It has been well said that for a capital-starved country like ours the easiest area to achieve excellence is Mathematics. We can’t invest huge sums and build fancy laboratories with cash-guzzling gizmos, but if we turn to mathematics — indeed our specialisation of yore — all we need is a desk, a sheaf of paper and a pencil. For, of the other crucial requirement — craniums filled with grey matter — we have in abundance.

Yet in our recent history we have looked at mathematics as secondary, and maths teachers as people to stick our tongue out and purr at. This was perhaps because mathematics did not mean a sustained flow of meal tickets.

Now, that is changing — ask Rajeeva Karandikar. The expert cryptologist, and a Distinguished Professor with the Chennai Mathematical Institute, is now trying to get people to see an emerging reality — Mathematics’ time has come. And get them loosen purse strings a bit.

In recent times ‘analytics’ – the science of figuring out trends from a mass of data – has been a big user of mathematicians. And now, Big Data (or the enormous information generated by any source from social media to sensory devices) is “picking up”, says Karandikar.

The Department of Atomic Energy-funded Institute is finding its masters course on ‘Application of Mathematics’ a big draw. There are just 10 students in each batch for this two-year course, but the Institute plans to double this number soon.

A grant from the DAE helps the institute meet its annual budget of about Rs 12 crore, out of which it pays out salaries and stipends and spends on activities such as holding seminars and lectures. Half of the 160-odd students of the institute are under-graduates.

Maths, Biology sync

Karandikar says there is both need and scope to expand. If only there was a commitment of Rs 300 crore over a seven-year period, Chennai Mathematical Institute would design and introduce courses tailored for the industry, he says.

One such course is cryptology. Another is biology. Biology? “Nobody connects mathematics with biology,” says Karandikar, but today the coming together of biology, genetics and drug research, calls for a steady supply of mathematicians. So there is scope to provide a course that combines mathematics, statistics and biology.

Karandikar’s dream for the institute is for a student intake of 150, and offer a broad spectrum of courses that combine mathematics with various other disciplines such as economics, finance, computer science, and biology. The impediment is funding.

Apart from the DAE, the private sector chips in with some funds — the Chennai-based Shriram group is a big patron. It would help if companies were to sponsor their employees to be trained here, but that happened just once, with a software company. Karandikar says the institute could design course for such employed-students, without diluting the course content, but by adjusting the period.

Nor is the institute big enough today to get any substantial sums from its alumni, unlike some of the IITs. “The basic funds should come from the government,” says Karandikar. He says he has been making presentations to the various branches of the government, including the Planning Commission but to no avail as yet.

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