Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- Issues related to its developments.

Key phrases: India’s R&D expenditure, Publicly Funded, Poor education, Health and infrastructure, Weak protection of intellectual property rights, Nascent innovation ecosystems, National Research Foundation, New Education Policy, Scientific Research, SERB.

Why in News?

• NRF could be a game-changer by its intent of democratisation of the knowledge base.

India’s R&D Expenditure

• With very little participation from the private sector in the country that includes some of the richest by global standards, curiosity-driven basic research in India is primarily sustained by direct funding from the government.
• Still, it remains static in India and hovers between a paltry 0.6 to 0.8% of GDP over a decade, way below the United States, China, Japan, the European Union countries and South Korea. While India’s global R&D expenditure remains static at 1-3% of the global total, the U.S. and China accounted for 25% and 23%, respectively. This trend of under-funding is also reflected in the low proportion of qualified researchers available in India, considering its huge population.
• The World Bank statistics indicate that India had 255 researchers per million people in 2017 i.e. a minuscule fraction for its size and population, in contrast to 8,342 per million in Israel, 7,597 in Sweden and 7,498 in South Korea. Compared to 111 in the U.S. and 423 in China, India has only 15 researchers per 1, 00,000 population.

Reasons For Low Funding in Science In India:

• Firstly, a study showed that publicly funded research had no impact on economic activity for any OECD country i.e. all economy-stimulating innovation arose from private investment. Even if we accept the view that the benefits from public funding of research are higher, India still has only a few economy-stimulating technology breakthroughs from government-funded research.
• Second, compared to developed countries India has indirect factors that limit growth i.e.
  • Poor education
  • Health and infrastructure prevents broader engagement in research and development,
  • Weak protection of intellectual property rights discourages risk-taking.
  • Nascent innovation ecosystems are not yet able to train, mentor, and support researchers and innovators at scale.
• Another factor may be an ineffective allocation of research funds. As in many countries, research allocation in India has been increasingly focused on applied research and technologies. The underlying assumption is that such funding will lead to faster and more successful commercialization of new technologies, which can benefit the nation. However, little evidence suggests that allocation of government research funds affects whether a new technology will be successful.
• The budgetary allocations over the last several years show a consistent downward trend. Much of the total of the funding available goes to DRDO, Department of Space and Atomic Energy, leaving only 30 to 40% for agencies such as Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Importance of National Research Foundation:

• The NRF has important in the following way:
  • Seed, grow, and facilitate research at academic institutions, particularly at universities and colleges where research capacity is currently in a nascent stage, through mentoring of such institutions by eminent research scholars, by hiring excellent young research students, postdocs, and faculty, and by funding, strengthening, and growing already-existing high-quality programmes at such institutions.
  • Fund research infrastructure (e.g., computing facilities) at individual institutions as well as infrastructure such as laboratories and other research equipment that can be shared across multiple institutions.
  • Increase India’s role and participation in key areas of national and global importance, and in major national and international collaborations, through large-scale mission projects and megaprojects.
  • Support the development of the next generation of researchers and the long-term development of global-quality R&D through innovative initiatives in education, including enhancing the cognitive and R&D skills of students and new researchers through various online and offline courses, workshops, conferences, and summer programmes on topics of current research interest.
  • Recommend and support various activities and initiatives for increasing the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in research.

Way Forward:

• India cannot aspire to be a global leader in scientific research if enough funds are not injected into basic research by committing to raise the R&D spending to at least 1% of the GDP. It is also important for the private sector to chip in. But for that to happen, the government should incentivise the private players by giving them tax breaks, etc. The promise to set up NRF, independent of political interference, and the related financial commitment needs to be realised, that would go a long way to support extramural research in the universities.
• Another option is to upgrade the SERB (Science Engineering Research Board) to play the role assigned to the NRF. There are a lot of cues to be obtained from China on how it managed to become a world leader in scientific research. For all this to achieve, a foremost requirement is a dynamic R&D ecosystem, which India lacks today.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What do you understand by National Research Foundation? How it build research capacity in India? Examine. (250words)