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Students celebrate durng the convocation ceremony at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhopal on August 3, 2026.
\n | Photo Credit: A.M. Faruqui<\/p>\n
The Indian government created the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) to offer students an intellectually vibrant research environment and to bring them into research at a relatively \u2014 vis-\u00e0-vis the Indian milieu \u2014 early stage.<\/p>\n
The institutions prize autonomy as an essential ingredient of good science, including in the form of scientists being able to decide which questions are worth pursuing and with what resources. Top-down control is inimical to this vision. That said, the government also brought the IISERs within the statutory framework of the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research Act 2007, which required each IISER to have a Board of Governors that included senior government officials and other government nominees. The IISER statutes specify, among others, the secretary of higher education and the director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru too.<\/p>\n
While publicly funded science should be publicly accountable, suboptimal appointments or outright vacancies are objectionable as they can lead to policy paralysis \u2014 at best.<\/p>\n
Consider the current composition of the seven IISER Boards.<\/p>\n