Bharat Ratna awardee CNR Rao the scientist who finds computers 'distracting'

India's highly regarded scientist Professor CNR Rao has been conferred the Bharat Ratna for 201 ! Rao" an outspo#en critic of the system who often worries about the future of higher education and science in India" is former director of the Indian Institute of $cience" Bangalore" and currently wor#s at the %awaharlal Nehru Centre for &d'anced $cientific Research in Bangalore! (ne of the most prolific chemists" who at age )* still spends se'eral hours e'ery day in his laboratory and has published o'er 1+00 research papers on materials science" his latest cra,e was to wor# on thin films of carbon called 'graphene'! -e has been in the running for the Nobel Pri,e for many years! Rao had recently said .I wish in 20 years India will be in the top three or four countries in the world in science! I really want to see India shine!. /ery fond of classical Indian music" he spends e'enings rela0ing with wafts of 'eena and sitar! .$tamina" tenacity" doggedness" and perse'erance! &lso a little intelligence is useful1. Rao had once told N23/ on being as#ed what does one need to do to succeed as a scientist in India! Rao gets most animated when discussing science and says .If you are not childli#e" you cannot be a scientist!. &long with his wife Indu" he has co4authored a series of boo#s for children to ma#e chemistry friendly for students! Rao ser'es as the chairman of the 2 member $cience &d'isory Council to the Prime 5inister and has been an outspo#en critic of the bureaucratic red4tapism that surrounds Indian science! &n a'id educationist" he is responsible for unleashing the reforms seen in science education in the last fi'e years and was the dri'ing force for the setting up of the new high profile Indian Institute $cience 6ducation and Research! 3he last time when N23/ met him in Bangalore" the 'ery elo7uent and engaging spea#er said he had remo'ed all computers from his des# as he found them to be a distraction and had stopped answering emails himself as he found them to be a waste of time! 3hough his staff does bring to his notice all email messages sent to him and one can always e0pect a prompt answer! 8nown not to suffer any fools" Rao ma0imises his efficiency by concentrating on science! -e e'en refrains from using a mobile phone and had said" .I do not use my mobile phone e0cept to spea# to my wife.! -e 9oins the pantheon of three other pre4eminent people from the field of science who ha'e been conferred the Bharat Ratna in the past 4 Nobel :aureate and physicist C/ Raman who was gi'en the same award in 1*+;< ci'il engineer 5! /is'es'arayya in 1*++ and most recently aeronautical engineer &P% &bdul 8alam in 1**)!

:ast wee# on No'ember )" the $cience &d'isory Council to the Prime 5inister that he chairs" ga'e a clarion call urging the go'ernment to support science e'en more and said .it re7uires not a mere increase in in'estment in $=3 from the present roughly 1 per cent of the >2P to the promised 2 per cent of the >2P" but also the moral and intellectual support of society as a whole to $cience 3echnology and Inno'ation ?$3I@! Aith such support and the con'iction that the our national interests will be greatly ser'ed by integrating $3I into economic and societal policies" the country should be able to succeed in sol'ing the serious problems that it faces in the ne0t two or three decades" and be counted as a ma9or contributor to $3I!.