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Waking Up To R&D Needs:UNFETTERED FISCAL AID TO INSTITUTIONS, by Dhurjati Mukherjee, 9 Feb 2009 Print E-mail

Events & Issues

New Delhi, 9 February 2009

Waking Up To R&D Needs

UNFETTERED FISCAL AID TO INSTITUTIONS

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

India plans to set up a quasi-independent panel to fund and promote research in science and engineering. The panel to be called the National Science & Engineering Board (NSERB) will be modelled on the lines of the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the US. The Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister had recommended the setting up such a body some time back, but is finally now expected to provide unfettered financial assistance to academic institutions, including universities, research laboratories and industrial concerns.   

It may be mentioned here that the NSF, the model for the Board, was created as an independent federal agency by the US Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare; to secure the national defence in America”. It has an annual budget of over $ 6 billion and funds 20 per cent of all federally-sponsored fundamental science research at universities and colleges across the US. Annually it funds around 10,000 new research projects and the NSF-funded researchers have over 170 Nobel Prizes.

Dr.  Manmohan Singh’s zeal to promote scientific education and research in the country is manifest with his asking universities and individual scientists to foster a research environment. “It is teachers and researchers who inspire new generations ….We need a new generation of role models and leaders”. While pointing out the government’s determination to invest more into research, specially in space and nuclear programmes, Dr. Singh has called on the private sector to spare adequate funds in this regard. “We need a new wave of such investment from the private sector so that our young people will be encouraged increasingly to seek a career in science.”   

Research in science and engineering has become very crucial at this juncture as the country is headed towards being a leading knowledge-based economy in the coming years. Funding in research is, no doubt, a problem as the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Deptt. of Science & Technology (DST) take a long time to clear project proposals. The universities also have difficulty in mobilizing adequate financial and intellectual resources which, in turn, hampered research. On the other hand, industry- based research is extremely limited and is invariably market-oriented.  

Although our science and technology policy advocated pubic-private partnership in research, industry’s contribution remains just about 20 per cent as compared to around 70-80 per cent in advanced countries and 40 per cent in China. It is indeed intriguing why the Indian private sector has been unable to contribute to R&D compared to their counterparts in South Korea and Singapore, not to speak of the Western nations. Except for the Tata group and another one or two in the pharmaceutical sector, the contribution of even the market leaders in industry towards research has been quite poor. The industry-wise, R&D expenditure too has not been encouraging except, of course, for the pharma and IT sectors.

On its part, the Centre has asked the States to prepare a vision document of their science councils and prepare a specific action plan. The Centre would bear the cost of identification and preparation of the action plans by the States which would then be put together for a national perspective that would take note of region-specific needs. According to the Union S&T minister, Kapil Sibal, such synergy was needed to bridge the gap between developing science and creating a scientific manpower base.

Simultaneously, realizing the imperative need to give a boost to science education and attract more students in this field, the Scientific Advisory Council’s recommendation to the Prime Minister is now expected to become a reality, with a few new institutes of science, and some more in the offing, already set up. The proposals come with some hefty price tags: Rs 500 crore for each of the institutes and Rs 1,000 crore for the Board to fund basic research in the universities. The obvious goal is to inject more money into science, create more centres of excellence and gear up the pace and quality of basic and applied research.

The current emphasis is obviously on basic sciences which, over the years, have not received the attention it deserved even compared to technical education. At the same time, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) recommended setting up the National Science & Mathematics Commission to achieve the target of making India a hub of scientific knowledge and encourage research. In engineering also, the government has increased the seats of the IITs and few more has been created, out of which around four have already started functioning.  

But the big question is whether the decline in research standards in Indian universities would be checked and whether our scientists would not migrate to the West. Another question that would need to be borne in mind is the type of research being conducted, mainly in the specialized institutes, which generally did not have a direct bearing on society. While the standards of research would have to meet international levels, the orientation of such research should benefit society, specially in a country like ours, beset with various problems.   

The government’s concern at this juncture cannot be doubted and quite justifiably so as the country aims at achieving international standards and become globally competitive in the coming years. The warning of ‘acting now’ has been rightly sounded and this has resulted in implementing the action plan at the highest level.

Objectives too have been put in place. These are: selected and the deserving to be handsomely funded so that they attain international standards; demand performance from individuals and institutions after providing necessary funds; initiate a massive programme of rejuvenation of State and Central universities; encourage top talent from all corners of the country to enter the field of pure science and also encourage young scientists in research work in all possible ways; and provide freedom of operation to scientists, universities and scientific institutions and make available adequate funds for research.

Clearly, scientific innovations in key areas such as power (nuclear power), defence, nanotechnology, pharma, IT, climate change and even security and pandemics are imperative for the country at this juncture. To emerge as a world leader in the true sense, there is need for sustained research in the above areas, responsibility for which has to be shared jointly by the government and the private sector. For a country to emerge big and strong, R&D has to be given priority. Importantly, more funds need to be allocated for this purpose under different heads so that the benefits of research reach society, both rural and urban and industrial and agricultural. --INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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