NCBS - History

History

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) has directly or indirectly catalyzed the formation of six other institutions, the National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), Mumbai and Bangalore, the Society for Applied Microwave Engineering and Electronic Research (SAMEER), Mumbai and Chennai, the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore. The last three in the above list have been set up directly under the umbrella of TIFR and are governed by its Council of Management.

Formation of the National Centre for Biological Sciences was guided by the views of Abraham Flexner, when he proposed the creation of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton that the Institute "... should be small, its staff and students or scholars should be few, the administration should be inconspicuous, inexpensive and subordinate; the members of the teaching staff while freed from the waste of time involved in administrative work, should freely participate in decisions involving the quality and direction of its activities; the living conditions should represent a marked improvement over contemporary academic conditions... its subjects should be fundamental in character, and it should develop gradually...".

The idea that TIFR should start a Centre for Biological Research was mooted in 1982, following a suggestion by Prof. S. Ramaseshan, then Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, that a joint TIFR-IISc Centre could be located on the IISc campus. This move did not materialize but, in 1984, the Planning Commission of the Government of India agreed to fund a centre for fundamental research in biological sciences at Bangalore. The Centre was to function as "an autonomous unit under the aegis of TIFR and conduct fundamental research and teaching in areas of biology at the frontiers of knowledge". It was to be grown around a group of outstanding individuals and not according to a "rigidly preconceived plan". Its program was to be broad-based, dealing with all levels of biology: cell biology, development of animals and plants, brain research, behavior, ecology and theoretical biology.

Several years were spent in search of a suitable site, until the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) at Bangalore offered an attractive site on their campus. A memorandum of understanding with UAS was finally approved by their Board of Regents and signed in February 1991. The university agreed to recognize NCBS as an institution of excellence and its members as post-graduate teachers. NCBS, on its part, undertook to help the University strengthen basic research in biology and biotechnology and to extend facilities for research and training to UAS staff and students.

Four years before NCBS formally came into existence, a core group of three members, Obaid Siddiqi, Gaiti Hasan and K. Vijay Raghavan was constituted and search for new staff members was begun. The Council approved a plan to locate NCBS temporarily in the TIFR Centre at IISc in the space occupied by the Radio Astronomy Group which was moving to Pune. Prof. C. N. R. Rao, then Director IISc, readily agreed to this proposal. It was decided to construct additional laboratories for NCBS at Mumbai and at the TIFR Centre in Bangalore so that scientists joining NCBS could begin to work without loss of time.

The first new appointments were made in 1988. J. B. Udgaonkar joined in February 1990. M. Ramaswami and M. K. Mathew came in early 1991, followed by M. M. Panicker and S. Krishna in 1992. The new groups started their work in Mumbai. K. Vijay Raghavan moved to Bangalore in August 1991. Sudhir Krishna and Panicker followed in October, 1992. T. M. Sahadevan, who had left for Pune, returned to Bangalore as Administrative Officer. NCBS, thus, began its activities well before it was formally constituted in October, 1991. The first meeting of its Project Management Committee was held on 27 July 1992.