Indian Science Congress is unwieldy, chaotic: Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

New Delhi: Tamil-Nadu born Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on Wednesday described the Indian Science Congress as having become "too unwieldy and chaotic".

"The Indian Science Congress (ISC) is an association – I believe a private association, but it gets a lot of money from the government. It is a well intentioned organization, but there is a need to get government figures to come and talk to scientists and a place to discuss science policy but it has become very large and unwieldy and fairly chaotic.

"It is not really easy to be able to interact in ways that are productive," the scientist said here today. The structural biologist at Cambridge University, who had won the Nobel Prize in 2009, was speaking at a media event attended by many Nobel laureates.

The Noble winner had called the on-going Indian Science Congress in Mysuru as a "circus."

After attending the 2015 ISC in Mumbai, the scientist had slammed a participant's views on planes as having been invented by a sage in the vedic era.

"....One particular Congress in Mumbai last year was an anomaly but by and large most of the Congress is about science but the scientific part is too diffused, too large. That's what I meant when I said it's a circus," the 64-year-old American-British scientist said.