I am writing this thread to showcase the preeminence of Indian Universities in Biology research in the 50s and 60s. I am focusing on Biology just because I have some knowledge of the subject. Even here I am certain to miss many achievements and achievers.

I request other colleagues to add to this thread on other subjects:

In 1920s Calcutta University and Allahabad University were among the best places in world for Physics research. Erwin Schrodinger accepted to head the Physics department of AU - https://www.allduniv.ac.in/department/physics

The Bardhan–Sengupta synthesis of phenanthrene, which is now included as a ‘name reaction’ in all standard textbooks of organic chemistry was discovered in the laboratories of Calcutta University and Presidency College, Calcutta - https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/020/07/0628-0642

If there is one biologist from India who is truly internationally famous and is known to any student of biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology etc that would be Prof. GN Ramachandran. His pioneering work on Collagen was carried out in Madras University.

Fundamental work on Vitamin C biosynthesis was carried out by BC Guha and then his student IB Chatterjee at Calcutta University.

Similarly, Prof. AN Chatterjee, Prof. JJ Ghosh, Prof. GC Chatterjee carried out phenomenal work on the pathogen that causes Kala-Azar. I consider myself fortunate that I was taught by Prof.s NC Ghosh, GC Chatterjee, JJ Ghosh, IB Chatterjee at the Biochemistry Department of CU.

There were other centres of excellence too. One such was IARI. Mutation for one of the most studied genes (wingless) in drosophila (fruit fly) was discovered at IARI - https://twitter.com/prinsciadvgoi/status/1251853315132010502

Some of the medical schools in Calcutta (School of Tropical Medicine, Chittaranjan National Cancer Research Centre) were conducting cutting edge research in parasitology, pharmacology, biochemistry.

Every developmental biologist knows about the pioneering work by Prof. Niaze from University of Rajasthan on the role of retinoic acid in limb regeneration. Please read what Prof. Maden writes about it - http://www.ijdb.ehu.es/web/paper/12455625/retinoic-acid-and-limb-regeneration-a-personal-view

BHU, Aligarh Muslim University were also centres of excellence.
Colleges had teachers who were respected worldwide. As we learned recently about Prof. Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (Presidency College, Calcutta) from the post of @somakrc and https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.02551.pdf

I feel that there was a dramatic drop in the productivity of the universities starting 1970s. It is possible that my perception is wrong. May be @kvijayraghavan @indian_hydra and other senior colleagues can correct me.

In case there was a drop, we need to introspect. What was it that was working in the 50s and 60s and was dismantled later on. We need to ask ourselves are we doing what we should be doing to resurrect Indian science to its old glory (assuming there has been a dip)!

Would love to know perspectives of colleagues.

@MenonBioPhysics @SAnsumali @aalokelab @tapasya_s @patankar_lab @DeepakNModi @VenkRamaswamy @thebabulab @ViditaVaidya @LolitikaMandal @MahakSharma23 @aktilaiyan