Recent Concerns with India’s Science Management in 2024

Source: This post has been created based on the article “The problem with India’s science management” published in “The Hindu” on 20^th January 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 Science & technology – Indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

News: The article discusses the issues with India’s science management.

Recent Concerns with India’s Science Management, Scientific advances leading to deployable technologies are important for sustained economic progress for any nation.

What Steps are Being Taken in This Regard?

The government has tried to overhaul India’s science establishment through the following steps:

1. Setting up of National Research Foundation (NRF)
2. Restructuring of the DRDO.

What are The Issues with India’s Science Management?

1. Low R&D Expenditure: India’s expenditure on R&D is very low (around 0.7% of GDP, compared to 3.5% for USA and 2.4% for China).
2. Slow Progress in Key Fields: Fields such as India’s space programme, nuclear energy, genomics, robotics, and AI are witnessing slow progress.
3. Public Sector Dominance: This leads to issues related to governmental bureaucracy, such as slow approvals for funding.
4. Long-Term Funding Issues: Commitment to long-term steady funding of critical projects is missing.
5. Issues with Senior Scientists in Leadership Positions: Some of the issues with their working include micromanaging institutions’ accounts, and a lack of accountability.
6. Concentration of Power: Since only a handful of institutions (like IITs) had exclusive access to scientific equipment, abuse of power happened by those in control. Appointments, awards, foreign accolades and support from the system became their monopoly.

Here Are More Topics For Your Interest-

Agriculture and Stocking Policy in India in 2024

Consensus Regarding Cooperation Between India and France

Why is The Assumption That Only Scientists can Lead Scientific Institutions Incorrect?

First, administering of a complex organisation cannot be performed as a side-project of a ‘working’ scientist. Also, there is a difference between a good scientist, who is generally driven by individual considerations, and a good administrator, who must be organisationally driven.

Second, scientists are not trained to prioritise between time, cost, or precision, in making administrative decisions.

Third, there is scope for conflict of interest. Being an academic within the same institution in which one has administrative control can lead to an abuse of power.

What Should be Done in This Regard?

International Best Practices: For instance, universities in USA follow a separation of administrators and scientists in their science administratin.

Constituting a Central Service: Scientists could be selected and trained as part of an all-India science administration central service.

The administrative setup of a science establishment is its core. Without addressing these concerns, India’s science establishment will continue to do injustice to its economic and strategic aspirations.

Question for practice:

What are the issues with India’s science management? What are the steps that can be taken to tackle these issues?