Scientists’ take on the Union Budget 2023-24

Source: The post is based on an article “Scientists’ take on the Union Budget 2023-24” published in The Hindu on 6^th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Budget

Relevance: announcement made in the Budget 2023-24 for science and technologies.

News: The article discusses how various science and tech organizations can play the role on the announcement made in the Budget 2023-24 and concerns associated with it.

How can different organizations help in the applications of measures announced in the Budget 2023-24?

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – CSIR has a presence on all focus areas of this year’s budget. For example, it plays an important role in green hydrogen research and development (R&D) under the National Hydrogen Mission.

It focuses on National Mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia Mission by 2047 announced in the budget.

It also has an ongoing AI programme to augment AI application in several areas. A new programme has been launched to promote innovation in pharmaceuticals.

Ministry of Science and Technology – The budget allocated ₹2,000 crore more to the Ministry of Science and Technology than the previous budget. This is an added advantage for the development in the field of science and tech.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) – The budget focuses on green growth and biotechnology plays a major role in finding sustainable solutions for this.

DBT is developing a policy framework for ‘high-performance biomanufacturing’ to have world-class facilities and workforce in synthetic biology-based manufacturing practices.

It will bring improvements in healthcare’s S&T with a focus on ‘One Health’.

It will operationalise the Tuberculosis Genomic Surveillance for drug-resistance. It is also developing a programme to genetically characterise minor millets.

However, there are also issues with this year’s budget.

What are the issues with the budget?

The current level of S&T expenditure is inadequate if India wants to compete at the international level in knowledge generation. Only 0.36% of the budget has been allocated to the Ministry of S&T.

The budget for Departments of Biotechnology and of Scientific & Industrial Research have been reduced, adjusting for inflation. The budget for the Department of Space has also been cut by 8%. 

Moreover, the New Education Policy 2020 recommends increasing the education spending to 6% of GDP. However, education has only received 2.5% of this budget.

What can be the course of action?

The government needs to have better implementation procedure for the measures announced in the budget.

Along with those, there is also need to – a) push agritech, millet research to get nutritional benefits in the long run, b) open up select Indian Council of Medical Research labs for research to the public and private sector, c) support education and research on biomedical devices, pharma and AI interdisciplinary.