Job Description:
Job Title
CEO’s Office Intern
Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology
Background
We live in a world of fast-paced innovation today, driven by exponential progress in science and technology (S&T) and the growth of vibrant ecosystems to commercialise research. India must aspire to be a top 3 S&T Nation, where the first two places are occupied by the US and China today. To do so, India needs to be at the forefront of research: the creation of new knowledge (research) and its translation to economic and social goods. This is imperative for long-term industry differentiation and competitiveness, National security, and self-reliance to attain our socio-economic goals.
The time for India to revive its S&T agenda is now or never. We have the economic size, the talent pool, a large market size and a vibrant startup ecosystem to both invest in research and be able to translate S&T knowledge into economic value. For India to be a global leader, exponential S&T growth needs to go hand-in-hand with economic growth and social progress.
While the West has traditionally dominated global S&T, many Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan have made rapid progress in the past, and China has dramatically scaled its S&T prowess to become #2 in the world behind the USA. India’s Contribution is relatively dwarfed - its high impact research output is ranked 1oth, with US & China being the top 2, no Indian university shows up in top 100 research rankings, with just 1 company in world’s top 50 innovative companies.
Way of Work
The Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST India) is a non-profit institution of excellence dedicated to catalyse India’s journey to a top 3 S&T Nation. We identify that the major stakeholders for S&T include the government, the research institutions and the industry. There are systemic challenges with how these actors today work, such as size of ambition, right incentives, resource allocation and efficiency. Our way of working is to identify these challenges, develop and vigorously advocate policy solutions and best practices to address them. We also identify high-leverage projects that can have an outsized impact on the ecosystem, and run programs with stakeholders, where we lend our team of experts, to make sure best practices are used and the program is impactful. At maturity, we see the ecosystem develop the virtuous cycle of research funding, new breakthrough research, translation into economic value, and re-investment. While we build the ecosystem, we also look forward to build a strong narrative of S&T leadership in India and create political salience around it.
In a short period of time, FAST has started engagements with the Office of PSA (Govt of India), NITI Aayog, Capacity Building Commission of India and Banaras Hindu University, among others. Our projects span easing procurement for scientists, re-envisaging government and industry financing of research, fixing institutional grant management process, etc. We have produced multiple succinct policy briefs for the governmental and institutional sector. We also run India’s largest non-profit science festival in India called the India Science Fest, which has seen an audience of 50,000 people over the last three years. We also recently launched a Science Book Fellowship to spur public science books in India.
Leadership
FAST India is c0-founded by Varun Aggarwal and Ashish Dhawan. Varun is a successful entrepreneur and researcher, and Ashish a private equity investor turned philanthropist. Varun built and sold India’s largest job assessment company, Aspiring Minds and wrote a book on the science ecosystem of India. Ashish Dhawan is the chairperson of Ashoka University, a leading liberal arts university in India, and Central Square Foundation, and is passionate about promoting science in India.
FAST’s advisory board is chaired by Prof. Vijay Raghavan, an eminent scientist and ex-PSA to Govt of India. The advisory board includes Sanjay Sarma (MIT), Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Harvard Univ), Kris Gopalakrishnan, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Dr. Swaminathan Sivaram (IISER), Thomas Barlow, Vijay Chandru (IISc), Samir K. Brahmachari and Gagandeep Kang.
Pre-reading
Varun’s talk on his book explaining India’s S&T ecosystem and the need for change
Keynote Remarks and Panel Discussion at India Science Fest about why India needs to invigorate its S&T ecosystem
Policy and best practices briefs by FAST
Position Summary:
We are looking for a smart generalist who will be working on the below 2 projects:
Project 1:
Analyze tariffs and non-tariff barriers implemented by various countries and assess their impact on the respective economies. Did these actions benefit or were they counterproductive? The research should focus on the lens of R&D and innovation. The findings will help prepare a report for a government department.
Project 2:
Conduct a financial analysis of top global companies to compare the impact of spending on Capital Equipment versus R&D. The presumption is that to generate $ of returns, lower investment is needed when compared to spending on CapEx.
Roles and Responsibilities:
1. Research & Data Collection:
- Conduct in-depth research on tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and their economic impact, particularly on R&D and innovation in different countries.
- Gather financial data from global companies to analyze the returns from investment in capital equipment versus R&D.
2. Analysis & Synthesis:
- Analyze trends and patterns to assess the effectiveness of tariffs/non-tariff barriers.
- Compare and contrast financial impacts of CapEx vs R&D spending.
3. Report Preparation:
- Compile research findings into concise, data-driven reports to inform decision-making for stakeholders, including government departments.
4. Knowledge Creation:
- Assist in the creation of policy briefs or notes that may be shared with governmental and institutional partners.
- Present findings in a clear, structured manner for internal use and external presentations.
Who we are looking for:
Strong motivation to support India’s economic and social development, through S&T
A final year, or recently graduated, undergraduate/ postgraduate
Educational background in Economics or related fields
Strong skills in financial analysis and understanding of economic trends
Proficiency in tools like STATA, R, and Python for data analysis
Experience in conducting regression analysis and working with complex datasets
Ability to take initiative, develop solutions quickly and effectively, and multitask
Broad and strategic mindset and creative aptitude
Ability to adapt and exhibit confidence in a highly evolving, agile, and fast-paced work environment