Dr. Kishore Paknikar

A nation aspiring to scientific leadership cannot afford a capital city where breathing becomes dangerous for weeks at a time. Each winter, Delhi descends into a familiar haze so thick that even routine life slows down. Flights are delayed, highways are shrouded in grey, hospitals record a spike in respiratory cases, and millions of citizens breathe air that would be classified as hazardous anywhere in the world. For more than a decade, this pattern has repeated itself with the regularity of...

Scientific creativity thrives not when shielded from economic thinking, but when paired with it to turn knowledge into meaningful public value. Modern science today is shaped by two strong forces. One is the enduring curiosity to understand nature, a motivation that has guided researchers for generations. The other is the increasing expectation that science should contribute to visible improvements in society, within limited budgets and specific time frames. The distance between these forces...

Honouring Sir C.V. Raman means advancing his legacy by using RDI to transform India’s discoveries into enduring capabilities. November 7 marks the anniversary of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman’s birth, India’s first Nobel laureate in science. His life remains a clear example of how far intellectual courage can carry a nation, even before it possesses the institutional support or material wealth to nurture scientific inquiry. Using simple optical setups, tuning forks, sunlight, and glass plates...