Bharat Ratna awardee and eminent scientist CNR Rao on Sunday
called polticians “idiots” for gi
ving scientists “so little”.
He was referring to the “inadequate” government funding to
the scientific community.
Addressing a press conference a day after the award was
announced, Rao, who is the chairman of the prime minister’s scientific advisory
council, stressed the need for providing more resources for research.
“Why the hell have these idiots (politicians) given so
little to us despite what we have done. For the money that the government has
given us we have done much more,” he said.
Rao was unhappy with the progress India has made when
compared to China saying Indians are complacent. “Indian researchers need to
work harder; we don’t work as hard as the Chinese.
Starting next year, China will top the world with 16.5% of
world research publications, overtaking even the US. The quantity of
publication of research papers from India have remained at 2-3%,” he said.
“India is the worst. China is doing exascale and petascale
computing. I am fighting with the government to invest money in computing,” he
said.
Rao was also unhappy over the focus given to the IT sector
in Karnataka. “The state is not doing well as our people are unfortunately
going behind the money in IT sector. The IT sector has a whole bunch of unhappy
people working in it,” he said.
When asked for his comments on
the state government’s proposed anti-superstition law, Rao said superstitious
people could not be godly.
Dr CNR Rao to be awarded Bharat Ratna along with Sachin
Tendulkar
Professor Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao is the third
scientist to be awarded the highest civilian award-- Bharat Ratna, a crowning
glory of his inexorable list of outstanding achievements.
Before Rao, C V Raman and former President A P J Abdul Kalam
were bestowed with the award. The 79-year-old Prof Rao has honorary doctorates
from 60 universities that speaks volumes about the world wide acclamation and
recognition that he has earned as a scientist par excellence.
Rao is the third scientist after C V Raman and former
President A P J Abdul Kalam to be bestowed with the honour.
Rao, founder of the Bangalore-based Jawharlal Nehru Centre
for Advanced Scientific Research, has served as Chairman of the Scientific
Advisory Council to Prime Minister under different regimes, a manifestation of
immense faith different governments have placed in him.
A renowned scientist and an institution builder, Rao has
worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.
Rao, born on June 30 in 1934 to Hanumantha Nagesa Rao and
Nagamma Nagesa Rao in Bangalore, could have settled for a cushy job armed with
a BSc in 1951 but his unsatiable quest for learning took him to the path of
unending scientific journey.
Rao was thinking of joining IISc for a diploma or a
postgraduate degree in chemical engineering after obtaining bachelors degree
from Mysore University in 1951 but destiny took him to Banaras Hindu University
(BHU) where he got admitted for a MSc course. He obtained his PhD in 1958 from
Purdue University and joined the faculty of Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur, in 1963.
The only son to his parents, he grew up in the old part of
Bangalore. Rao recalled once that his mother telling him mythological stories
and her daily pujas greatly impacted him, which influenced his own journey into
spirituality. "My father wanted me to speak in English too, and it helped
that there was an academic atmosphere at home," Rao noted in an article.
During his school days, the freedom movement was in full
swing and a young Rao listened to the stirring speeches by leaders like Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. He also took part in some of
the freedom movement meetings in whatever capacity he could.
During the early years, Rao once recollected, one of the
fondest memories was meeting Nobel laureate professor C V Raman when he visited
his school in 1946. MIT, PennState, Columbia and Purdue offered admission with
financial support, but Rao chose Purdue, where he completed PhD in two years
and nine months, a record of sorts. Life was on a swing for Rao but home pull
prevailed and in 1959 he landed in Bangalore to join the IISc as a lecturer on
a monthly salary of Rs 500.
Rao has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the
last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials. He has worked mainly in
solid-state and structural chemistry. His work on transition metal oxides has
led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between
materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.
Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional
oxide materials such as La2CuO4 and his work has led to a systematic study of
compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions.
Such studies have had a profound impact in application
fields such as colossal magneto resistance and high temperature
superconductivity. He is the author of around 1,500 research papers and authored
and edited 45 books.
Rao is currently is serving as the Head of the Scientific
Advisory Council to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It has been fame and glory
all through for Rao until two years ago when he was involved in a plagiarism
related controversy. He had been accused of indulging and allowing plagiarism.
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