A Shot for Science

Context: 

In the Budget presented recently, the Ministry of Science & Technology has received an allocation of ₹16,361.42 crore this year, an impressive 15% increase from the previous estimate.

Current Status of Spending on Research and Development:

•  The Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) as the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is around 0.7%.
• According to a report (2020) prepared by the Department of Science and Technology (DST):

• • Out of the funding allocated to R&D in 2017-18, 61.4% of the amount went to DRDO (31.6%), Departments of Space (19%) and Atomic Energy (10.8%) together. 
  • Approximately 37% was allocated to the general R&D agencies like the ICAR, CSIR, DST, DBT, ICMR etc. while only 0.9% was allocated to R&D in electronics, IT and renewable energy.

How does India perform in comparison to other countries?

•   Low Spending: India is a low spender (only 0.66% of the GDP) in comparison to the developed countries and emerging economic powers of East Asia. 
•     Private vis-i-vis Public spending: In most of the developed capitalist countries, defense-related R&D is undertaken by the private sector. In India, this expenditure is mostly borne by public funding.
•     Public-Private research Projects: The magnitude and quantum of Joint Public-Private research projects is much higher in developed countries in comparison to India.

What is the need to focus on R&D?

•     Productivity and Economic Growth: Enhancing spending in R&D would improve research outcomes and contribute to economic growth.
•   Low Cost Indigenous solutions: R&D is desired in order to create tailor made solutions for the Indian population; such solutions that are cost effective and easily accessible to the poor sections like the Jaipur Foot.
•   Improve Learning Outcomes: The best teaching and learning process at the higher education level occurs in environments where there is a strong culture of research and knowledge creation. This is testified from the experience of the world’s best universities like the Harvard, Stanford, Oxford etc.
•     Reducing Imports: India spends considerable money for importing high end technologies from countries like the U.S, South Korea etc. which raises the import bill and increases fiscal deficit.

Impediments faced by the R&D sector:

•   Lack of Skilled Personnel: At present, there is a lack of adequate expertise in many emerging areas. Further the best talent of our country migrate to foreign countries as they don’t get the requisite ecosystem for doing good quality research resulting in brain drain.
• IPR violation: This acts as a very big impediment to create something unique and innovative. Further poor IPR compliance discourages foreign investment flow into the field of R&D.
• High Dependence on Grants: Many universities depend on the DST, DBT, ICMR and CSIR under their extramural support system. This dependency creates a situation where quality of research at doctoral level gets hampered when less funding is provided to the public institutions. 
• Low Funding: According to a 2022 estimate by the Global Innovation Index, India continues to hover around 0.7% despite being among the world’s largest producers of scientific literature.
• Delay in Disbursal: There are often variations in the announcements of budget speech and actual provisions made. 
  • For Example- Government proposed an allocation of Rs 50,000 crore to NRF over the next five years in 2021-22 budget. However in the actual budget, no such provision was made.

Measures needed:

•  Enhance Spending:  In the next few years, the government must not only increase the size of the funding pie but also ease the procedures to make the most efficient use of it.
•  Percentage wise allocation:  The Line ministries at the Centre could be mandated to allocate a certain percentage of their budget for research and innovation for developing and deploying technologies as per the priorities of the respective ministries.
• The states can partner with the Centre to jointly fund research and innovation programmes through socially designed Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
  • PRISM (Promoting Innovations in Individuals, Start-ups and MSMEs): It is a scheme launched by DSIR (Department of Science & Industrial Research) to support individual innovators with financial grants.  
  • Atal Innovation Mission: It was launched by the NITI Ayog as an innovation promotion platform involving academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers utilizing national and international experience to promote the culture of innovation, R&D in India particularly in technology-oriented areas.
  • India Innovation Growth programme (IIGP) 2.0: IIGP is an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), GoI, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts. 

                                                                                                                News Source: The Hindu