Amitabh Sinha
Posted online: Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
New Delhi, July 28: This is one fallout of the Indo-US nuclear deal that has not hit the headlines so far. Foreseeing a spurt in demand for nuclear scientists in India, the government is working on a wide-ranging policy to introduce nuclear sciences courses in universities.
As of now, only IIT-Kanpur has a programme in Nuclear Engineering and Technology which, on an average, awards barely 10 M.Tech degrees and just one PhD each year. But those working in the area of nuclear sciences in various organizations of the Department of Atomic Energy are mostly science and engineering graduates who have been trained for specific jobs.
While such an arrangement has worked with reasonable satisfaction till now, top experts in the field say there is a need being felt at the highest levels that the country needs better qualified nuclear scientists.
“I can tell you that probably in the next six months there is going to be a fairly important policy announcement in this regard,” Prof Bikash Sinha, director, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, told The Sunday Express.
“We can produce quality nuclear scientists not just for our own country but for the rest of the world too. For that our output has to increase,” says Prof C N R Rao, chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister (SAC-PM), and president of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore.
Dr R R Puri, Dean, Homi Bhabha National Institute, says once the demand for people qualified in nuclear sciences grows, the universities will be forced to set up courses in those subjects. Anyway, Sinha, also a member of SAC-PM, says the scientific community and the government are “alive to the problem.”
“The issue has been discussed at the SAC-PM also. It has been realized that traditional training has to go through a metamorphosis when we are expecting an unprecedented increase in demand for people in nuclear research and applied areas like power generation,” he says.
As the country starts to depend more on nuclear power to meet its increasing energy requirements, Sinha says, “We are looking at doubling, tripling, even quadrupling our manpower in these areas...We have to start modern courses on nuclear sciences at the universities and institutes like the IITs. There is already a tremendous amount of effort going on to start such courses.”
Some progress in this direction was made with the establishment of the Homi Bhabha National Institute in 2005, a deemed university which groups 10 high-end research institutes under a single research-driven framework.
The institute started a few courses in September 2006 and is looking forward to setting up a campus in Mumbai soon, says Puri, its dean.
“For nuclear scientists, the main place of employment is the Department of Atomic Energy. Till now the demand was more or less being met. But as the demand grows, the universities will start such courses whether someone tells them to or not,” he says.
According to Puri, some universities in the United States, like the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, even have nuclear reactors inside their campuses.
But even in that country, there is a shortfall of nuclear engineers, says C N R Rao. “The number of people having nuclear know-how has decreased all over the world. Its not just India, but the entire world is going to be short of good nuclear scientists as nuclear reactors once again gain legitimacy. Therein lies a good opportunity for the Indian scientists.
Posted online: Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
New Delhi, July 28: This is one fallout of the Indo-US nuclear deal that has not hit the headlines so far. Foreseeing a spurt in demand for nuclear scientists in India, the government is working on a wide-ranging policy to introduce nuclear sciences courses in universities.
As of now, only IIT-Kanpur has a programme in Nuclear Engineering and Technology which, on an average, awards barely 10 M.Tech degrees and just one PhD each year. But those working in the area of nuclear sciences in various organizations of the Department of Atomic Energy are mostly science and engineering graduates who have been trained for specific jobs.
While such an arrangement has worked with reasonable satisfaction till now, top experts in the field say there is a need being felt at the highest levels that the country needs better qualified nuclear scientists.
“I can tell you that probably in the next six months there is going to be a fairly important policy announcement in this regard,” Prof Bikash Sinha, director, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, told The Sunday Express.
“We can produce quality nuclear scientists not just for our own country but for the rest of the world too. For that our output has to increase,” says Prof C N R Rao, chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister (SAC-PM), and president of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore.
Dr R R Puri, Dean, Homi Bhabha National Institute, says once the demand for people qualified in nuclear sciences grows, the universities will be forced to set up courses in those subjects. Anyway, Sinha, also a member of SAC-PM, says the scientific community and the government are “alive to the problem.”
“The issue has been discussed at the SAC-PM also. It has been realized that traditional training has to go through a metamorphosis when we are expecting an unprecedented increase in demand for people in nuclear research and applied areas like power generation,” he says.
As the country starts to depend more on nuclear power to meet its increasing energy requirements, Sinha says, “We are looking at doubling, tripling, even quadrupling our manpower in these areas...We have to start modern courses on nuclear sciences at the universities and institutes like the IITs. There is already a tremendous amount of effort going on to start such courses.”
Some progress in this direction was made with the establishment of the Homi Bhabha National Institute in 2005, a deemed university which groups 10 high-end research institutes under a single research-driven framework.
The institute started a few courses in September 2006 and is looking forward to setting up a campus in Mumbai soon, says Puri, its dean.
“For nuclear scientists, the main place of employment is the Department of Atomic Energy. Till now the demand was more or less being met. But as the demand grows, the universities will start such courses whether someone tells them to or not,” he says.
According to Puri, some universities in the United States, like the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, even have nuclear reactors inside their campuses.
But even in that country, there is a shortfall of nuclear engineers, says C N R Rao. “The number of people having nuclear know-how has decreased all over the world. Its not just India, but the entire world is going to be short of good nuclear scientists as nuclear reactors once again gain legitimacy. Therein lies a good opportunity for the Indian scientists.
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