Funding the future: GoI reverting to earlier funding rule for research bodies is welcome. But India spends too little on science

Source– The post is based on the article “Funding the future: GoI reverting to earlier funding rule for research bodies is welcome. But India spends too little on science” published in The Times of India on 19th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education.

Relevance– About the R&D in India.

News: Recently, the government reversed a procedural rule to facilitate the flow of funds to national research institutes.

About the procedural rules for R&D

In March, a new workflow rule mandated zero-balance accounts for each project replaced the system where institutes’ central accounts allocated funds. The new system was meant to free researchers from controls of university procedures.

This resulted in a) Opening these accounts was time-consuming, b) The advantages of a large pool of money coming into a central account were lost. For instance, interest earned from a central corpus helped researchers pay for administrative overheads. So the government reversed the decision.

What is the actual problem with R&D in India?

Despite India’s economic transformation over 30-plus years, India’s R&D spending is too little. As per the Niti Aayog’s latest India Innovation Index report, the per capita gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) is just $43 (the total spend is 0.7% of GDP) against $1,800 in the US (total spend 3.4% of GDP) and $325 (total spend 2.4% of GDP) in China.

What should be done to improve R&D in India?

Ensure the proper functioning of NRF: In the 2020 Union budget, the government promised to set up an apex National Research Foundation with a Rs 50,000 crore outlay and a spending timeline of five years.

The government must clarify how the NRF will work with existing central funding agencies like DST, DBT, CSIR, SERB, ICAR and ICMR.