Prime Minister Singh's Latest Interview If you want to know the latest candid thoughts of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, where should you look? Here's a multiple choice question: A. Go to the PM's website, where his recent interviews with the media and speeches are carefully archived. B. Keep your eye on local or international media - the prime minister gives frequent interviews and holds regular press conferences, where he welcomes questions about issues of the day, from inflation to Iran. C. Follow the PM on his twitter feed, @PMOIndia, where he is answering questions from citizens and journalists alike. D. Shell out $15 (about 730 Indian rupees) to Science, a 132 year-old magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which interviewed the prime minister this month on nuclear power, the space program and inclusive development in India. If you answered "D" you would be correct. A few highlights from the article and interview are below: The prime minister enjoys a sort of "street cred" among academics, authors Pallava Bagla and Richard Stone write, and his "soft-spoken demeanor" belies his "grit" on issues important to scientists. The prime minister on research and development spending and education: We need to spend a lot more on research and development. While public spending on R&D is roughly the same as other developing countries "it is the private sector in our country which has to do a lot more." Our real problem is quality teaching staff. We are trying to induce more people to go for Ph.D. degrees in science and technology. The country "must find innovative means to draw upon the Indians working in the universities abroad, particularly in the United States, to find some time to spend teaching in our country." On foreign NGOs and nuclear energy: There are NGOs, often funded from the United States and the Scandinavian countries, which are not fully appreciative of the developmental challenges that our country faces. The atomic energy program has got into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply. The thinking segment of our population certainly is supportive of nuclear energy. On the future of science in India: I think people will see space technology also as a new way of dealing with the ancient scourges of poverty, ignorance and disease. One has to be optimistic. In poor countries, unless one is optimistic, one is overwhelmed by the dimension of the development task that we have to accomplish. To read the interview in its entirety, you can subscribe to Science or buy the article alone here.