Andhra Pradesh

Paucity of Nobel winners rued

Staff Reporter

`We just produce beauty queens'

RAJAHMUNDRY: The former IT Advisor to AP Government and the State president of Pragna Bharathi, T. Hanuman Chowdary said that after India's Independence, none from the country was a Nobel Prize contender, though we produced umpteen Miss Worlds and Miss Universes. Delivering a keynote address on `Resurgence of India as Jagadguru' arranged by Pragna Bharathi, Rajahmundry unit on Sunday here, he said we could not even protect the Nobel medal given to Rabindranath Tagore. Only Hargovind Khurana won a Nobel after Independence, that too as a foreign citizen. "I don't know whether we should be proud of our Miss Worlds or not. But we have to think why India did not produce a Nobel winner in any field in the last 58 years," he asked.

Comparing India with smaller States like Malaysia and Korea, Hanuman Chowdary said the per capita incomes of Malaysia was $15,000 and Korea's $18,000, where as India's was only $350. He said economic reforms initiated by the P.V. Narasimha Rao Government changed the face and pace of the country for the better.

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