India needs techno-commercial chemists: Expert

Visakhapatnam: India needs program management and techno- commercial experts to raise as top spot for chemistry outsourcing, observed by Eisai Pharma Senior Vice-President Dr Girish Dixit here at GITAM Deemed to be University.

He participated in 125th birth anniversary of Prof Satyendra Nath Bose jointly organised by GITAM Institute of Science Chemistry Department and S N Bose National Center for Basic Sciences, Kolkata here on Thursday.

While addressing on a subject “Trends in Chemistry Education and Opportunities,”  Dr Girish Dixit mentioned that the social environment, lack of awareness about scholarships, stereotyped images of pure science projects and the attitude of corporates towards scholars are some of the issues which need to be dealt with if India needs to surpass China and other Western nations.

He observed that in countries like the US, corporates reach out to universities/institutions to bring innovation into their work but in India, corporates and industry bodies rely mostly on their own research rather than reaching out to academia.

He stressed that a robust collaboration between the two will augur well for our developing economy, enabling innovation, growth in the education system and producing an employment-ready workforce.

He informed that finance management, material management, intellectual property management, quality management, pharma management are some of the inter disciplinary subjects which will be helpful to raise the bar of standards in the masters’ subjects. He advised that the universities should relook in to the syllabus of the masters and should incorporate inter disciplinary subjects.

Natsol Laboratories Pvt Ltd Director Dr GVSubbaraju mentioned that the country’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to expand at 20 billion US$ by 2020 and lot of opportunities to young generation in pharma industry. He advised the students to focus on new areas in chemistry to suit the needs of industry. 

GITAM in-charge Vice-Chancellor Prof K Sivarama Krishna said that basic sciences are backbone to science and technology development. He observed that subjects like chemistry, mathematics and physics should be taught up to 12th standard as common subjects in view of growing environmental issues and technology management aspects. 

S N Bose National Centre of Basic Sciences (Kolkata) Associate Professor Dr Thirupathaiah Setti, GITAM Institute of Science Principal Prof K Arunlakshmi, Chemistry Department Head and program convenor Dr Anima Sunil Dadhich, Co-convenor Dr Anjali Jha addressed the gathering.