Status of Mathematics Research in India in 1990 and 1994: An Analysis Based on Mathsci

Abstract

Mathematics research in India, as reflected by papers indexed in Mathsci 1990 and 1994, is quantified and mapped. There were 1319 papers originating in India and indexed in the 1990 disc of Mathsci CD-ROM version, and 1391 papers indexed in 1994. Of these 2710 papers, 2549 had appeared in 467 journals, 221 of which were indexed in Journal Citation Reports 1994. Indian researchers had published 9 papers in these two years in 62 Indian journals, 503 papers in 108 US journals, 254 papers in 40 journals from the Netherlands, and 15 papers in 42 British journals. 18 institutions located in 10 cities/towns and 23 states/union territories had contributed to India's research output indexed in Mathsci, although only three have contributed more than a hundred papers in the two years, and another nine had contributed 50 or more papers. Academic institutions had published 87% of al papers and central government funded research councils and departments accounted for 12.6%. Four cities, viz. Calcutta, New Delhi, Bombay, and Madras had published more than 20 papers each in the two years. Five states, viz. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi had published more than 250 papers each. More than 53% of journal papers were published in journals not indexed in Journal Citation Reports. Only 81 papers had appeared in journals of impact factor greater than 2.000, and these are mostly physics journals. Of the 61 subfields in Mathsci, Indian researchers had been most active in Statistics, General topolgy, Quantum theory, and Special functions. India has a high activity index for Special functions and General topology and a moderately high activity index for Statistics, Integral transforms and Operational calculus, and Sequences, series and summability. The activity is low in Prtial differential equations, Ordinary differential equations, Numerical analysis, K-theory, and Computer science. The future of mathematics in India seems to rest with DAE, TIFR and ISI. Universities seem to be losing momentum.