Death of children by cough syrup made in India a shame

Murthy Gives Infosys Prize To Six Persons

Bengaluru: Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy on Tuesday said the country faces huge challenges in the field of research in sciences despite the nation achieving the feat of producing Covid-19 vaccine and inoculating the people of the country.

He underlined also the death of 66 children in Gambia in Africa due to Indiaproduced cough syrup and that shamed the country.

He was speaking at an event to present Infosys prize to six people by the Infosys Science Foundation. The prize carries a purse of 1,00,000 dollars.

Lauding companies which manufactured and supplied the billion Covid-19 vaccines, Murthy said this was an achievement by any standard.

There is not a single Indian institution of higher learning in the top 250 of the world university global ranking that was announced in 2020

The IT czar appreciated the rollout of the new national education policy, which is based on the recommendations of professor Kasturirangan Committee.

“These are all encouraging and happy events that show that India is on a path of growth absolutely but we still have huge challenges,” the IT tycoon said.

“There is not a single Indian institution of higher learning in the top 250 of the world university global ranking that was announced in 2020. Even the vaccines we have produced, or either based on technology from advanced countries, or based on research from the developed world. Consequently, we still have not produced a vaccine for dengue and chikungunya, which have been ravaging us for the last 70 years now,” said Murthy.

“That death of 66 children in Gambia, resulting from an India-produced cough syrup has brought unimaginable shame to our country and has dented the credibility of our pharmaceutical regulatory agency,” Murthy said.

However, there was a solution, which is a difficult one, and according to him, the country opted for it, he said.

According to him, experts feel that India’s inability to use research to solve immediate pressing problems is due to lack of inculcating curiosity at an early age, disconnect between pure and applied research, inadequate cutting-edge research infrastructure in the higher educational institutions, insufficient grants and inordinate delays in creating incentives for research and inadequate fora for knowledge sharing with global research institutions. The Infosys founder opined that money is not the primary resource for success in invention or innovation. He told the gathering that the country has had a healthy run in scientific and technological progress in the last few years.