NR Narayana Murthy exclusive: Education is about applying mind and questioning

“Government has to upgrade investments in research institutes and labs. It has upgraded R&D spend to 2 percent of GDP. Researchers and institutes should work with the private sector to solve problems,” he said.

A: The purpose of Infosys prize is to create role models in research for youngsters. We want more and more youngsters to take to research, we want these youngsters to perform high-quality research because we believe that once you start dabbling in research you will advance leading it and thereby you will come out with new ideas that will make our society better whether it’s in agriculture, whether it’s in education, whether it’s in healthcare, nutrition, etc., and this year, like other years, we have people who have done excellent work in various areas in chemistry, we have people who have done excellent work in mathematics, we have people who how have done advanced work in anthropology, we have people who have done work in life sciences from Hyderabad, etc.

So while the work of this leading age researchers may appear to be somewhat theoretical in some cases but my belief is that this kind of research will sooner or later make a difference to work because today you don’t say fundamental research; you say what not yet applied research. Just to give you an example, Einstein’s theory of relativity was used after probably 90 years or so to bring correction in GPS other GPS would have been wrong by 7 miles or in positron emission tomography (PET) scanners - E = mc2 is used in PET scanners. So I would say that the kind of work that these people have done will be useful to the country sooner or later.

A: I think first of all the government has to upgrade its investments in research institutes, in laboratories. The government is already doing so. It has upgraded it to 2 percent or something like that but even that figure is still way behind when you compare with countries like the US, China, etc.

In terms of the private sector what is important is for these researchers to offer to private sector some problems that they will be in a position to solve, for example, the software industry is somewhere around USD 45-50 billion just in Bengaluru. If the institute of science, institute of management and various well-known engineering colleges – they all come and say, we know these are problems that you have and we will try and solve some of these problems and some of them are very advanced, some could even be called fundamental research.

So I think it is a two-way street; the institutes have to extend their hand of friendship, the private sector has to grab those hands and that’s the way I believe that more and more funds will flow from the private sector to these institutions.

A: We are in some sense sector agnostics in our venture capital but we have supported youngsters who are working in areas of improving education. We have supported youngsters who are working in the area of medical diagnostics, we have supported entrepreneurs who are working in the area of soft drinks, we have supported youngsters who are working in the area of providing better healthcare to people. So we are in areas where the country has serious problems whether its agriculture, healthcare, nutrition, medical diagnostics, education, etc.

A: I think there is no such timetable for any research item to be used in making this society better. However, I do believe that in a poor country like India, in a country where there are zillions of problems around us, our scientists, our engineers, our doctors should look at problems and try and solve them.

Some of those things will require what you and I could call fundamental research but by and large, most of them will require an applied research orientation.

Therefore, while nobody can set a timetable for any research issue but if we start solving problems that we see around us whether it is in the societal context or whether it is in the context of a company then I believe that we will develop a problem-solving mindset and that is extremely important for a country like India which has so many problems.

A: I don’t know the details about those things. So I don’t think I can comment on those issues. However, science is about unravelling the mysteries of nature. It is about understanding nature around us. For example, you know how Einstein came out with this theory of relativity. He observed the movement of Mercury around the Sun and he found there was some irregularity and that is how his research led to the theory of relativity.

Similarly, I believe that we Indians should look at nature around us and nature has so many mysteries. Once we try to unravel some of those mysteries, we will come out with extraordinary work, that is one.

On the other hand, engineering is about using the power of science, using the results of science to make life more productive and more comfortable. Whether it is computers, whether it is DVDs, whether it is TV, whether it is a telephone. All these things have come out because engineers applied the power of science to solve problems around us.

Therefore, as long as we Indians take that attitude, I do believe that we will be in a position to solve so many problems around us.

A: Certainly as I said earlier, we are focused on investing in areas that will make this society a better place, whether it is healthcare or education or nutrition or agriculture, medical diagnosis, etc. Even though as you rightly said unicorns are primarily in electronic, commerce and related areas, it will change. Definitely, people will look at areas where there is considerable opportunity in India to make the life of the people better and consequently you can charge, people will pay that and thereby they can build corporations that will scale up in revenues, that will scale up in profits and that will happen. So I am quite positive that it will happen.

A: First of all, our education system has to become much more problem solving oriented. Learning has to be to extract generic inferences out of specific instances and use them in new unstructured related or unrelated areas.

We will have to become more curious, we will have to become more introspective. We have to become more problem-solving.

Once our education system focuses on that, that is the starting point. Then, of course, we have to make sure that the life of entrepreneurs is easier, there should be fewer hassles for our entrepreneurs whether it is from the central government of the state government. Third, money should be available in reasonable quantities for good ideas. Fourth, talent is a big problem. We have to ensure that the country has enough talent that can be actually utilised by these entrepreneurs.

As you know McKinsey has said that hardly 10 percent of our management graduates are employable, hardly 25 percent of our engineers are employable. These percentages will have to improve to perhaps 80-90 percent. Once that happens then there will be enough talent for our entrepreneurs. These are some of the things that need to happen.

A: Not really. I think education learning is all about applying mind, it is all about becoming curious, it is all about questioning, it is all about deep learning, it is all about imagining the unimaginable, reimagining the imagined one, etc.

Therefore, curiosity is a good requirement, is a good input for us to improve our learning thereby solve problems. So I think you may see one or two examples of what you and I may not like but this is part of life, I don’t think we should worry too much about it.