Govind Gujar: entomologist's journey to understand the Society we live in

Publish or perish is a rule that operates in the world of science. More and more scientists publish alone or with their peers as soon as possible and as often as possible. Ideas, reviews, research papers, notes, and short notes in the best possible referred journals, or periodicals of some repute are all that aimed at. In the hindsight is psyche of being the first amongst equals, to be counted amongst few and to earn the recognitions of the sort as rewards. If you expect your innovation, invention to be of monetary value, then it means filing of patents, as many as possible and as soon as possible. Priority is a need of the hour. It is money all the way if it is commercialized. Recent developments in biotechnology and medical fields have brought to closer to radical solutions of various diseases.     All along is also a rule of accountability enshrined within each of these activities. Publications must be original, and not the copy or infringement of earlier literature. In t

Many years ago, I found out the 101-ft high statue of Hanuman, monkey God revered in my home town. I asked a colleague as to why they found it necessary to build one and why did not they build a school, college or a hospital. His answer was- people like to be blessed by God and hence, they are willing to donate. However, it is difficult to get donation for social cause. People think that it is the job of Government to provide for infrastructure, educational and other facilities.   A statue of Hanuman draws a crowd of 50-100 every day and being on a roadside and railside, people see it daily even from a distance and have their blessings. Yesterday, a neighbour of mine visited us with a pamphlet of Indraprastha Vishwa Hindu Parishad which is organizing a “Great Religious ( read as Hindu ) Gathering” at Ram leela Ground on the 9 th Dec., 2018. And this gathering is meant to prevail up on the Government to remove all hurdles in the construction of Ram Mandir (temple) at Ayodhya. Of

I am across the first case of suicide in the year 1973 when I was a M.Sc. student. One of my seniors doing Ph.D. had committed suicide. He was in-service candidate who had come to Delhi for his higher studies. Coping with professional needs with that of family seemed to be too much. I am told that he committed suicide for personal reasons. Prior to that, one of the scientists of our Institute had committed suicide due to professional problem. The concerned scientist did not do well in his experimentation and feared wrath of his supervisor. Probably this may not be only problem. Some commit suicide for purely economic reasons, as they are unable to find job despite good education. And if they are in job, they do not have either job satisfaction or work environment is not good enough to progress. As I goggle through internet, I understand that suicide is one of the important causes of death of young and mid-career persons in many developed countries. Of course, in such countries, the

Every morning, I take up newspaper to read, I happen to see some news related to Kashmir. With Mr Imran Khan becoming a PM, I thought probably we might start a dialogue for peaceful coexistence. He had offered talks as he took over prime ministership last month. Ministers of both countries were to meet at UN in New York. However, killing of Indian soldiers has provoked India to cancel that meeting. India accuses Pakistan for promoting cross-border terrorism and has successfully mobilised the world opinion in its favour, sometime succeeding in mentioning Pakistan as the state actor in sponsoring terrorism. Today (23rd Sep, 2018)'s news of cancellation of ministerial meeting in NY was interpreted by Pakistan as India's arrogance that is aimed at vote bank politics in view of coming elections to the Parliament. What I felt bad is the reported remarks of PM Imran Khan that "small men occupying big offices do not have vision to see the larger picture". Obviously, these r

Few years back, I got a facebook note from the young student stating how happy she was to see one of her community member occupying a high position in the education organization. Yes, I am Govind Gujar. I had earned that position in the prestigeous Ag institution. Now I am retired. And my surname evokes different feelings in the people in North India. This youngster was oblivous of the fact that majority of Gujar Community do not use Gujar as surname. She thought I belonged to her community. I kept quiet on this account, which of course in strict sense not being honest or even lying. I just did not want to discourage her, rather advised her to concentrate on her studies, wishing her all the best in her career. Similarly, I came in contact with others who quite readily accepted me in their folds. And that too when I explained that I am not sure if I belong to their community, as I use Gujar as my surname and my community is different in my state. Yet, I am perceived as important. And

This was drafted before "Back to Original Act" passed recently  in July-Aug 2018 in Parliament. Now comes a turn of Chirag Paswan to champion the cause of Schedule caste (SC) and Schedule tribe (ST) community by launching agitation for restoring status quo on SC-ST Act Sometime back, when Supreme Court (SC) gave its verdict on immediate arrest of the accused under the SC-ST Act and felt that it does not meet the natural cause of justice without any investigation or preliminary enquiry, it was like heaven-has-fallen-over-heads reactions of most political leaders of SC and ST communities. Being directly and indirectly accused of fake, unsubstantiated allegations under the above Act, I have some personal experience of its misuse. At the same time, I do not deny that SC and ST community still suffers from some unscrupulous, insensitive people of higher caste on the basis of caste discrimination. Just because the SC-ST officer (being senior) in the office hierarchy fel

A few days back, an interesting news item related to copy cat publications of USA, China and India. India ranks third in order after USA and China. These findings are based up on the retractions of publications in response to exposure of malpractice by the colleagues and or due to change of heart. Every one who is in academics is exposed to copycat research, some time it is duplication, some time it is repetition. Some call it adaptive research for their conditions. Others just do it to confirm what is done elsewhere. If copied from the advanced countries at the fast rate, it can be considered as relevant and original. Often, it takes time for many colleagues to sink in an idea that this has been copied or is similar to some thing that has already appeared as a better publication or in a higher ranking journal. Of course, time lag between two (one original and another copy cat) and its realization varies depending up on the field of research, research personnel, spectrum of research,

This week, I read the news item that High court judge has recused the case of Gopal Kanda involved in suicide case to some other bench/judge. I know of the Sr. officer similarly recussing the case of disciplinary action against an employee who used to use abusive language against many in our organization. I do not know the reasons of recusing the work allotted before or midway. Can I recuse my work to some one else? I wish I too...whenever the task is hot (I mean controversial). Unfortunately, I am not high official to do so. I will be accused of avoiding/dereliction of my responsibilities. I may face wrath of my supervisor; and even a disciplinary action. The google search for meaning of 'recuse' shows " challenge (a judge or juror) as unqualified to perform legal duties because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality".  By the way, what could be potential conflict of interest for a judge to be impartial. Is it not necessary for the judge t

Karnataka has now fallen to Bhartiya Janata Party, with  Mr BS Yaddyurappa again becoming Chief Minister. This is the same Yaddyurappa who had fallen foul of BJP leadership for being corrupt and convicted by the Court. BJP with likes of Yaddyurappa and Reddy Brothers will rule the state making money for themselves. It is not that Congress's Siddharamaih or Janata Dal (S)'s Kumaraswamy would not have done that, had any one of them being chosen as CM. People really had no choice to select the good candidates. Unfortunately, the people of Delhi who had reposed their faith in the novice, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal have found out that those with power are drunk with power and learn the rope of politics faster than any thing else. Hope now people realise that they should not merely vote but participate in the democracy by putting up good candidates in the hope many the better and of the many, some will be cleaner too for development.

The Government of India has set an ambitious target for itself. Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated this target of Doubling Farmers' Income by 2022. Farm distress has affected everyone; with farmers taking to streets, some died due to suicides too, the Opposition cornering the Government inside and outside the Parliament, and the Government waiving off the loans and promising more to the farmers. I attended a seminar last week on "Minimum Support Price for Crops" and "Agri-Export Policy" on 3rd April at India Habitat Centre, another thinktank place in New Delhi. This was organized by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture, not to be confused with Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The former is a thinktank, an NGO that also supports policies and commerce directly and indirectly. Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crop produce was a concept introduced in 1970s to support the farmers with minimum price of their produce guaranteed by the Go

Pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) was a key pest of cotton prior to introduction of GM cotton. This pest infests only flowers and bolls. It feeds inside the bolls and seeds inside. As GM cotton expresses less toxin in floral and bolls, the larvae ingest sublethal doses. This pest has acquired resistance to Bt cotton. As early as 2004, we started work on efficacy of Bt toxins against Pink bollworm larvae. We found resistance development in the Amreli population of pink bollworm to Bt toxin, Cry1Ac in 2009 and published our studies in early 2011. A year before, Monsanto in its press release extensively reported up on the pink bollworm resistance to Bt cotton. However, the official establishments did not take a serious note of that. On the contrary, they said that Monsanto wants to promote BGII (that produces two-toxins Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab) and hence, this is a strategy to malign Bt cotton that produces only one-toxin Cry1Ac. Associated with this is a fact that native seed companies