Actually, the question should be - "How difficult is it to …..?". I always believe in optimism and therefore the question is this. Speaking truly - there is no direct answer to this question. It depends on various factors such as your location, financial situation, how supporting family and friends you have, and of course how determined you are towards your passion. If you just want to become a scientist for fame or money then I think you are in the wrong direction. With the same labor and time, you will spend to become a scientist you can earn more fame and money in any other profession or job. At least in India, this is a very hard truth. I shall point out here some factors which would help you understand the real situation in our country and help you to decide your way. Let me start with my own story and by this time I shall try to explain the situations I have faced in my life that would help you to judge yourself. Or, if you are in hurry you may directly go to My Suggestions section.
My Story
I don't know if I can be considered a scientist or not, but my friends and colleagues call me a scientist. I myself have objection for such an attribution at the moment. To me scientist is much more holy term and I am inappropriate person for this. Rather, I'd love to be known as a researcher. I have completed PhD in Physics (Planetary Physics) under the funding of ISRO in an Indian university and I have reasonable number of publications in quality international journals. Currently I am involved in teaching Physics in a small college in a remote place in north-east India. I am still involved in research because research is my passion rather than profession. My college is a private college and do believe in supporting those activities only which would be profitable, and research in broad sense is not a profitable business to invest. So my current research is fully supported by myself and I have to allot funds for my small research lab (that I have set up in my storeroom) from the little salary I get. Here I should clarify that while teachers of government colleges in India get a big lump of money, the teachers of most of the private colleges struggle to get even one-third of it.
I had the dream of becoming a scientist from my childhood and I was very much enthusiastic about the NASA and ISRO jobs and therefore despite getting a good ranking in the engineering entrance examination, I opted for BSc in Physics Honors. My research life actually started during my masters in a project work in Astrophysics. When I passed out MSc in Physics with Astrophysics specialization, from the central university in my hometown, I was preparing to join MPhil in the same institute because my financial situation was not enough strong so that I could dare for PhD which would take at least 3 to 4 years, and at that time fellowship were not provided during PhD. By this time incidentally, I was called to join an ISRO funded project as JRF to be carried out in the Physics department of the university for three years. It was a good opportunity for me to start a research career because a reasonable amount was to be given as a fellowship and it was also tagged with a compulsory PhD program in the same institute. So I joined. The PI of the project was also my PhD guide who is quite a known person among scientists in India working in the field of Astronomy and Astrophysics and therefore I was happy to become a scholar under him. During the whole period of my PhD research of four years, I faced a lot of problems - some of which are my personal while others due to infrastructure and other general issues which almost every PhD scholar face during their research. What I have learned from PhD is that - doing PhD is just a small step (though important) towards becoming a scientist and never guarantee your research career. Even PhD itself is not a guaranteed course. I shall try to discuss more about this sometime in the future - but I can tell you that like many other research scholars I also shed tears many times thinking that I shall never be awarded PhD degree and wasting my time. This situation is a little better if you are lucky enough to choose (or get as in my case) a good guide - good means responsible and not a person having a very glorious and attractive CV. I don't want to defame my guide but I was very very lucky to get the degree awarded working under him in a comparatively short period of time than other research students under him. I know some of my juniors who left PhD even after working four-five years and having good international publications only because of their guide. If that happens to somebody then his research carrier is almost over.
After an enormous struggle of four years, I managed to submit my thesis and by this time two of my papers were accepted for publication in Scopus indexed international journals. I did most of my actual work in the last one year of the said four years because after the completion of the project period (which was of 3 years) I was free from all the bindings imposed by my guide and could work independently. Although my guide was not enough timely person (or not interested(?), I don't know) to guide me in the research, I was lucky that he did not oppose me to complete my work in my own way after the project period and I am thankful to him for that. It took one more year after submission to get the degree awarded.
After I submitted my thesis, I applied for the INSPIRE faculty scheme of DST(Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India) which was five-year research support in a temporary faculty position in any recognized Indian University or Research Institute. My proposal was shortlisted and I was called for an interview. Here I should tell you that I had a drawback that I did not want to leave my hometown for work and DST discourages to choose the same institute where last studied for INSPIRE faculty position to be created. After my interview, I came to know from some sources that although DST liked my proposal it was finally rejected because of this reason. I had also applied for Dr. D. S. Kothari postdoctoral fellowship scheme which was also rejected because of this reason. I wanted to apply for DST's Young Scientist Award which was a three-year programme similar to INSPIRE Faculty Scheme but I changed my mind because I realized that the same thing is going to happen. So, be careful about this - had I been chosen a different place of work, I would be in a better position now. I don't regret today because at that time it was impossible for me to go outside due to various personal reasons. Apart from this, I have seen one of my classmates of college days who worked in IISc, Bangalore and thereafter somewhere in Japan as a postdoctoral fellow with tens of publications and then after coming back to India he won Young Scientist Award but even after this he did not get a good and secured job. Presently he is working in a private college with a salary less than mine. How frustrating is this! That's why I think research courses in India are not guaranteed to give a better life, indeed chances of failure are much greater than we think. But don't be discouraged because there are success stories also. Some of my known persons could manage to get a secured job at the university level after completing their PhD. In south India probably it is easier to get a job after completion of PhD in private engineering colleges and deemed universities with a satisfactory salary and therefore you may pursue your further research without any other headache. I came to this conclusion as I had a few south Indian friends from Andhra Pradesh who told me about this. But I personally think, competition and luck are everywhere important, because don't forget recently 3,700 PhD holders (among many other highly educated applicants) in Uttar Pradesh have applied for 62 posts of messengers (peon) in U.P. Police department. This is horrible! Can you imagine - a would-be research scientist is being ordered by a police constable to get a cup of tea for him?
Let us come back to my story - after I was awarded the PhD degree, I got registered myself in the ISRO's recruitment portal. ISRO does not recruit PhD candidates by calling applications like any other post for scientists, you have to get yourself registered in their web portal and they'll call you according to available vacancies. However, you may apply for Scientist-C posts (for which master's degree in Physics is the required qualification) through the general recruitment process, but unfortunately, as have I noticed - only a few advertisements are published for recruitment in the discipline of Physics in two-three years. Instead, they recruit many engineers (B.E, B.Tech, M.Tech, etc.) as Scientist-C every year. Probably ISRO requires more engineers than scientists! The field of research I have worked in PhD was a relatively new and less known field (we tried to experimentally relate the physical properties of dust accumulated on a planetary or asteroidal surface during a very long time period with their light scattering behavior). This type of work is mostly done in U.S.(NASA), France (LATMOS), and Japan (Kobe University). I have hardly encountered a published paper in this field from India during my research, other than my own. Although ISRO had funded the research at the university level, probably they had no intention to start a division at ISRO for that work to continue. So, I never have had any correspondence from ISRO for an interview. So, be careful to choose your area of research too. I sent my CV along with a summary of the research proposal to S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences at Kolkata but there are no relevant research posts there. I got a 2-year post-doctoral call from IUCAA(Pune) and ARIES (Nainital), but after a total of 5-years of PhD, my situation was such that I could only opt for a long-term dependable job. I was also called for a one-year contractual teaching post in the Astrophysics department of Puducherry University, but due to the same reason, I had to skip this offer. I suffered mainly due to my personal reasons which are common for many Indians and this may not happen to others, but, if there were more dependable research jobs in India, things would be better for me and others.
Now I have my own laboratory in my storeroom as I stated earlier, finding it hard to accommodate money to buy instruments. But I am learning new things which were actually not my subject, but now it has become necessary to learn these to reduce expenditure. I built an instrument to carry out my experimental work which has been connected to the computer through a hardware (by using Arduino) and software both built by me. This would cost many thousands of rupees if I had to buy one. Now I am solving problems with the experiment that I faced during PhD. But due to lack of support - both financial and morale, sometimes I feel - shall I be able to continue? Time will tell......
My Suggestions
If you belong to a rich family and you are willing to go anywhere in India and abroad you may definitely choose to become a scientist if you have a good academic record. But if you belong to a middle-class family and need to get into a job as early as possible then I think there are many ways for you other than so called 'general line' (i.e. Bachelors's and Masters's degree courses and PhD thereafter). I am saying this because after 3 years of BSc, 2 years of MSc you will be 23 years old and if you do PhD you are 28, frankly speaking, such a candidate is desperate to find a job and the first thing that comes to mind is to take a teaching job. Here I should remind you, I am not talking about those who want to become a bank official or administrative officers by passing out relevant exams after Bachelors Degree (or even after Masters), but talking only about those who actually want to become a researcher and scientist and follow a path that makes them a school teacher or in the worst case just a private tutor. This picture is more prominent in rural or less developed parts of the country where options are less. It is relatively easy to pass out the eligibility exams for the school level but difficult to get a job because of high demand. Think if you complete your PhD when you are 28 yrs old and then trying and trying for a school job and thereafter ultimately become a private tutor. If you are lucky enough to pass out CSIR-NET (I recommend clearing this exam before PhD), it definitely increases your chances to get a job at the college or university level but one of my friends who lives in West Bengal is working in a school even after qualifying CSIR-NET (he is not a PhD although). So things are not so easy because of high unemployment in India. If you are fully determined and passionate about a research career but need a job early, I think it is better to get into B.E. courses. It opens many doors before you. If you can pass out GATE examination with a good score you can easily apply for scientists' jobs in DRDO, BARK, ISRO, and in many other research institutes. It is also helpful to pursue higher studies such as MTech or integrated PhD in IITs. Even if you fail to get a scientist job you may opt for jobs in a private company. But let me remind you - competition is everywhere and there is high unemployment in this area too. For persons like me - who do not bother about the future, are crazy about research, and can adjust with a less expensive life, I can only say - You are really CRAZY.....
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