Nature in India
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) India is launching its first India-specific website Nature India soon. This follows the launch of a similar Nature China website last year. NPG is the scientific publishing arm of Macmillan Publishers with its headquarters in London, UK. It publishes its flagship journal Nature, the world’s highest cited weekly journal, which was started in 1869. NPG also publishes other prestigious Nature journals and reviews. Although the primary audience is the scientific community, the general public also read Nature, which has published some of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in modern history such as the molecular structure of DNA by Watson and Crick and the first-ever cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep).
The launch of Nature India is an important landmark in the growth of science and technology in India. It also heralds a new medium for science communication. Not long ago, India did face a slowdown in science publication. Indian journals found it difficult to survive in the face of dwindling readership and rising publishing costs. But today science publication is again gaining a foothold in India. Journals like Current Science have managed to forge a niche market for itself among the Indian scientific community. The readership has increased with thousands of scientists and science institutions taking an active interest in science communication. Today newer forms of communication like the television and the Internet have brought in a new dimension as to how science can be communicated to the people. The number of people accessing the Internet for information related to science is multiplying. Nature India would cater to millions of science enthusiasts in India as it plans to include news, events, jobs, research highlights and also access to some premium content from Nature journals. We await this new development with great enthusiasm.
