market: The curiosity-driven research in natural sciences involves understanding and predicting natural phenomena based on empirical evidence and experimentation.
- Constraints from the private sector: The private sector cannot be expected to finance curiosity-driven science because it will not invest money unless the research finds some immediate application that maximises its profits.
- Government funding for ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’: Which are not part of evidence-based science is less of a priority.
- Funding gaps: Through scientific tools and experimentation the share of public funding can be increased.
- Experimentation and analyses: The research proposals in basic science need to be assessed based on the proposers’ ability to acquire knowledge about a problem defined by conducting observations, experimentation and analyses.
- Country comparison : Although India is ranked among the top 10 by gross domestic product (GDP), the ratio of public funding for science research in India has been 0.6% to 0.7% of GDP for the last decade. A country such as South Korea, only a third the size of India and its population, spends about 2% to 3% of its GDP.
Conclusion
Government Funding: While the private sector is encouraged to fund, the government must increase its basic science and non-profit research allocation.
Trust Surplus: Countries can avoid the decline of curiosity-driven science in our universities through funding, as it can undermine public trust in science when it gets dominantly mediated by private interests.
Nurturing an ambience of free enquiry: To maintain the financial and administrative autonomy of the institutes.
Bureaucratic support: should be channelised to give more autonomy to public universities.
Finally, a collaborative effort by government, private sector and citizen will help to achieve a more scientific and just society.
