Despite its rich legacy and size, India doesn’t fare well on global benchmarks of maths. Here’s a road map on how to do it
Mathematics is the foundation of modern science and technology, and its role in critical areas of national security such as cryptography is even more singular. However, despite a rich historical legacy (Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara, for instance) as well as renowned mathematicians in the 20th century (such as S Ramanujan, SN Bose, PC reagents Mahanobis and CR Rao), India has fared less well in this critical field in recent years.
A recent study evaluated the contributions of top mathematicians based on the Discipline H-index or D-index, which tracks each scientist’s published scholarly papers and citations in their specific discipline.
Among the top 50 mathematicians, only one is of Indian origin; among the top 100, four are of Indian origin. Among the top 500, 15 are of Indian origin, but just one is based in India. Among the top 2,332 mathematicians, just 17 are based in India (less than 1%).
India ranks 19th, lower than tiny countries such as Israel, Austria and Belgium. While there have been two Indian-origin winners of the Fields medal (the Nobel Prize of mathematics) – Akshay Venkatesh and Manjul Bhargava – their parents had emigrated to Australia and Canada, respectively. And while institutions such as the Chennai Institute of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Statistical Institute and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, have excellent mathematicians, the pool is thin.
Given India’s size, this is deeply dismaying. There are two reasons why India should be doing much better in mathematics. First, among all Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, the last one is the least capital-intensive. There is relatively less need for capital investments in labs and equipment, which need to be constantly upgraded. Mathematics also does not require large running costs of elaborate support infrastructure such as lab technicians or costly reagents.
Furthermore, if STEM is a ladder of social mobility, mathematics is even more so. Merit is rarely unambiguous, since the nature of standards and the referees that enforce them markedly shape its perception. But some fields of human endeavour have more unambiguous markers of merit.
In mathematics (along with sports, chess, and music), quality cannot be easily gamed. The language of maths is universal — and the standards of merit are unambiguous. The great Indian mathematician, Ramanujan, became a byword in number theory and pure mathematics despite his poverty, weak English language abilities, and being a fish out of water amidst the dons of Cambridge University.
India has failed to produce another Ramanujan despite the language of mathematics being universal (and, hence, English language proficiency mattering much less), a population that has grown five-fold, and is much more educated (at least as measured by the percentage of population finishing high school). This speaks volumes about India’s education system. Indeed, the current system of education is expressly designed to polish the stones and dim the diamonds.
Brilliant mathematicians are well likely to perform weakly or even fail in some subjects that don’t interest them. But India’s education prefers well-rounded mediocrity to narrow brilliance.
One of India’s biggest security challenges going forward will be cybersecurity and at the heart of it will be cryptography, for which the country needs hundreds of young talents in pure mathematics. Currently, key national security agencies such as the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) face serious human capital challenges (the largest employer of mathematicians in the US is the National Security Agency or NSA).
But the security challenge for India is much greater. Like all armies, the Indian armed forces are well prepared for the last war. This may matter less under conditions of slow technological change. But when technological change is rapid – and even more when it occurs at the breakneck speed as is the case today – the structures and personnel need a serious rethink.
To take an example, the US set up a new Army Futures Command (AFC) in 2018 (with about 20,000 personnel) to develop the technologies and concepts that will enable its armed forces to stay abreast of the sheer range and speed of unprecedented disruptive technologies that are impacting warfare. AFC is charged with leveraging developments in areas such as robotics, quantum computing, hypersonics, directed energy and Artificial Intelligence pioneered by the private sector. The key personnel are PhDs, who work, unlike the army’s usual hierarchical ethos. Knowledge and expertise, not rank and polish, matter. Breaking from the insularity that characterises militaries, it deliberately listens to a range of external civilian advisers, regularly convening meetings with technology experts.
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