Dr. Kalam seeks mentor's role for former scientists in schools

New Delhi, Sept 17 : Former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on Wednesday favoured an active teaching role for retired scientists in schools and colleges.

He was delivering the inaugural address to an international workshop here today on "Emerging frameworks and issues for Science and Technology (S and T) recruitments". He suggested scientific organisations to utilize their services.

Dr. Kalam said the role of scientific institutions would be vital in the years to come as the share of manufacturing and services sector in India's GDP has risen sharply. To realise the India Vision 2020, envisioned by Dr. Kalam himself, the contribution of these two sectors has to grow up to 94 per cent by 2012, he added.

Talking to reporters, Dr. Arun Kumar, Director, Recruitment and Assessment Center (RAC) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), allayed concerns of brain drain with the premier defence research institution. DRDO's attrition rate of 15 per cent was lower than 20 per cent for the private sector, he said.

In fact, the DRDO is attracting talent from abroad and 15 NRI scientists were picked up last year through video conferencing, added Dr. K.V. Raghavan, RAC Chairman.

About 27 experts including seven foreign participants from the US, UK, Germany, Australia and Israel are participating in the four-day workshop that began at DRDO's Metcalfe House.

Dr. M. Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and Director-General, DRDO, presided over the inaugural session. Dr. W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller (R and D) - Life Sciences and Human Resources, DRDO, was also present at the inaugural session.

On the occasion, Dr. Kalam released the first issue of RAC's journal 'Good Assessment Practices' and a book 'In search of the right personnel', written by Dr. Manas K. Mandal, Director of the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR).

ANI