Bridging the Communication Gap in Science and Technology ― Lessons from India

This first-of-a-kind volume provides a snapshot of existing science communication policy and practice in India across different S&T sectors, and offers solutions to building effective communication. It provides an understanding on how to avoid societal clashes in situations when science meets the public in these sectors. The editors and contributors argue that effective S&T communication leads not only to a more informed public but also benefits research itself, and in a changing society like India this is a crucial element related to good governance and policy making. Experienced masters of the trade provide practical solutions to making S&T communication effective in a vast democracy like India, which has complex issues related to literacy levels, diverse languages, varying political will, reach, and resources. Through discussions on cases of creating information modules for the public on the Internet, television and radio, new social media, as well as traditional ways of outreach like holding popular science congresses and fairs, the book provides highly valuable directions on how developing countries with low resources and complex populations can communicate their S&T research to the public and bridge communication gaps. 

The book will interest researchers from mass communication and public relations departments, journalists, as well as practitioners and policy makers from government and non-government institutions involved in S&T policy and communication.

Pallava Bagla is an Indian science journalist, communicator & photojournalist with over 25 years of experience.?In 2014 he was the Shri T.V. Raman Pai Chair Visiting Professor of Science Communication, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.?He has been the Science Editor of India’s highly respected private television channel New Delhi Television (NDTV) since 2006.?In his almost two decades of continuous writing for Science magazine, he has critically analysed India’s prowess in S&T.?He also runs a weekly column on science, technology, health and environment for India’s trusted news agency, the Press Trust of India (PTI).?Bagla's recent work includes giving an insider’s look into India’s little known but highly developed missile development programme.?He is the author of several books, some of the most recent being Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars and Beyond (Bloomsbury, 2014), Destination Moon: India’s Quest for Moon, Mars and Beyond (HarperCollins, 2008). He is the?winner of many awards for his work, and most recently in 2014, he was feted?by the Prime Minister of India with an award for `excellence in journalism’.?

V. V. Binoy is Assistant Professor, School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Studies,?Bangalore, India.?Dr. Binoy explores the biological and environmental basis of decision-making and personality traits (also referred to as individual variation in the behaviour or behavioural syndrome) in vertebrates using fish and amphibian model systems. He is interested in the popularization of science using non-conventional methodologies of communication and also studies the efficacy of ‘citizen science’ in data collection and dissemination of information to the grass-roots levels of society. Binoy has been a recipient of the ‘Cognitive Science Research Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship’ and ‘Young Scientist’ start-up research grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. ?