2004 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS - Indian Academy of Sciences

CHAPTER 9
Recommendations
1. Defining Key Programmes
The most important message that comes
through in the Panel Reports is that given the
small size of the astronomical community in
India, one is attempting to do too many things.
As a consequence, in almost every activity the
groups are very subcritical.
The committee is of the view that this
should be addressed urgently. To help to
remedy this situation, it would be useful to
have several brain storming sessions in
which certain Key Programmes are
identified. There should be wide
participation in these sessions, and the
Astronomical Society of India could,
perhaps, take the lead in organizing them.
The committee is of the view that this
approach is important to derive the
maximum scientific impact from our
efforts.
2. Autonomous Working Groups
As remarked above, it is not only important to
have groups of critical size, it is also important
that each group is able to address all aspects of
a problem : observations, theory and modeling.
One way to achieve this is to form Working
Groups in various areas. The members of these
Working Groups will, of course, be from various
institutions.
These Working Groups should be encouraged
to formulate specific programmes. To carry out
these programmes, the WGs should have
access to some funds that will be needed for
internal travel, arranging workshops and brain
storming sessions, bringing out News Letters,
etc. It is important that this is distinct from the
funding of the various institutions. If the
members of the WGs have to depend upon
their home institution for funding, then these
groups cannot function effectively. It is
intended that these Working Groups are
autonomous in a scientific sense.
The funding of the Working Groups should be
seen as Research Grants. Although specific
research projects are funded even now (for
example, by the various PACs of the
Department of Science and Technology), by
and large they tend to be for experimental
projects and are given to a single institution.
The committee would thus like to strongly
recommend a new approach to funding
of research.
3. Multiwavelength astronomy as a niche
area
Given our limited facilities, it would be fruitful
if Indian astronomers pursued multiwavelength
astronomy as a speciality. With GMRT
operational, and ASTROSAT just a few years
away, this would be natural thing to do. The
utilization of complementary data will enhance
the impact. Given that there are several one to
two metre class telescopes, the committee
would like to recommend that they be used
largely for a set of key projects. Further, the
different optical telescopes could focus on
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