Plants have intrigued people for thousands of years. They provide aesthetic beauty as well as materials for our basic needs. Moreover, the application of plant sciences improves the yield and supply of medicines, foods, fibres, building materials and other plant products.

What’s this career about?

Botany can be a rewarding career option in India for those who have a passion for plants, the environment, and research. Botanists study all aspects of plant life, including their structure, growth, genetics, and interactions with the environment.

They could be: identifying, recording, monitoring or breeding a plant species or searching for a new species, studying plant populations at a number of sites across different locations, to investigate the effects of pollution, drought or agricultural pests, studying plant cells, structure and function, extracting any useful chemicals, working in conservation, protecting plant life in a local area, promoting public awareness through activities or managing plant collections at a botanic garden, using specialist laboratory equipment and techniques such as electron microscopes, digital imaging analysis and satellite imaging, exploring the use of plants in medicine; for example, finding out if a plant has anti-bacterial or anti-oxidant properties, studying plant evolution or genetics, collecting and analysing data, writing reports and making recommendations based on the results of experiments or observations.

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For a few years now, Mumbai has been talking about air-conditioned local suburban trains. Everyday, as commuters sweat it out in the stuffy, humid jam-packed trains, they have been dreaming of the day when ACs will cool their journey to the city. Four million people must be having the same dream everyday. And finally the day arrived when the prototype or sample air-conditioned train made by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai arrived in the city. The showpiece train was put on the tracks and must have even started on its trial run, when some engineer must have shouted with fright, “The train is too tall, it won’t pass under that bridge!”

Yes, the train built was 4.335 metres tall, whereas the bridges were as low as 4.27 metres! Not one bridge, not two, but many of the bridges on the route!

How could they have made such a terrible mistake?

Simple; in the excitement of trying to fulfil a dream, they forgot to do their research.

Today, India is all alive with the idea of starting start-ups. Prime Minister Modi has fired the imagination of young entrepreneurs about any idea becoming a millionaire’s asset. But from what I’ve heard, more than ninety per cent of these start-ups fail. They fail because they have not spent time and a little money to research their ideas.

All of us feel any new idea is a brilliant idea.

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