The Bharat Ratna-winning scientist CNR Rao may refute that he ever called politicos “idiots” for not investing enough in science, but the “idiots” seem to have gotten the hint, though not much of one. A day after the remark, the Democratic Front government hurriedly forked out an annual grant of Rs 4.73 crore to the state’s Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Mission (RGSTM) for the current fiscal. But compared to the state’s Rs 49,000-crore annual development plan for 2013-14, the sum is small change.

After winning the Bharat Ratna, CNR Rao had railed against the political class for the abysmally small budget allocations made for science and technology