Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World

by Angela Saini

Overview

India: it's a nation of geeks, swots and nerds. Almost one in five of all medical and dental staff in the UK is of Indian origin, and one in six employed scientists with science or engineering doctorates in the US is Asian. By the turn of the millennium, there were even claims that a third of all engineers in Silicon Valley were of Indian origin, with Indians running 750 of its tech companies.

At the dawn of this scientific revolution, Geek Nation is a journey to meet the inventors, engineers and young scientists helping to give birth to the world’s next scientific superpower – a nation built not on conquest, oil or minerals, but on the scientific ingenuity of its people. Angela Saini explains how ancient science is giving way to new, and how the technology of the wealthy are passing on to the poor. Delving inside the psyche of India’s science-hungry citizens, she explores the reason why the government of the most religious country on earth has put its faith in science and technology.

Through witty first-hand reportage and penetrative analysis, Geek Nation explains what this means for the rest of the world, and how a spiritual nation squares its soul with hard rationality. Full of curious, colourful characters and gripping stories, it describes India through its people – a nation of geeks.
curious, colourful characters and gripping stories, it describes India through its people – a nation of geeks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444710175
Publisher:	Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd.
Publication date:	03/03/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Born in the UK in 1980, Angela Saini is a science journalist and reports for the BBC, New Scientist, Wired and the Economist. She was named European Young Science Writer of the Year in 2009, and in 2008 won a European television news award.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 Brain games 19

Chapter 2 Electronics City 48

Chapter 3 The long-life banana 80

Chapter 4 Chariots of the gods 113

Chapter 5 The mindreading machine 145

Chapter 6 Geeks rule 169

Chapter 7 The impossible drug 199

Chapter 8 Brainpower 233

Chapter 9 Rocket science 248

References 263

Acknowledgements 274

Index 275

Editorial Reviews

Saini, a British science journalist, investigates India's burgeoning scientific industries in her debut—part travelogue, part social commentary. Though the South Asian nation can proudly claim to be the birthplace of the number zero and numerous other mathematic basics, the country has since fallen behind the technological and scientific innovations of the western world. But Saini suggests that this is changing. The first stop on her journey is the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, where she muses that "India is being pulled out of poverty and transformed into a technological giant." Indeed, when India decided in 1991 "to open up to the world…iles of bureaucratic red tape were ripped away," paving the way for what one man called "Gen Why," a "generation that questions," invents, and seeks to solve many of the country's endemic problems, including tuberculosis, poorly connected communication systems, and resource shortages. Perhaps most indicative of India's dynamic progress is the annual Indian Scientific Congress, which Saini describes as "the wackiest" convention of its kind, one that features "agriculturalists, software engineers and rocket scientists all on the same bill." More than just a treatise on an up-and-coming scientific powerhouse, Saini's engaging narrative takes readers through India's colorful streets and gives a face to the problems—and more importantly—the solutions its "geeks" are eagerly exploring. (July)

Publishers Weekly

'Those who want to understand how India is shaping up as a scientific superpower will find it a worthwhile and engaging read'.—New Scientist

Many entertaining and informative stories.—Sunday Times

This is an engaging and eye-opening exploration of a subject that traditionally we rely on clichés to understand, providing a much more informed and effective understanding of the progress of Indian technology. Recommended.—Popular Science

GEEK NATION's emphasis on personalities and places provides an engaging introduction for those who want deeper understanding than facts and figures alone can provide.—New Scientist

With engaging first-hand accounts she explores gleaming technology hubs, visits space centres and labs researching GM crops...you do get a vivid impression of a nation emerging as a scientific contender.—BBC Focus

'Saini has a genuine talent for describing science'.—Sunday Times Culture

'Saini's vivid portrait of hi-tech India reveals a country in a hurry'.—FT Weekend

'Eye-opening, warmhearted and cliché-free, her book gives Indians' minds the respect so often and so easily given to their spirit'.—Wanderlust

'Saini has produced an eye-opening survey of scientists in today's India...engagingly written and remarkably, GEEK NATION shatters many myths while not discouraging guarded optimism'.—Independent

Saini is well qualified to explain why Indians are "famous for being swots, nerds, dweebs, boffins and dorks", and whether India can become a scientific superpower...—Guardian

From the Publisher

Against the backdrop of India's ancient traditions, British science journalist Saini conducts a distinctly modern, at times playful, geek hunt. Her quest does not begin well. At the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), she finds driven kids too burned out to have what she identifies as the requisite geeky creative spark: getting the grades and getting out is the goal—a drone's ethic, not a geek's. She also travels to swanky Western-style research parks in IT hotbed Bengaluru and meets Narayana Murthy, billionaire founder of the software firm Infosys. Elsewhere, she encounters weird (if not wacky) ideas, i.e., one man's goal to speed up criminal investigation with his mind-reading "truth machine." But for Saini, it's often where socially beneficial research is being done that her idea of geekdom resides—where, for example, genetically modified slower-spoiling bananas are being developed, where an open-source drug discovery project to fight tuberculosis is being conducted, or where a thorium-fed power plant is being tested. VERDICT Disregard the hyperbole of the subtitle—this book is as much about the obstacles to India's technological world ascendancy as it is about its great potential. Saini's penetrating observations of this teeming country make fascinating reading for those interested in popular science, travel, or India.—R. Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

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