Forum resists brain drain to IT

Dr Vijay Bhatkar presents a Science India Forum in the UAE award for excellence to Jerin Jacob.

DUBAI // The prospect of lucrative jobs abroad in information technology is robbing the country of talented young Indian students who could be working in areas such as engineering or science, according to professionals. To stop the brain drain, specialists from science and technology sectors, among others, are trying to persuade schoolchildren to rethink their career choices.

The Science India Forum, introduced to the UAE two years ago, was created by a group of scientists and modelled on the National Science Movement in India. "The trend for some time now has been that any intelligent student goes to study medicine or engineering and ends up in an IT company, due to good salaries," said TM Nanda Kumar, the president of the Science India Forum in the UAE. "If the present trends continue, we will not have any scientists because IT companies would have already lured the best minds."

The UAE forum yesterday held its second annual awards ceremony for pupils who had excelled in a science test that was partly designed by scientists and partly based on their school science curriculum. Dr Vijay Bhatkar, who developed the Param series of supercomputers in India and pioneered supercomputing technology, was one of two Indian scientists at the awards ceremony last night. "These exams are quite tough. Suddenly they are confronted with issues that they don't come across every day, like the lives, works and contributions of certain scientists," Dr Bhatkar said.

The tests are sent from India and are given by age groups, from Grade 5 onwards. In its first year, 26 schools from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah took part, with 9,986 students sitting the exam. Last year, the forum received 20,859 applications. Sarang V Shankar, 11, from the Indian Public High School in Ras al Khaimah, was among the 17 students who excelled. Sarang's favourite subjects are mathematics and science, and he is fascinated by space exploration.

He prepared for the test for two months during his holidays, driven by the promise to meet eminent Indian scientists if he did well. "I want to research space when I grow up. I like to learn about projects associated with the moon, and how to go to other planets and how they find new things in the solar system," Sarang said. Mr Kumar said he would like to slowly build a community of Shastra Pratibhas, which is the title given to the top picks from each grade, so they may hold workshops for future aspirants. He said four students from the first year's list of top scorers have said they would like to become scientists.

The Omani branch of the science forum, which has been in place for five years, inspired volunteers in the UAE who campaigned with the Indian Embassy to introduce it here in 2007. It now has headquarters in the capital and chapters in other emirates. [e-mail]