Abstract
Scientists’ vs Science administrators: Who is more important to science?
India does not have a reputation for recognizing scientific merit, especially when the achiever has little access to the overriding administrative machinery. Scientific talent without proximity to political circles rarely wins attention. Our lay press is perpetually focused on power games; the substance of science is low priority. There is hardly any readership for serious scientific stuff.
Rewarding good work, in a timely manner, is essential for the growth of science. We don’t seem to be doing too well. Let us examine the case of Dr Dilip Mahalanobis, who received a Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2023. During the Indo Pakistan war in 1971, it was Dilip Mahalanobis who single-handedly pioneered the historic Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) field trial. The incredibly simple and frugal ORT was a phenomenal success. Dr Mahalanobis saved thousands from the jaws of death during the cholera epidemic that swamped the refugee camps. And yet, this humble paediatrician had to wait for more than 60 years to be honoured by India.