This University Life

I was at a DST meeting on Monday, 9th July 2007. The occasion was project proposal defense before the committee.
I love to go to these meetings. Of course there is the chance to hobnob with the big shots in the biological world of India. But more than that, one gets to meet researchers from other Institutes and Universities.
There is a world of difference between these two. The researchers from the Institutes are a confident lot. They have lot of money. Even if they do not write projects they can survive. And the biggest advantage/disadvantage (depending on your view point)is that they do not have to do any teaching.
The researchers from the Universities are not only over-burdened with teaching but are also anxious for grants. They beg that their consumable money should not be cut as they have no other source for funding.
There was a woman from Lucknow this time. This is her story.
Her name is Dr. Shikha. She is at a newly-established Central University, located on the Lucknow-RaeBarielly Road, near Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute (more about this wonderful hospital later some time).
Dr. Shikha is one of the 6 woman faculty at the University. She is the only woman faculty in her department. She did her PhD from a University at Faizabad and joined this University two years back.
The finance officer who, as in all places, holds all the power has ensured that even chemicals required by the researchers should be purchased by calling for tender. So even if she has to buy common salt, NaCl, a tender has to be floated, three quotations have to be examined, the lowest quotation determined, and then it will be purchased. It is a different matter that the officer has not even paid Shikha her emoluments for extra administration duties she has undertaken for the university.
There is only one refrigerator that is non-functional. There is no other cold storage facility including -20oC and -80oC available. The internet connection has also been non-functional for past one and half years.
Despite all these setbacks Shikha wants to do research. Her project might not be the cutting edge research but it is something that she has thought through, and has ensured will be feasible in the limited conditions that is available to her.
We pump so much money into Institutes whereas our Universities languish. Yet it is the Universities that generates batches and batches of science graduates.
The Prime Minister has promised to establish 30 New Universities. What about the old ones?
Our advice to Shikha was to file a RTI and collaborate with researchers in other Universities who would allow her to buy consumables, circumventing the finance officer of her University.