Archive for the ‘India’ Category
April 17, 2012
This is hilarious but it does make the Dr.Mahalingam College of Engineering & Technology, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu look ridiculous. This paper was accepted for publication by Elsevier and has now been retracted by the publishers for not containing any scientific content. It seems that the authors have applied a computer program to a “problematic problem” and have proved a 4 300 year old “impossible proposition to be possible” !
“Computer application in mathematics” [Comput. Math. Appl. 59 (1) (2009) 296–297], by M. Sivasubramanian and S. Kalimuthu, Department of Mathematics, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, Tamilnadu-642003, India
The paper is here : Sivasubramanian and Kalimuthu
But while the paper itself is remarkably short and is just a nonsense paper, it does not say very much for Elsevier’s editorial acumen or for its peer-review process. Perhaps this journal should be retracted for lack of editorial content? Timothy Gowers will surely get more support for his Elsevier boycott in the UK.
Retraction Watch has the full story:
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Tags:Dr.Mahalingam College of Engineering & Technology, Elsevier, Elsevier boycott, M. Sivasubramanian, Mathematics, S. Kalimuthu.
Posted in Academic misconduct, India, Trivia | Comments Off on Mathematics mayhem – paper proving the impossible to be possible retracted for lack of “scientific content”
March 29, 2012
UPDATE!
Prof. Sebastian Morris has commented and his comment is reproduced in full below.
He refers to this follow-up article – http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2012032220120322015940691adc5b90a/Accused-IIMA-profs-deny-allegations.html where he is quoted as saying:
“Plagiarism is an academic matter best judged by academic peers. Plagiarism can be of ideas and expression and not of facts except when they are facts that emerge out of particular research. Publicly available facts, and government policy statements when the source is revealed cannot be construed as plagiarism.”
But I would take issue with this statement on two counts:
- it may be comfortable to be “judged” solely by academic peers but that does not work. The Wikiplag site in Germany emphasises the need to get out of the “cozy” establishment environment. So far Wikiplag has found some 20 cases of plagiarised theses which have been missed by the usual “academic peers”
- Merely revealing a source is insufficient – it needs to be properly cited even if the source is as mundane as a government policy document.
Even if documents are in the public domain, improper attribution or citation is plagiarism. And if such documents are copyright protected then reproduction could be copyright violation as well.
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A case of when the dam breaks perhaps. There seems to be an epidemic of plagiarism at IIM-A.
A reader pointed me to this story in the Ahmedabad Mirror:
A fortnight after Gujarat High Court asked IIMA to conduct a fresh inquiry into the case of a professor accused of plagiarism, a fresh controversy is brewing at the premier institute.
This time, an executive with a multinational company who also teaches management at a couple of B schools, has accused five senior IIMA professors of “mass copy-pasting” material from sources without crediting them in their cases.
Professor Anil Sharma has shot off a mail to institute’s director Samir Barua citing “serious instances of plagiarism” by professors Rekha Jain, G Raghuram, Rachna Gangwar, Sebastian Morris and Ajay Pandey. ….
…. The IIMs follow guidelines prepared by Harvard Business School and the American Psychological Association, which say that whenever there is sourcing, verbatim or otherwise, the source has to be cited adequately. Interestingly, the institute has a specialised internet-based software to cross-check research work submitted by students and alerts faculty to plagiarised portions, if any.
Even IIM Indore Director N Ravichandran, a former IIMA professor, has been asked by the Centre to respond to an accusation of plagiarism against him. Prof Ravichandran and a senior faculty member of the institute, Omkar D Palsule-Desai, had submitted a paper on euthanasia that was put up on the IIM website with a “Do not copy or reproduce” warning. Ahmedabad-based researcher K R Narendrababu has complained that the paper was sourced heavily from a Supreme Court judgment without adequate attribution.
A committee of inquiry seems to have been constituted for the earlier case of plagiarism but it is not clear if these cases will also be included.
Tags:Ajay Pandey., G Raghuram, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Plagiarism, Plagiarism epidemic, Rachna Gangwar, Rekha Jain, Sebastian Morris
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, India | 3 Comments »
March 24, 2012
Rafale de l'Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence: Wikipedia
It is not unexpected or unusual in the award of large Indian contracts that the “losing” bidder cries “foul” and claims that the evaluation process was manipulated. From my own experience in the Power industry it is “standard practice” for a losing bidder to enlist the aid of the media, politicians and the courts in crying foul and in trying to get an award to a competitor overturned. Again, from my own experience, such tactics can often delay awards but rarely succeed. Such “spoiling” can cause much rancour with the client and – more often than not – is counter-productive. In marketing and sales for large projects in India, “spoiling” a competitor’s award is rather easy but only delays matters and is not really worthwhile. The real sales skill lies in getting to be the lowest bidder and then beating off the “spoilers”.
Dassault’s Rafale was announced as being the lowest bidder beating the Eurofighter for the $20billion Indian MMRCA contract at the end of January. Now comes the cry of “possible foul” from a Member of the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) who is also a member of Parliament’s standing Defence Committee. (The MP, MV Mysura Reddy, is a former member of the Congress Party who left to join the regional Telegu Desam party. He has lost 3 elections for Parliament but has been appointed by his party to the Upper House).
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Tags:Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter, Eurofighter versus Rafale, India, Indian Air Force, MMRCA, MV Mysura Reddy
Posted in Aviation, Defense, India | Comments Off on Eurofighter tries to spoil the Indian MMRCA Rafale deal
March 23, 2012
There has been a debate going on in Sweden over the last few days as to whether surrogate motherhood should be permitted. In following the various views I cannot help feeling that a fundamental ethical consideration is being avoided – perhaps intentionally. The Swedish Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee voted by a large – and very politically correct – majority to carry out an investigation into whether Swedish surrogacy laws should be changed.
The Local: Sweden took a step toward a possible lifting of its ban on surrogate motherhood on Tuesday, despite impassioned opposition from political parties on both the left and right.
The Riksdag’s Committee on Social Affairs voted by a wide majority on Tuesday to authorize the government to carry out an inquiry into surrogate motherhood.
Currently, surrogate motherhood is outlawed in Sweden.
However, the Christian Democrats and the Left Party both opposed the measure.
“The issue of childlessness shouldn’t be solved by having women’s bodies used to carry and give birth to children for other people. Women’s bodies aren’t a commodity,” the Left Party’s Eva Olofsson told the TT news agency.
Even if surrogate motherhood is allowed on a non-commercial basis, there is nevertheless a risk for a black market trade in surrogate births, argued Olofsson.
She said that legalizing surrogate motherhood would send a signal that would increase acceptance of the practice that would open the door to trade with surrogate mothers in other countries, citing India as an example.
“It’s possible that we need more regulations that would make it so that it’s not allowed in Sweden to buy a child that has been born this way in India. But that’s not how the proposal looks,” said Olofsson.
With all new medical procedures I think the fundamental ethical requirement is the informed consent of all those involved. And for surrogacy that includes the child-to-be. But much of the debate about surrogacy laws in Sweden has been focused on the “rights” of women or the gay community to have children (or not). There is more concern for the “convenience” of these groups rather than for the welfare of the would-be child. Of course the “informed consent” of the would-be child is not available. But it should not be beyond the wit of man to consider the views the child would have – if it could. (more…)
Tags:Convenience of the parent, ethics of convenience, India, LGBT parenting, Surrogacy, Sweden
Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, India, Medicine, Sweden | Comments Off on Surrogate motherhood: The ethics of convenience
March 15, 2012
It was high time and even though they have tried before, the new measures just announced by the Chinese Education Ministry will hopefully begin to curb the widespread plagiarism, data manipulation and even data fakery that allegedly goes on.
India needs to institutionalise something similar. The Society of Scientific Values in India is an independent body and tries valiantly to act as a watch-dog but it has no teeth and no official standing. Of course in India the danger with creating institutions under a Ministry – and therefore under a Minister – is that the institution will very quickly become politicised. And Indian politicians are perhaps not the best choice when it comes to monitoring and establishing ethical standards. Nevertheless a start has to be made and the Ministry of Science and Technology in India is the natural home of an institution to promote ethical standards in scientific research and at institutes of higher education. The key will be to provide the backing of the Ministry to give it sufficient weight but to maintain its independence from party political influences. Giving such an institution semi-judicial status is one way but could be very heavy handed.
China Daily reports:
China’s Ministry of Education on Wednesday issued new rules to supervise universities’ scientific research and academic activities in order to “effectively prevent and curb academic misconduct.”
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Tags:China, China Education Ministry, ethics, India, Scientific misconduct, Society for Scientific Values
Posted in Academic misconduct, China, Ethics, India, Science, scientific misconduct, Technology | Comments Off on Chinese Government tries to get to grips with science misconduct. When will India follow?
March 14, 2012
The Indian 2011 Census has some fascinating – and sometimes surprising – information on the trends and manner in which development is taking place. In 2011 the population had reached 1,201 million people. Population growth rate continues to decline with the sharpest decline during 2001-2011. The percentage increase during the decade 2001-2011 was the lowest since Indian Independence in 1947. The urban-rural divide is still very strong. Mobile phone connectivity is penetrating the rural heartland faster than toilets. While almost half of all rural households had access to mobile phones less than 1% had access to the internet. Radio is not going anywhere fast but TV continues to penetrate. The joint family system with multiple couples in a household is giving way to nuclear families. Two-thirds of all households now have access to electricity but two-thirds still use “smoky fuels” ( firewood, crop residue, cow dung cakes or coal) for cooking. But only a third of all households (and less than 20% of rural households) have access to treated drinking water. The bicycle is still the primary mode of travel.
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Tags:Census 2011, India
Posted in Demographics, India | Comments Off on Indian Census: Access to electricity progresses but toilets lag mobile phones
March 9, 2012
Two articles appear in The Hindu today.
Rahul Siddharthan has an opinion piece about the CNR Rao and SB Krupanidhi plagiarism case and brings out the issues involved and the responsibility of senior scientists. Their responsibility in determining and establishing the atmosphere in which research is carried out is obvious. But what is more disturbing is a news article where Professor Krupanidhi is quoted extensively. He continues to trivialise the acts of plagiarism and refuses to take any responsibility for the papers published under his supervision.
No science in ‘cut and paste’
More instances of plagiarism come to light
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Tags:CNR Rao, cut and paste, cut and paste science, India, Indian Institute of Science, Krupanidhi, Plagiarism
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, India, Science, scientific misconduct | 1 Comment »
March 6, 2012
It seems to be becoming the standard defence for senior authors in Indian academia to blame their juniors when found guilty of plagiarism. The recent case of plagiarism by Prof. CNR Rao (Science Advisor to the Indian PM) and Prof. SB Krupanidhi of the Indian Institute of Science where they took refuge first in blaming a student and then in trying to trivialise the plagiarism is a case in point.
Now a Professor Rajanish Dass at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad has blamed his co-author, Sujoy Pal (a research associate) for the plagiarism he was found guilty of. Dass has claimed that it was due to “ignorance and not intention” and has gone to the Gujarat High Court to try and delay the inevitable. Ironically Dass claims to be working on e-governance!
Students and research associates rank very low in the hierarchy of Indian academia and are convenient scapegoats for senior scientists and professors when they try to shrug off their responsibilities for wrong-doings.
Times of India:
A Gujarat high court ruling on Monday has come as a breather for IIM-A professor Rajanish Dass, who was held guilty of plagiarism in a preliminary inquiry conducted by the institute.
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Tags:e-governance, IIM-A, Indian Institute of Management, Plagiarism, Rajanish Dass
Posted in Academic misconduct, India | 7 Comments »
February 25, 2012
The plagiarism by Prof. CNR Rao (Science Advisor to the Indian PM) and Prof. SB Krupanidhi of the Indian Institute of Science which was the subject of an earlier post seems to be growing. It extends at least to 2 more papers as revealed by a commenter, x1, on Rahul Siddharthan’s blog post and as reported in the Calcutta Telegraph.
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UPDATE!! The body-count is growing and has now reached 5 papers. The intrepid sherlock here is again X1. (Comments 50 & 51)
Perhaps it is time for the PM to side-line this Scientific Advisor. At best he is a lazy and not very conscientious supervisor and at worst his ethical standards are sadly lacking. Keeping him on sends the clear message to the entire Indian scientific community that
- ethical standards are not that important,
- copying a few paragraphs without attribution is not such a big deal and can just be glossed over, and
- supervisors bear no responsibility or liability for what their students get up to and can pass the buck downwards
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Neither CNR Rao nor SB Krupanidhi come out of this very well. Their competence to supervise research leaves much to be desired. Krupanidhi, particularly, seems not even to believe that plagiarism is a serious breach of ethics.
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Tags:C. N. R. Rao, Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Krupanidhi, Plagiarism, Scientific misconduct
Posted in Academic misconduct, India, Science, scientific misconduct | 5 Comments »
February 22, 2012
The apparent over-representation of scientists of Indian origin in cases of scientific misconduct ought to be exercising the minds of the Indian scientific community – both in India and abroad. But any efforts to stamp out plagiarism in India – and many are trying – are completely undermined when eminent scientists from the most prestigious Indian institutions start trivialising or making excuses for plagiarism.
S. B. Krupanidhi
The Prime Minister’s Science Advisor Professor CNR Rao has admitted and apologised for his plagiarism but has gotten away without the paper written under his supervision being retracted. The apology should have been accompanied by highly-visible measures to stamp out the increasing incidence of “cut-and-paste” artists posing as scientists. Instead the nonchalant attitude of a co-author, SB Krupanidhi (Professor and Chairman, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science) gives me little confidence that there is much value being given to the integrity of scientific research. He blames the student he was supposed to be supervising but will take no action as the Indian Institute of Science tries to brush everything under the carpet. “People make mistakes. There will be no action taken against the student, ” he said.
TOI reports:
India’s top scientist and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s adviser CNR Rao had to apologise to a leading scientific journal for reproducing text of other scientists in his research paper.
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Tags:academic misconduct, India, Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Krupanidhi, Plagiarism, Rao, Scientific misconduct
Posted in Academic misconduct, India, Science, scientific misconduct | 3 Comments »
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