Medical educator | Biochemistry, MedEd, EdTech | Health, Higher Education & Public Policy | Words in NDTV, Mint, The Wire, etc | Manipal | MUCM Malaysia
Melaka, Manipal
Joined January 2010
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Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
My respect for Social Reformers of past has grown in multiples . It must have been so tough for them to convince society against Sati, Child marriage and women exploitation. We can’t convince people to stop firecrackers for their own lungs . Salute to them🫡
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
“India’s Higher Education is described as African Budgets, American ambitions, Russian methods, Chinese opacity and Indian Bureaucracy.": Professor Ram Gopal Rao
India is waging a war against its own researchers:
In Careers360’s Research Summit, Prof. Ram Gopal Rao, Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani described India’s lack of investment in research beautifully. He said “India’s Higher Education is described as African Budgets, American ambitions, Russian methods, Chinese opacity and Indian Bureaucracy.
In the past decade, we have seen a slide in scientific temper and investments in research.
1. Non-NET fellowship are stuck at ₹8,000 a month since 2012, for 16,270 scholars in 45 central universities.
2. JRF stipend: In 2014, the JRF was Rs.25,000 per month. In 2019, it was revised to Rs.31m000. it is ₹37,000 PM. The hrowth hasn’t even kept pace with inflation and in real terms, it has FALLEN. IISc scholars even went on a hunger strike demanding an increase.
3. Maulana Azad fellowship: where more than 1,400 scholars have had stipends stalled since January 2025.
4. OBC fellowships: lists for three NET cycles in 2024-25 were held back, which the social justice ministry put down to insufficient funds.
5. INSPIRE: fellows have their stipends unpaid for 3 to 9 months. The schemes now under Vigyan Dhara fell 67.5% between 2016 and 2025.
6. KVPY: scrapped in 2022, after nearly two lakh students a year had taken its test.
7. JRF bottleneck: only 5,108 of 7,35,614 candidates (0.7%) got JRF in December 2025. Minister Sukanta Majumdar gave no year-wise data when asked.
8. The University of Hyderabad stopped Rohit Vemula’s ₹25,000 stipend in July 2015, and his last letter said he hadn’t been paid for seven months. He later committed suicide.
9. India’s R&D spending: fell from 0.82% of GDP in 2009-10 to 0.64% in 2020-21. PMRF spending was revised to ₹290 crore, less than half its ₹600 crore outlay.
10. SC fellowships: fell 61%, from 4,841 to 1,872, between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
If India indeed wants to be a Vishwa Guru, India should be investing in research, in creating quality Higher-Ed institutions. We cannot be cutting down on stipends, not paying our researchers, holding back payments, scrapping scholarships, not increasing fellowship amounts even to match inflation and still expect students to choose research.
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
"India’s Higher Education is described as African Budgets, American ambitions, Russian methods, Chinese opacity and Indian Bureaucracy"
India is waging a war against its own researchers:
In Careers360’s Research Summit, Prof. Ram Gopal Rao, Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani described India’s lack of investment in research beautifully. He said “India’s Higher Education is described as African Budgets, American ambitions, Russian methods, Chinese opacity and Indian Bureaucracy.
In the past decade, we have seen a slide in scientific temper and investments in research.
1. Non-NET fellowship are stuck at ₹8,000 a month since 2012, for 16,270 scholars in 45 central universities.
2. JRF stipend: In 2014, the JRF was Rs.25,000 per month. In 2019, it was revised to Rs.31m000. it is ₹37,000 PM. The hrowth hasn’t even kept pace with inflation and in real terms, it has FALLEN. IISc scholars even went on a hunger strike demanding an increase.
3. Maulana Azad fellowship: where more than 1,400 scholars have had stipends stalled since January 2025.
4. OBC fellowships: lists for three NET cycles in 2024-25 were held back, which the social justice ministry put down to insufficient funds.
5. INSPIRE: fellows have their stipends unpaid for 3 to 9 months. The schemes now under Vigyan Dhara fell 67.5% between 2016 and 2025.
6. KVPY: scrapped in 2022, after nearly two lakh students a year had taken its test.
7. JRF bottleneck: only 5,108 of 7,35,614 candidates (0.7%) got JRF in December 2025. Minister Sukanta Majumdar gave no year-wise data when asked.
8. The University of Hyderabad stopped Rohit Vemula’s ₹25,000 stipend in July 2015, and his last letter said he hadn’t been paid for seven months. He later committed suicide.
9. India’s R&D spending: fell from 0.82% of GDP in 2009-10 to 0.64% in 2020-21. PMRF spending was revised to ₹290 crore, less than half its ₹600 crore outlay.
10. SC fellowships: fell 61%, from 4,841 to 1,872, between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
If India indeed wants to be a Vishwa Guru, India should be investing in research, in creating quality Higher-Ed institutions. We cannot be cutting down on stipends, not paying our researchers, holding back payments, scrapping scholarships, not increasing fellowship amounts even to match inflation and still expect students to choose research.
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
India is waging a war against its own researchers:
In Careers360’s Research Summit, Prof. Ram Gopal Rao, Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani described India’s lack of investment in research beautifully. He said “India’s Higher Education is described as African Budgets, American ambitions, Russian methods, Chinese opacity and Indian Bureaucracy.
In the past decade, we have seen a slide in scientific temper and investments in research.
1. Non-NET fellowship are stuck at ₹8,000 a month since 2012, for 16,270 scholars in 45 central universities.
2. JRF stipend: In 2014, the JRF was Rs.25,000 per month. In 2019, it was revised to Rs.31m000. it is ₹37,000 PM. The hrowth hasn’t even kept pace with inflation and in real terms, it has FALLEN. IISc scholars even went on a hunger strike demanding an increase.
3. Maulana Azad fellowship: where more than 1,400 scholars have had stipends stalled since January 2025.
4. OBC fellowships: lists for three NET cycles in 2024-25 were held back, which the social justice ministry put down to insufficient funds.
5. INSPIRE: fellows have their stipends unpaid for 3 to 9 months. The schemes now under Vigyan Dhara fell 67.5% between 2016 and 2025.
6. KVPY: scrapped in 2022, after nearly two lakh students a year had taken its test.
7. JRF bottleneck: only 5,108 of 7,35,614 candidates (0.7%) got JRF in December 2025. Minister Sukanta Majumdar gave no year-wise data when asked.
8. The University of Hyderabad stopped Rohit Vemula’s ₹25,000 stipend in July 2015, and his last letter said he hadn’t been paid for seven months. He later committed suicide.
9. India’s R&D spending: fell from 0.82% of GDP in 2009-10 to 0.64% in 2020-21. PMRF spending was revised to ₹290 crore, less than half its ₹600 crore outlay.
10. SC fellowships: fell 61%, from 4,841 to 1,872, between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
If India indeed wants to be a Vishwa Guru, India should be investing in research, in creating quality Higher-Ed institutions. We cannot be cutting down on stipends, not paying our researchers, holding back payments, scrapping scholarships, not increasing fellowship amounts even to match inflation and still expect students to choose research.
"....history strongly supports Winston Churchill’s quip that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried." 😬
If there is one one piece you’d read on the issue, let it be this
wsj.com/finance/stocks/jense…
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Important read.
The crucial factor of how & why the PhD numbers have inflated in India needs another piece.
India’s PhD graduates face a job paradox—overqualified for some roles, inexperienced for others
Fareeha Iftikhar @Iftikharfariha reports
#ThePrintEducation
Illustration: Soham Sen @SohamDraws
theprint.in/india/education/…
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Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
One night in June of 2024, in a Taipei bar, a Chinese businesswoman named Alice Huang made a bet with some technology executives that she could get Jensen Huang, the C.E.O. of Nvidia, to come meet them. After midnight, he showed up, wearing his black leather jacket, and joined the group for some whiskey drinks. (One of the executives who was there told the story to The New York Times.)
Alice Huang, who is not related to the Nvidia C.E.O., was a top executive at a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed. In the three months after the meeting Megaspeed bought a billion dollars' worth of Nvidia technology. In the next nine months, it bought another billion dollars' worth.
On paper, this was all legal. Megaspeed built data centers in Malaysia and then rented the computing power to Chinese companies, mostly Alibaba. The U.S. bans selling its most advanced A.I. chips to China, but it's O.K. to rent the computing power to Chinese companies in a neighboring country.
But in late 2024, a U.S. Commerce Department official visited Megaspeed's Malaysian data center and found Nvidia chips still in their boxes. Investigators began to suspect that some of the chips were being moved on into China.
And then, as the Times revealed this past October, things got worse. US intelligence had concluded that Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset, reporting to China, and that she developed a close personal relationship with Jensen Huang.
President Trump was briefed about a year ago and decided not to do anything. The Times reported that he didn't want to risk Nvidia chip sales, which are helping drive the stock market. Jensen Huang was never told about the intelligence finding.
Nvidia says that it's the C.E.O.'s job to meet with customers, that Megaspeed got no secrets, and that the company found nothing wrong in its investigation into the smuggling allegations. Jensen Huang has said that Nvidia can account for all of Megaspeed's chips.
Ultimately, stopping the chips from going to China came down to two judgments. One was Nvidia's word about its customer. The other was a president weighing an intelligence finding against trade with China and an economy that Nvidia sales are helping boost. In a case like this, American export controls are only as good as those two decisions.
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
कुछ महीने पहले बनारस गया था। अब वहाँ बहुत सारे Influencer बच्चे हैं। अपनी दुनिया में बहुत बड़े हैं, नाम, शोहरत कमा रहे हैं पर बड़े प्यार से मुझे एक बार से फिर मेरा बनारस दिखाते है मुझे। वो बनारस को मुझसे बेहतर जानते हैं। प्यार करते हैं शहर से। वो मुझे घुमाते हुए ले जा रहे थे कि अचानक मेरा जी हुआ बिस्मिल्लाह ख़ान साहब के घर जाऊँ। मोटरसाइकिलें मुड़ गईं। हम पहुँचे ख़ान साहब के घर।
जब घर का बाप इतना बड़ा आदमी हो जाता है जितने बड़े कि ख़ान साहब थे तो बच्चों के लिए लगभग असंभव होता है उस स्तर तक पहुँचना। घर उस स्थिति में नहीं था जिसमें बिस्मिल्लाह ख़ान साहब का घर होना चाहिए था। सीधे आदमी रहे होंगे जितना नाम, विद्या और इज़्ज़त कमाई उसके आस पास का भी पैसा नहीं कमा सके। उनकी तमाम albums बजती हैं आज भी पर जहाँ तक मुझे बताया गया कोई Royalty घर नहीं पहुँचती। उनके परिवार वालों ने बड़े प्यार से स्वागत किया। छत पर उनका कमरा था, वहाँ ले गए और मेरे लिए खोल दिया। एक कुर्सी थी, एक तख्त जिस पर वो सोते थे। एक आलमारी पर कुछ टूटी हुई शहनाइयाँ। इसी छत पर वो रियाज़ करते थे। मैं पता नहीं कितनी देर बैठा रहा। दीवारों पे ऐसा कुछ नहीं था जिसे देख पढ़ रहा होऊँ। रुआँसा हो गया मैं, जो कि जल्दी होता नहीं। लगा उन के साथ बैठा हूँ। बड़े बेमन से उठ के आया वहाँ से।
कई साल पहले बनारस गया था तो एक पत्रकार ने छोटी सी कहानी सुनाई उनकी। एक साक्षात्कार में पत्रकार मित्र ने उनसे पूछा कभी कभी आप शहनाई बजाते हुए मुस्कुराने लगते हैं, क्या चल रहा होता है मन में? उन्होंने कहा रोज रोज कहाँ सुर लगेला, जब लग जाला त मन प्रसन्न हो जाला’ ( रोज़ रोज़ कहाँ सुर लगता है, जब लगता है तो दिल ख़ुश हो जाता है)। ये वो शख़्स कह रहा था जिसकी उँगलियों से सुर कठपुतलियों की तरह नृत्य करते थे। ये कहानी एक बार मैंने सुनिधि चौहान को सुनाई। उसने मुँह दूसरी तरफ़ कर लिया और दस मिनट तक खामोश खड़ी रही। मैं भी।
कुछ महीने पहले यूरोप में मैं और मेरा दोस्त लंबी यात्रा पे सड़क पे थे। लंबी खूबसूरत सड़क। संगीत बज रहा था कार में। Jan Garbarek, Norway के महान Sax Jazz musician hain। उन्यासी साल के हैं अभी। जादू बिखेर रहे थे। Sax भी शहनाई के परिवार का यंत्र है सो मुझे ख़ान साहब याद आए। मैंने अपने फ़्रांसीसी दोस्त से पूछा बिस्मिल्लाह ख़ान को सुना है? उसने कहा नहीं। अगले तीन घंटे ख़ान साहब बज रहे थे यूरोप की सड़कों पे। दोस्त ने कौतूहल से पूछा ये Garbarek के पहले के हैं? मैंने बताया सन १९१६ की पैदाइश थी। मेरा दोस्त बोला ये तो वो सब कर के निकल गए जो बहुत बाद में हुआ पश्चिम में ।
भारत रत्न उस्ताद बिस्मिल्लाह ख़ान साहब का घर टूट गया बनारस में। उधर से कोई सड़क गुज़रनी है। सड़कें भी ज़रूरी हैं। मुझे विश्वास है बनारस ने सब कुछ किया होगा उसे बचाने के लिए। बनारस और ख़ान साहब को बड़ा प्यार था एक दूसरे से। दुनिया भर में बुलाए जाते थे पर लौट के बनारस आते थे। कहते थे दुनिया भर में बनारस जैसी कोई जगह नहीं। उनका घर टूट गया। खैर अब तो टूट गया। बेहद ज़रूरी ही रहा होगा उसका टूटना तो कारण वो नहीं है ये लिखने का। ये तो अपने से छोटों के लिए लिखा है।
कारण ये है कि आप में से जो नहीं जानते उनको, जानिये, सुनिए, आगे की नस्ल को बताइए। माँ सरस्वती और भगवान शिव के उपासक थे। मौलाना भी थे। गंगा में नहा के मंदिर के पीछे बैठ के रियाज़ करते थे। देश का गौरव थे। उनको और उनके संगीत को अगली नस्ल तक ले जाने की ज़िम्मेदारी आपकी है। हमारी नस्ल तो उनका घर तक नहीं बचा सकी। ज़रूर कीजियेगा। वो धरोहर और ज़िम्मेदारी हैं हमारी।
ज़िंदाबाद।
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
Please stay inside, close your doors and windows.
Invest in a good quality air purifier.
Wear a N95 mask, in case you need to step outside.
It's posion!
VIDEO | Lucknow: Ahead of Diwali, pulmonologist Dr Abhishek Tandon advises people to use air purifiers and N95 masks to reduce exposure to air pollution.
Dr Tandon says that, if possible, people should stay indoors for at least one week during Diwali, keeping their windows and doors closed. They can also install a good-quality air purifier at home, especially in the bedroom, where they spend most of their time. He also advises people to wear a good-quality N95 mask whenever they step outside.
Dr Tandon further suggests home remedies such as drinking black coffee or adding ginger and honey to lukewarm water, which he says act as natural antioxidants and help flush harmful substances out of the body.
#Diwali #AirPollution #AirQuality #N95Mask #HealthAdvisory
(Full video available on PTI Videos - ptivideos.com)
From 6 years back.. #DemonetisationDisaster
The one parameter that's probably enough to gauge the "success" of #demonetization is that there is no grand celebration by this government marking its anniversary.
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
A massive rush of passengers was witnessed at Tiruppur Railway Station as migrant workers and residents from various districts of Tamil Nadu travelled to their hometowns for Diwali celebrations. Tiruppur, one of India's largest knitwear hubs, employs lakhs of workers from across Tamil Nadu and northern states. #DiwaliRush #Tiruppur #RailwayStation #MigrantWorkers
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
India's new 2000 Rupee notes are amazing. I have actual footage of how the embedded Nano Gps Chip works. Please share widely on whatsapp.
In Melaka, its been a drastic change from last year!
Crackers were burst maybe 3/4 days prior to #Diwali and 4/5 days post.
But this year, it was only for a few minutes at midnight yesterday.
Wondering if it's for the haze of 2 months (stopped since 2 weeks). Current AQI - 50
Deepavali fireworks. A festival of light indeed!
Videos circulating on Malaysian social media circles.
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2 cents on the Temple topic:
Generally:
- In a free market if a regulator has allowed a product it can be sold.
- If there is no or poor regulation it is a regulatory failure.
- Product claims can be questioned by anyone
About the Temple:
- Anatomically inaccurate in claims 1/
- Preprints don't point to very robust studies
- Science is shaky
- Goal shifting has been on record
About the outrage:
- It's healthy
- Science demands questions & accepts when answers are found
- Adding all sorts of nationalistic, jingoistic flavour is unwarranted 2/
Sambit Dash, PhD retweeted
Toxic machismo is a national emergency right now.
15 Rounds Fired, 9 Hit Tech Mahindra Ex-Head in Faridabad Parking Dispute
Paramjeet Dhankar, former Tech Mahindra Asia-Pacific regional head, was shot dead by his neighbour Mohan Sharma in Faridabad Haryana. Sharma allegedly fired around 15 rounds from his licensed pistol during a parking argument; nine bullets hit Dhankar, killing him on the spot.
