India has the opportunity to become a leading scientific power in the world but tendency to delay funding and at times, legal challenges come in its way. Nobel laureate David J Gross (Physics; 2004) said this while speaking at the Nobel Dialogue 2017 - part of the Nobel Prize Series - organised at Vibrant Gujarat, the biennial global summit.

He said India has explored many opportunities in participating and leading scientific projects but some of these challenges have come in the way of it capitalising from them. He gave the instance of the neutrino observatory project -- India's most advanced particle physics experiment. Though the government has sanctioned Rs 1500 crore for the project it has been caught up in anti-nuclear politics and legal tangle. "India is on the verge of losing a marvellous opportunity," he said.

He also referred to the government's nod last year on having an India-based arm of an observatory to detect gravitational waves, called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory). This was after signs of gravitational waves, resulting from the collision of two massive black holes 1.3 billion light-years from earth, were announced last year by a team of scientists across the world, including several from India. PM Modi announced support for LIGO India, last February but there's been little headway, such as a decision on the location of the detector, since.

Source: forbesindia.com, thehindu.com