Top Scientist Threatened for Exposing CSIR, Flees India

In a shocking allegation against India’s premier national R&D organization, CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), top scientist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai was first honoured and hired, only to be “hounded” and fired later on.

For the first time in India a national level debate has cropped up against the so-called feudal system at scientific institutions, with the UPA government, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and former minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Prithviraj Chavanembroiled in the soup.

Dr. Ayyadurai in his 140 page report exposed the “utter dismal failure of the administration of CSIR”, where scientists are treated as feudal servants. His exposé reveals a “culture of sycophancy, corruption and incompetence” and lack of professionalism in CSIR that acts as a deterrent for scientists and their innovations in the country.

Surprisingly, the report is a result of his appointment by Dr. Manmohan Singh to unleash innovation in CSIR. However, he was “hounded of India” by the UPA government with threats of arrest within only 72 hours of publication of his report.The scientist, innovator and entrepreneur, who is also controversially the inventor of the Internet, was appointed as the first Outstanding Scientist Technologist of Indian Origin (STIO) at the Additional Secretary level of the Indian Government, the highest Scientist Level H posting possible,in 2009.

Five months after being recruited as the CEO of CSIR-TECH, an initiative aimed at enabling spin-off companies from technological innovations across CSIR's 37 laboratories, he published ‘CSIR-TECH: The Path Forward’. This report was distributed to scientists, staff and directors at CSIR so their insights could be incorporated before submission to the CSIR leadership.

While Dr. Ayyadurai released his observations with the aim of promoting transparency and initiating dialogue to address the barriers to innovation in India, his efforts did not go down well with the top honchos at CSIR. His email communication with over 4,500 CSIR scientists was severed and he was fired, threatened with arrest, evicted from his house and forced to leave India.

Mr. Prithviraj Chavan on the other hand contends that Dr. Ayyadurai’s claims are fabricated. As reported by the News Hour on Times Now, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan defended himself stating, “all claims about the autocratic functioning of CSIR is one big lie”. He added that “all this man Shiva Ayyadura wanted is extra perks, a big house, chauffer driven car… we could no longer afford him, so we terminated him”.

The debate on both ends has been raging on and there is no clarity as to why a top scientist who claims to have left lucrative prospects in USA to serve his motherland is being accused of greed and driven out of the country shortly after publishing such a report. Dr. Ayyadurai’s article on the same issue published by Nature India was also allegedly taken down due to pressure from the Indian government.

A dialogue between the scientific community and representatives from the government could help shed light on underlying issues at R&D organizations in the country. Whether or not hardworking Indian scientists are truly in a sorry state and victims of an autocratic regime within their organizations still remains a burning question.