Comcom: What is your opinion about the standard of the Indian- language popular science journals in general? Why is it that despite much effort the circulation of most of them has not increased over the years?

Basu: As far as I know, there are quite a few excellent popular science journals published in Indian languages, especially in Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil,but they are mostly efforts of private enterprises or NGOs. CSIR itself brings out popular science journals in Hindi and Urdu, of which the former has a large circulation. Although CSIR and DST do have schemes for financial assistance to few selected popular science journals in regional languages. Most of the regional language journals get very little funding from the State. Whatever resources they are able to generate through sale and procurement of a few advertisements are spent in publishing a few thousand copies. But despite such handicaps many of these publications have been running for decades and playing a useful role in popularising science in the regional languages. Only constraints of funds must have been the main impediment to increasing their circulation.

Comcom: How,do you think, the quality of the regional language popular science journals can be improved?

Basu: As I have just said, finance is the main constraint. Apart from the additional content, the quality of any journal is decided by the quality of paper and printing, and the cost of both has skyrocketed in recent years. If you want to use better paper and printing, you'll have to price your journal at Rs.50 a copy, which few would be able to afford. And there is very little that can be expected from the advertisers in terms of revenue. So, coming to the specific question, I think very little can be done to improve the quality of the regional language popular science journals unless adequate financial resources are available either through State support or through corporate support. May be, their readership will increase if they go on-line, but right now,conditions, in terms of availability of software, etc., are not conducive for such a changeover.

Comcom: Why are popular science journals not so popular in the country, as seen from their circulation figures, although popular science TV channels, like the National Geographic channel and the Discovery channel and the Discovery channel have good TRP?

Basu: There are basically two reasons. Firstly, the low literacy rate in the country keeps a large section of our popular away from the journals. Secondly, there are not many popular science journals published in the country, and the few that are published, especially in the regional languages, have very low circulation, not because they are not popular but because they have no funds to print more copies. Of course, there are exceptions. The TV channels, besides being an audiovisual medium, which can be enjoyed even by the non-literate, provide fare that can never be matched by the print media. Besides, because of their much wider reach, aggressive marketing ensures adequate advertisement revenue to sustain the TV channels. But we must not forget that television(unless you also invest in a VCR and videotapes)is an ephemeral medium while the printed journal has a lasting value. In fact, it will be more appropriate to call them complementary to each other.

Comcom: In these days of IT revolution, do you think that these old-fashioned journals will have a place in the market?

Basu: It is true that the IT revolution has changed the way we gather and use information. For instance, on the Internet one can access any information almost any part of the world instantly. Most newspapers and journals around the world have already gone on-line and even books are being published on-line. But we should not forget the fact that, in India, accessing through the Internet is still highly expensive, and most of our readers, who are students, many in small towns, do not have access to the Internet. So I think, despite the IT revolution, the printed journal has not yet outlived its utility and will continue to be used by a large section of our population for many years to come. At the same time, we are also set to go on-line, to move with the times so that we don't lose in the long run.

Comcom: What in your view is the quality of popular science writing in India?

Basu: I can only comment about popular science writing in a languages that I am familiar with, namely English, Hindi and Bengali. In English, there are several well-known popular science writers including a few Kalinga Prize winners who write exceedingly well. In Science Reporter we also have had the privilege of publishing articles by many professionals- professors, doctors, and engineers-whose writings are at par with those of the best popular science writers anywhere in the world. In Hindi and Bengali, too, there are some excellent writers the writings of whom I enjoy immensely.

Comcom: In your opinion what have been the achievements of the various agencies involved in in science communication in the country? Do you think they are moving in the right direction or do they need to change?

Biman Basu: I think a lot has been achieved in the past decade or so through combined efforts of agencies like the NCSTC, Vigyan Prasar, and the numerous voluntary groups and NGOs engaged in science popularisation, spread over the country. CSIR and All India Radio also ahve been actively engaged in popularisation of science - CSIR through its popular science journals and books and AIR through its innovative science programmes. One of the most resounding successes of the efforts of these agencies was visible during the total solar eclipse of 24 october 1995, when millions came to watch the eclipse. Common people, even small children showed no fear of the eclipse, as was witnessed during the toalt solar eclipse of 16 February 1980. In 1980, the public fear was palpable and the roads were totally deserted as people in almost every town and city had shut themselves indoors. This change in public attitude, in my opinion, could not have been achieved without the public campaigns carried out through the efforts of NCSTC, CSIR, AIR and other agencies and the various voluntary groups involved in science popularisation.

At the same time, I feel the activities of some of these agencies could be more focussed. For instance, I feel Vigyan Prasar need not have involved itself in promoting activities like ham radio and telescope making, or bringing our scholarly monographs. Rather it should enlarge its involvement in dissemination of popular science through its website, making it more interactive and may be bringout interactive CDs on science experiments, nature study, astronomy, and the like.

Comcom: What do you think is the future of popular science writing in India? What steps need to be taken to standardize writings and spread the scientific temper?

Basu: In a country as vast as India, with diverse languages, cultures and traditions the task of creating scientific awareness and inculcate the scientific teper among the people is through more popular science writings. So, there has to be much more popular science writing. Dissemination could be through the print media or through the electronic media. Of course, much of it has to be in the regional languages, as majority of the people understand only on their own language. At the same time, the media, both print and electronic, will have to be more receptive and carry much more popular science material than is being done at present.

We cannot take of standardization in popular science writing because it is a creative activity. Every popular science writer will have his or her own style and that freedom must be granted. But when writing in regional languages, there is certainly need for some sort of standardization in the terminology used, to avoid ambiguity. I understand, considerable work has been already done in this direction in several indian languages.

Comcom: Thank you Mr Basu for sparing your valuable time to comcom.