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Context
Investment by India in scientific enterprise
Are Indians investing enough in science, and how should this investment be divided?
As per data provided by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
- India invests about 0.8% of its GDP on research and development, and supports 156 researchers per million of population
- China: The figures for China are 2%, and 1,113, respectively. China’s investment is now comparable to any developed country, with Germany standing at 2.9% and 4,363 researchers and the U.S. at 2.8% and 4,231
A steady increase
- In 2000, China had invested only about 0.9% of its GDP on research and development, but this was steadily ramped up and in 2010 stood at 1.71%
- India invested 0.74% in 2000, and increased this to 0.82% in 2010. While China took it up to 2.1% in 2016, in India it came down to 0.63% in 2015
These figures ignore the reality of what science has become in the last two decades
Author’s contention
Author contends that science has undergone a fundamental change in last two decades. The discovery of Raman effect by CV Raman was made with relatively meagre resources available at that time in 1928 but today while there is theoretical and even experimental work that can be done by small groups with a low budget, many pressing problems in science demand larger investments, including resources, funding and human capital
How bigger science projects require an entirely different mindset?
Bigger projects involve coordination of the work of several hundred people and international collaborations; they need physical space and funding. They challenge the mindset of doing science in isolation, within labs, and as unnoticed by society as possible. Canada made this transition in the late 1980s with its first big investment in science — the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Since then, it has not looked back
Conclusion
To develop a meaningful and scientific handle over impending crises, India needs to invest more widely and deeply in scientific enterprise
