Jonathan Ashmore
University College London, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.91.17

3–7 January 2013, Kolkata University, India

The smell of dust and diesel tells you that you are in India the moment you get off the plane. I was in Kolkata (renamed in 2001 from ‘Calcutta’ to its Bengali spelling) to attend the 100th Indian Science Congress at the beginning of January. As well as bringing the Society Dog to present to the Indian Physiological Society at the University of Kolkata (the Department was founded in 1912), I discovered that I had also brought a cold previously doing the rounds in London and which got steadily worse during my stay. The level of pollution in central Kolkata did not help (everyone coughs). The meeting itself was held at the newer University campus on the eastern outskirts, a little cleaner but getting there involved serious taxi bargaining.

I survived long enough to enjoy an interesting meeting. The congress covered all the sciences and was attended by over 10,000 delegates from throughout India. The biomedical section, organised by Turshkanti Ghosh, was three days of packed sessions for about 100 attendees, with a strong focus on pharmacology and cell biology. Neuroscience was somewhat sparsely represented, and there was a notable emphasis on small molecule cancer medicines. Some of the more general computing and mathematics symposia which I sneaked out to see were excellent with lively discussion.

The congress received considerable media coverage: it was opened with much pomp by India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who pledged a sizeable chunk of India’s GDP to developing science. There is clearly no shortage of ability, but most of us would probably agree that India does not currently score well in international science in proportion to its size. Science in India has been closely geared to national goals, to improving a health (and military) infrastructure but fragmented because of the federal nature of the Indian state. Only recently have Indian scientists, often trained in the US or in Europe, started to show an international presence. This situation may be set to change with really outstanding research institutes being set up throughout the country, recruiting from a pool of scientists returning from all over the world.

I was impressed by the organisation of the congress: huge outside tents fed everyone. But perhaps I should not have been as the Kumbh Mela was just beginning at Allahabad – a different sort of congress – with numbers in excess of 60 million. In comparison, organising a science congress is a triviality. Our evening events included a performance from Usha Uthup, a well-known popular singer who really got the house rocking, and an astonishing performance of Tagore’s dance opera, Valmiki Pratibha, acted by the inmates of a Kolkata prison (who had been let out for the evening to perform). Now there’s a Physiological Society dinner idea.