REPORT A Bharat Ratna for Prof. C.N.R. Rao!

HE countrys highest civilian honour was announced recently for one of the worlds foremost solid state and material chemists with more than 55 years of research behind him.

The grand old man of Indian science, Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, more popular as Prof. C.N.R. Rao, at the age of 79 years sll connues to be acve in the eld of science, being the Naonal Research Professor and Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scienc Research, Bangalore. Prof. Rao is also the Head of the Scienc Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Almost 60 years aer C.V. Raman became the rst scienst to be conferred the Bharat Ratna, and 16 years aer A.P.J. Abdul Kalam became only the second scienst to be honoured with the highest honour, C.N.R. Rao gets the disncon of being the third scienst to get this rare honour. Blazing a trail in science by publishing more than 1500 papers in scienc research journals and 45 books over the past ve decades, Prof. Rao started his career as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Instute of Technology Kanpur in 1963. He took over as the Director of the Indian Instute of Science, Bengaluru in 1984. It was at IISc, Bengaluru that Rao made pioneering contribuon to solid state and materials chemistry. Some of the major areas of his research include transion metal oxide systems (new synthesis and novel structures, metal-insulator transions, CMR materials, superconducvity, mulferroics etc.), hybrid materials and nanomaterials including nanotubes and graphene. He has even been in the running for the Nobel Prize for many years. Lately, he has been taking acve interest in the eld of science educaon in the country and was the moving force behind the seng up of the Indian Instute of Science Educaon and Research (IISER). Prof. Rao also oen spends me interacng with school children.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemists, the Royal Society of London and the American Academy of Sciences, Prof. Rao has headed the Third World Academy of Sciences and is a recipient of several naonal and internaonal awards, including Padma Shree, the 2005 Dan David Prize for materials science in the Future Time Dimension, the UNESCO Albert Einstein Gold Medal, the Royal Society, Londons Hughes Medal for Physical Sciences among several others. He was also the rst recipient of the India Science Award, the highest scienc recognion of the Government of India. Prof. C.N.R. Rao has been a strong votary of increasing investments in science. Almost immediately aer the announcement of the Bharat Ratna award, his remarks about policians not understanding the signicance of increased spending on science created a furore in the media. But there is no denying the fact that scienc funding in India has always been below par. Countries like South Korea and China invest a very high percentage of their GDP on science and are consequently way ahead in contribung to world science. According to a report of the Department of Science and Technology this year, India spent only 0.87% of its GDP on R&D in 2009-10, while other BRIC countries like Brazil spent 1.17%, the Russian Federaon, 1.25%, China, 1.70% and South Africa, 0.93%. In an interview given to Science Reporter (August 2007), Prof. Rao had remarked, About 10-15 years ago, India was way ahead of China in basic science and other areas. But today China has overtaken us. China has more instuons working on science and a larger number of people working in science. They have invested more in science. Chinese contribuon to world scienc research is nearly 15% while Indias contribuon is less than 3%. Prof. C.N.R. Rao picked the media interest created by the announcement of the Bharat Ratna as the right moment to air his views. One hopes it has a lasng impact on science policy in the country. Hasan Jawaid Khan

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SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2013