Context:
The government has plans to set up a National Research Foundation (NRF) with an aim to catalyse and energise research and innovation across all academic disciplines, particularly at the university and college levels.
Relevance:
GS Paper 3: Achievements of Indians in S&T; Indigenisation of technology & development of new technology.
Mains Questions:
- Discuss the features of the National Research Foundation. Also, Assess the role of National Research Foundation to catalyse research and innovation in India. 15 Marks
- Scientific research in Indian universities is declining, because a career in science is not as attractive as our business operations, engineering or administration, and the universities are becoming consumer oriented. Critically comment. 15 Marks
Dimensions of the Article
- Status of scientific research in India
- Issues related to scientific research in India
- Measures taken by the government
- Way forward
Status of scientific research in India
Scientists at Stanford University, led by John Ioannidis, have created a database of 1,59,683 (top 2%) scientists of the world , based on standard indicators such as information on citations, h-Index, co-authorship and a composite indicator.
- This database has largely depended on the citation index provided by resource databases such as Scopus and Web of Science.
- It is based on the number of research papers published, the number of times the author has been cited and the h-index, which is a measure of the impact of an author’s work and other people’s research.
- There is no other database that systematically ranks all the scientists across the world with such accuracy and depth. From India, 1,594 Indians have made it to the list of top 2% scientists in the world.
- India ranks 6th position for scientific publications and ranks at 10th for patents which included only resident applications.
- India has improved its innovation ranking from 29 spots in Global Innovation Index in last five years from 81th position in 2014 to 52th position in 2019.
- India is among the topmost countries in the world in the field of scientific research, positioned as one of the top five nations in the field of space exploration.
- According to WIPO, India is the seventh largest patent filing office in the World.
Issues related to scientific research in India
- Funding Issue: According to Economic Survey (2018), India’s R&D funding has been stagnant for two decades at around 0.7% of GDP. Developed countries spend more than 2% of GDP on R&D. Bulk of the spending, especially for basic research, comes from the government and a large section of the country’s public research is concentrated in national research centres.
- Participation of Private sector: India’s private sector spends less than 0.2% of GDP on R&D.
- Lack of Opportunity: India has employed only 40 researchers per lakh labour force for the last decade as compared to USA’s 790 per lakh of their labour force.
- A disconnect between labs and academia: There is limited coordination between colleges and research facilities. Apart from PhD students hardly anyone is seen in labs conducting research. The academic ambience in many universities does not encourage the research pursuits of faculties. Research management is another very serious problem.
- Less Attractive Option: Many Indian students prefer to major in engineering rather than science, because of the promise of lucrative industrial career opportunities. According to National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), less than three per cent of school-going children want to pursue a career in science in India.
- No uniform policy: Government has not yet come up with a uniform and integrated policy for research and development which could aggregate the efforts of various institutes.
Measures taken by the government
- The National Research Foundation (NRF) will be set-up as autonomous body envisaged under the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Considered to be one of the biggest announcements under NEP, it will look after funding, mentoring, and building ‘quality of research’ in India. The NRF aims to fund researchers working across streams in India.
- Prime Minister Research Fellows (PMRF): It is a public-private partnership (PPP) between Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which aims to improve the quality of research by attracting the best talents across the country and reduce brain drain.
- Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS): It aims to identify and fund research proposals in social sciences with maximum impact on the governance and society.
- Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC): It aims to boost joint research with global universities from 28 countries and get international expertise to solve major national problems, train Indian students in the best laboratories, deepen academic engagement and improve the international ranking of Indian Institutes.
- Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT): It is a national initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which aims to address engineering challenges in 10 technology domains relevant to India through an inclusive and sustainable mode.
- Atal Innovation Mission: It is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country, based on a detailed study and deliberations on innovation and entrepreneurial needs of India in the years ahead.
- STARS Scheme (Scheme for Translational and Advanced Research in Science): Under this, 500 science projects would be funded.
Way Forward:
The National Research Foundation paves the way for a self-reliant India while advocating merit-based but equitable peer-reviewed research funding, an incentivisation of research, and to usher in a new culture of research and development in the country. Despite certain limitations, the announcement of the NEP and the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan may enable the country to redraw the contours of research beyond the conventional disciplines. The report by Stanford University provides the impetus to Indian scientists to reach international standards.
