Wednesday 25 April 2012

Bioscience again

In theory, the future of bioscience in India, is rosy.
We have a Genome Valley in Hyderabad, which is a biotech cluster. We have R&D in pharma companies like Dr Reddys. We have contract research organisations, clinical research institutes.........
But our college that offers 4 BSc courses in bioscience stream, has very few students ,though compared to other colleges, we are much better off. Many colleges in Hyderabad have closed down their BSc bioscience courses. Our 2006 intake was 185 students and our 2010 intake was 35. Last year saw an upward trend again to 65. I hope this year we get 100 students admitted.
However, the quality of students is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago.
In the XII/ Intermediate, very few students take up biology. Here, it is still considered a choice for the not so bright person(can't do math type).
I don't know if the situation is similar in other places ( I think it is if you see the cut offs in DU), but there is not much hope of the best minds getting into biology or biotechnology.
Secondly, biology has become much more quantitative in recent years. So the logic " you can't do math, so take up bio" does not hold up anymore.
So where are you going to get the people to carry this great leap forward in Indian biosciences?
I hope the IISERs do the needful.

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