INDIAN SCIENCE RISING

EARLIER THIS MONTH, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH traveled to India with an ambitious agenda, including expanding U.S.-Indian scientific cooperation. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the establishment of a new $30 million science and technology commission that will fund joint research in promising areas such as biotechnology. This bilateral push to promote ties between U.S. and Indian scientists comes at a time when India is vying to vault itself onto the world stage. Fueled by a highly trained workforce of synthetic chemists, India is seriously challenging the U.S. and Europe for supremacy in producing active pharmaceutical ingredients, advanced intermediates, and other fine chemicals. It now hopes to do the same in innovation-intensive sectors, including drug discovery, biotechnology, and materials science. The repatriation of Indian chemists from abroad is accelerating the new emphasis on innovation, as are increased links between academic and industrial scientists in the country. But...