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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 19, 2013 at 7:09

Dear Waghmare Saab;

Thanks for your post and for addressing a rather critical issue.

I am rather sad to notice that there has been no response from the LIS Link members while I expected a good response especially from the members who have done research and earned Ph.D.

Frankly speaking I sincerely expected a good debate over the issue but as I found none so far, I feel that people have accepted it.

In sport, they call it to give Walk Over ! and more importantly, it justifies the statement.

In the recent past, I noticed a tepid response among  academicians towards publishing papers in standard journals. With the new mandate from the UGC, there  seems to be certain upsurge of this particular academic activity!  Since it is a forced/obligatory activity, the quality went in the backseat!!

But As I can recall, the  picture was not  so some 20 or 30 years ago.

Publishing papers used to be a mark of scholarlyness of an individual.

There were two groups, one who were able to WRITE & those who were not.

Since there was no impositions from the part of the funding agencies (like UGC) a large number of people remained unconcerned. Thee is no denying that a good number of such reluctant people were quite capable of producing excellent research publications but they were more concerned to mentor good students who can be good academicians or researchers.

I saw a few such teachers during the early days of my professional career & one advise I still fondly remember, it was like this, "....you may not have huge collection, you may not have sky high budget, even you may not have excellent infrastructure to narrate in order to impress people in the interview board but you sure have one extremely important tool in your own hand to surpass your peers in the interview & that is your number of publications & their quality...it will help you to stay apart distinctly from the other candidates". 

I have no idea why today's teachers  do not inspire & encourage their students while comparatively, financially, our institutes (especially Universities & Scientific Research Institutes) are quite solvent than they had been some 30 years ago; and in certain institutes & universities, the infrastructure are quite outstanding. I have been reading an article by Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director of INFLIBNET published in the 10th. February issue of Current Science and it is remarkable to see from a few tables in the article how the most glamorous University in India has such poor publication output!! while, some of the best academicians in our country teach at that University!! 

Prof Balram, Editor of Current Science had written a just a few years ago in an issue in the editorial coloumn about Mentoring research scholars and about good mentors.

From your post it appears that indeed we are facing acute shortage of such mentors in the academia to guide and inspire the new-gen researchers to produce quality publications.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Digambar Bhaurao Waghmare on May 26, 2013 at 20:02

Dear Sir,

I was on long leave so I could  not  replay on time

sir I agree with your posted opinion  

I think its need of hours in the academia to guide and inspire the new-gen researchers to produce quality publications

Regards,

Digambar B Waghmare 

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 27, 2013 at 18:47

Dear Waghmare Saab,

Thanks for your reply. I completely endorse your statement.

However, the way situation is turning, it seems that in not too distant future we will see lots of Ranchor Das Chanchars getting their goals achieved by Fungshuk Wangroos (Courtesy 3 idiots!!)

And if the Wangroos are smart enough, they will impose befitting charges for their service!!

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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