It’s time for India to lure tempest tossed talent back home

These scientists went on to contribute immensely to their new host nations and their R&D efforts—including America’s Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear bomb before Germany. 

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This bit of history is validation enough for the Tamil Nadu government’s ‘Tamil Talents Plan,’ which primarily seeks to attract scientists whose research work has been (or risks being) left in the lurch by US policies under President Donald Trump, whether it is the sudden squeeze of government funds for studies at universities and state-run labs or withdrawal of a welcome long extended to foreign-born talent. 

Under Trump, a country whose Statue of Liberty bears a plaque asking for the world’s “tempest-tost" has stirred up a storm against immigrants, as if their return home would “Make America Great Again."

As reported, Tamil Nadu is setting aside funds to incentivize returning scientists, while identifying centres of excellence and research chairs in state universities to absorb this talent. It is also setting up two advanced centres for basic research in science and mathematics. All this is welcome. 

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Yet, the plan suffers from two defects. 

One, its focus is exclusively on overseas talent of Tamil descent. Does the state want to exhibit the same kind of xenophobia that inspires this ‘reverse brain drain’? Can its institutions not gain from non-Tamil talent? People who work at the frontiers of knowledge are likely to be discouraged rather than attracted by such a display of identity-based insularity. The scheme should be a Tamil Nadu Talent Plan, not Tamil Talents Plan. 

The second problem is Chennai’s decision to absorb returning researchers in existing labs and varsities. This overlooks the fact that India’s current research system has a frail institutional framework that is rigidly hierarchical and tends to inhibit individual freedom in pursuit of valid aims. 

Granted, modern work is done by largish teams, as the legions of authors who appear jointly in scientific journals attest, but at least team leaders should be free to pursue a flash of insight, instead of being deterred by the chain of bureaucratic approvals it would take.

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That said, it is good that Tamil Nadu wants  to promote basic and not just applied research. India’s shortfall glares out. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute tracks 64 critical technologies. China not just leads in 57 of those today, but is on the verge of securing a monopoly in several. This is underwritten by basic research. 

India has the human resources to match China, but has still lagged behind. With the advent of artificial intelligence, its application could pluck reasonably low-hanging fruit. Precision robotics is one such field. Another is synthetic biology that draws on the work of Alphafold, a Google DeepMind project, to forecast the shapes of millions of protein molecules. 

From a strategic point of view, it makes sense to deploy the bulk of any ‘brain gain’ made in fundamental research. To catch up with rivals, India needs armies of methodologically sound researchers. Many of them could be recruited by India Inc and buzzy startups that are ready to venture into applied research.