PhD, postdoc, or faculty in India: what's your single biggest obstacle right now?

Hi all — I'm Abhijeet. I did my bachelor's in CSE and I live in Bangalore. Recently a friend in research asked for help setting up some analysis tools, and working with him I saw firsthand how rough the situation for Indian research is.

Full disclosure upfront: I'm a founder — I build software tools. This post isn't about any of them, and it isn't a pitch — no product links, nothing to buy. I'm here because I keep hearing the same thing anecdotally: brilliant people in India doing research despite the system, not because of it. I want to find out how true that is beyond anecdotes.

So I'm collecting experiences from researchers across fields and institutions — Master's, PhD, postdoc, faculty, or you've left academia entirely — and publishing what I find, openly and for free.

https://forms.gle/XuMRmhNdesMXrhzA6 — 3 minutes, anonymous.

It asks two main things: the biggest obstacle in your research, and the most painful part of writing your last paper. Rant as hard as you like — specifics are gold.

The comments here are just as valuable as the form: what's the one thing you'd fix first?

I'll post the findings back to this sub once compiled.