What is the best way to do science in India?!

Well, many of us who are into research (at least in India) are faced with the problem of doing science the best way and meet the needs of our daily existence. There are two kinds of people that do science: one who pursues it purely as a career option and the other, as a passion. I guess, it is the first set of people who have taken science as a career (by fate or choice) are dominant. But can science by its popular perception of being a utterly curiosity driven, near-stoic (by stoic I mean disengaged from the surroundings, both physically as a scientist or mentally in the thought process) exercise that is not money-oriented be treated as a career option? Maybe yes, only if it is for the sake of running the day-today life as many of the present day researchers have to.

Present day science is an enterprise where 'scientists' need to do more of business of science than than Science. Except for a few isolated cases like IISc, NCBS etc in India where else do we find a science problem is addressed as just a, science problem. These thoughts have been going on in my mind for so long and that's why I asked, 'Which one is better, basic or applied science?'. Just today I came across a report in Nature journal about 'Janelia Farm', an experiment in curiosity driven science that started in 2006 in Virginia U.S. I wish our Indian Govt. also sets up 'farms' like this (of course, without any influences that may be needed to get unrestricted funding or other science corruptions!) in the North, South, East and West. Positions in Janelia are not tenure track and group leaders are reviewed every five years, more importantly not based on the number of publications but based on the questions they asked and how good they were in working towards that question.

Research in Janelia is interdisciplinary which I think is wonderful since there is ample scope for learning about 'other' science! Coming back to my question, is this (like Janelia) the best way to do science?. Perhaps! I am biased towards asking basic questions! I don't know would this model be successful (even Janelia scientists say that they need 5-10years to produce evidence for this innovative model) but I'm pretty sure that this model will create opportunities for those who don't see science in a more conventional way and yet enjoy basic necessities of Indian life.

To me, passion for science should always win over science as a money yielding enterprise! I have much more to blog but let me stop and wait for reactions!!