Senior scientist and chairman of Prime Minister's Advisory Board on Science and Technology Prof CNR Rao expressed dissatisfaction over the country's contribution to the world in the area of pharma-biotech research. Prof Rao was delivering his inaugural address at a session on "Making India a Powerhouse in Research' at the Techvista 2007 here.

"Given the county's size and population, India's contribution in pharma-biotech research world-wide should go up from the present 3 per cent 10-15 per cent," Prof. Rao, who is also the head of the Department of Nanotechnology at Jawaharlal Nehru Scientific Research Institute, Bangalore, said.

In his inaugural address at a session on 'Making India a Powerhouse in Research' at the Techvista 2007, he said that India has been producing only 4,000 PhDs yearly for the last three decades. Countries like Brazil produce 12,000 doctorates, USA 23,000 and China 16,000 annually.

The need of the hour is that parents should encourage children to pursue subjects of their choice and should not force them for engineering or computer science. "India has the potential to become a world leader in knowledge. The country's action plan must create knowledge in all areas of information technology, science, engineering and arts. It must research which has to be focused in the learning process," he said.

He called upon the young students to emulate scientists like Michael Faraday and Ramanujam who were totally committed to research. More women should also enter the field of research.

"One discovery has the power to change the world and therefore research was needed to ensure a creation of technologies that could save lives and time," he stated.

Researchers today are even well groomed to work and if more youngsters took on this area of work it would have a positive impact. As compared to many stress related jobs, research is tension-free to a considerable extent, Prof Rao said.