The good, the bad, and the ugly: A reflection on Indian academia at the five year mark
On June 30, 2026, I will complete 5 years as faculty in Indian academia. Here are some quick reflections. The good (great) The students. With its population, India is blessed with plenty of talent. Finding the right people to nurture and to see them develop into well-rounded scientists ready for the next step is a privilege that words cannot truly express. Now, the students we train are quite unlike the students who end up in the best universities in the US or elsewhere. These are people who haven't had that kind of exposure. For example, people who get admitted to PhD programs in the US typically already have significant research experience with a few publications to their name. So it is especially fulfilling when our students get into top PhD programs or do well otherwise after a stint in the lab. Our PhD scholars tend to start from scratch, and that also requires significant early investment of time for training the basics. Most of them are ambitious and passionate about what t...