India's scientist ratio dismal: DRDO official

Coimbatore: India was in need of more scientists and women could come forward and consider science and technology as a career and as a means for contributing to the well being of society, a senior Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist said today.

S&T manpower in the country stood at less than 10 scientists per thousand of population, which was dismal compared to international figures. Japan has over 110 and Canada was as high as 180 per thousand population, Chief Controller of DRDO Dr K Sekhar said here.

Delivering the convocation address at Avinashilingam Deemed University for Women he said India needed more people to get into S&T, since nations advanced only when they could find credible scientific solutions to their problems.

The problem could be preserving frontiers, producing more food, more energy, controlling epidemic, preserving terrains one cannot conceive life without finding intervention of science, to resolve the everyday problems and women scientists can play a big role in this effrt, Sekhar said.

He said the young graduates can consider the option of working with DRDO, if preserving national security was a passion they nurtured.

A vibrant nation on the path of development needed to synergise all its energies creatively and for S and T, it was important that academic institutions, industries and R and D establishments worked togther, Sekhar added.