<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><p><font face="Times New Roman">Hi,</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">As part of a three month long research workshops at Christ University we had a session today on the 'historical perspective of research' led by Prof. Dr. Sundar Sarukkai of NIAS. <br>
</font></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><u>Brief Profile</u>: Prof. Dr. Sundar Sarukkai is presently Professor and Dean, School of Humanities, and Head, Centre for Philosophy, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. He is the author of the following books: Translating the World: Science and Language; Philosophy of Symmetry and Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. </font></p>
</div><br>Some of the important points discussed which are useful in the context of Free Software, open content and research are:<br>The concepts of `authorship' and `originality' of literature, art etc in the Indian context and the evolution of knowledge in an open system.<br>
The role of politics in knowledge creation.<br>Current research is not focused on local/indigenous needs of the country but rather for US and European interests.<br>Indian researchers are knowledge consumers and not knowledge producers (in the above context).<br>
This is partly because of the pressure by the foreign journals which are highly selective in their paper publications and the lack of local research journals in the various academic streams.<br>There was also some points on the free and democratic access of knowledge and how the high cost of foreign journals of repute prevent dissemination of knowledge. <br>
The role of patents in this process of research will be taken up in depth in future sessions.<br><br>Those interested in attending can contact me off-list.<br>-- <br>Vikram Vincent<br>+919448810822<br><a href="http://swatantra.org/">http://swatantra.org/</a><br>
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