'We have the talent. What we need is the cultural encouragement to take risks, to fail occasionally, and to keep questioning.'
"Questioning, challenging assumptions, or choosing unconventional paths often gets viewed as risky or even rebellious. So even if a student is creative or curious by nature, these traits tend to get subdued over time -- not just by the education system, but by the expectations of parents, relatives, and society at large," Mayank Shrivastava, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and co-founder of a deep-tech startup, tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier in th concluding segment of a must-read, multi-part interview.
Does our education system encourage children to have creative or critical thinking?
While the education system does play a role, I believe the root issue is even deeper -- it lies in societal attitudes toward risk and uncertainty.
In India, we often associate success with stability, safety, and predictability.
From a very early age, children are encouraged to follow predefined, 'safe' paths -- like becoming an engineer, doctor, or civil servant -- not necessarily because they are passionate about those fields, but because these are seen as reliable ways to secure a good livelihood.
As a result, we unintentionally discourage curiosity, exploration, or the willingness to venture into the unknown.
Questioning, challenging assumptions, or choosing unconventional paths often gets viewed as risky or even rebellious.
So even if a student is creative or curious by nature, these traits tend to get subdued over time -- not just by the education system, but by the expectations of parents, relatives, and society at large.
And this matters deeply in the context of research.
Genuine research begins where certainty ends -- it's about exploring questions no one has answered yet. But if you're taught to avoid risk, to not question too much, to follow what everyone else is doing, then it becomes very difficult to develop a research mindset.
This is why I often say that the absence of a strong research culture in India is less about institutional policy and more about societal conditioning.
We have the talent. What we need is the cultural encouragement to take risks, to fail occasionally, and to keep questioning.
It is like choosing to be an entrepreneur, right?
Exactly. I often say that being a researcher is no different from being an entrepreneur.
In fact, in many ways, it's even more demanding.
You're not just managing ideas; you're managing uncertainty, people, resources, expectations, and outcomes -- all at once.
In my own case, I lead a research group of over 40 people.
I don't just write papers -- I write proposals, raise funding, run a lab, mentor students, and plan long-term research strategy.
That's no different from running a start-up -- except that in my case, there's no IPO at the end of it.
The currency of success is knowledge, impact, and contribution -- not market valuation.
Yet, despite all this, researchers don't always receive the same societal recognition or validation.
Families still ask, "Now that you're a full professor, why are you still working so hard?"
That's a question no entrepreneur is asked, because the effort is seen as part of their success journey.
But in research, this entrepreneurial aspect isn't understood or celebrated widely.
This is why I keep saying: if you want to be a researcher in India, you must be prepared to work like an entrepreneur -- driven by purpose, not immediate rewards.
It's high-effort, high-risk, and often low-visibility. But it's also deeply fulfilling if society begins to value what researchers actually do.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff