Preface

Abstract

Following the economic gains of Indian economic liberalization during the 1990s and the first decade of this century, the period after 2007 has seen a vast expansion of the upper levels of the Indian Academic ecosystem. The opening of seven new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at locations spanning the Indian subcontinent have been accompanied by the multiplication of IITs from 5 to 25 and the upgradation of state level Regional Institutes of Engineering into the National Institutes of Technology. The new science institutes are being set up on the pattern of, and with the inspiration of the success of, research training programs at the post-centenarian Indian Institute of Science. The active participation of IIT science faculty in the organization of the new Institutes – to draw upon the experience with successful undergraduate training programs at IITs – has added credibility and momentum. All this has meant the opening up of many new faculty positions in science all over the country. The new Institutes have been generously funded with over a billion dollars to date so that the outlook for science in India has become distinctly rosier and more robust. The Government of India has further empowered the growth of science by the vast INSPIRE program of the Department of science and Technology which generously funds students from school through post-doctoral and finally tenure track faculty level. These initiatives have noticeably counteracted the long lamented ‘brain drain’ affliction of Indian science. Faculty positions fully empowered to do research along with teaching are thus now no longer a rarity or anomaly.