How will Modi’s ‘Jai Anusandhan’ be possible? India is 10 times behind this ant-like country in research

New Delhi: India’s area is about 33 lakh square km and Israel’s area is just 22 thousand square km. If we look at the area in terms of both, India is 150 times bigger than Israel. Israel is also far behind us in terms of population. But we do not need to be too proud. Israel is 10 times ahead of us in terms of producing scientists, making new discoveries and spending on research and development. We spend only 0.65 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), whereas Israel spends the most in the world in this matter, i.e. 5.67 percent. India’s position in this matter is far behind even small countries like South Korea and Japan. So the question is how much truth is there in the Prime Minister’s claim which he/she recently said that there will be no shortage of resources for research for scientists. Will top-class research be possible in the country with a budget of just Rs 65 thousand crores? Let’s know the reality.

What assurance has PM Modi given to the scientists

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the scientific community should be confident that there will be no shortage of resources for research. In the first meeting of the governing body of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), Modi said that research should focus on finding new solutions to existing problems. This solution should be local according to Indian needs. PM Modi added Jai Anusandhan to the already running slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan. At the same time, recently in the 54th meeting of the GST Council led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it has been decided to keep research grants out of the scope of GST.
Delhi, Punjab’s wish has been fulfilled… Now there is no GST on research grant, know whose victory is it that Atishi told

A notice of Rs 220 crore was sent to 6 educational institutions

In August, the central government had sent a tax notice of Rs 220 crore on research grants to 6 big educational institutions of the country. These included IIT, Delhi and Punjab University. In the GST Council meeting, it was discussed whether it is right to impose GST on research grants. In Punjab and Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party said that the central government is continuously reducing the research grants given from its budget. In 2014, the central government used to give Rs 70 thousand crore every year for research grants, whereas now only Rs 35 thousand crore is being given for research grants.

What is the current situation, most of the expenditure is on defense and nuclear energy

According to data from the Research and Development Division of the Department of Science and Technology, India’s total investment in research and development in 2020-21 reached USD 17.2 billion, or about Rs 1.42 lakh crore. Of this amount, about 54% (USD 9.4 billion) was given to the government sector, which is mainly used by four major scientific agencies. Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) (30.7%), Department of Space (18.4%), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) (12.4%) and Department of Atomic Energy (11.4%).

How will research be successful when the budget is low?

India’s expenditure on research and development has been much less than in the past years. In 2020-21, this expenditure was Rs 1,27,380 crore. Whereas in 2010-11 it was around Rs 60 thousand crore. In 2019, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council had advised to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on research and development in the country.

States are not interested in research and are given less money

According to a study on the budget of RBI’s ‘State Finances: 2023-24’, research is not a priority for most states. In this study, only 10 out of 36 states and union territories showed interest in it. The annual expenditure on research was also very low in most states. That is, it was only 0.09% of the state GDP. Rajasthan was ahead in this.

India will have to spend 3% of GDP by 2047

Many experts of the country say that India should spend at least 1 percent of its total GDP every year on research and development. This figure should reach 3 percent by 2047. Former ISRO scientist Vinod Kumar Srivastava says that if India has to become a global leader in the field of science and research, then it must spend 3 percent of the GDP. Right now there is a need to work more on research in the field of space, agriculture and digital, for which the government should give a lot of budget.

There are only 265 researchers in India for a population of 1 million

According to the data, there are only 265 researchers per 10 lakh population in India, which is much less than countries like America, Britain, China, South Korea and Japan. According to the 2022 data of the Department of Science and Technology, India (40,813) is at third place after America and China in terms of doing PhD. Vinod Kumar Srivastava says that these figures show that the situation is not very good. We need to do a lot in this direction.

India’s position is not good even in BRICS

Apart from this, India’s position in this matter is not good even among the BRICS countries. As per 2020-21, India was spending a total of 0.64 percent of GDP in this matter. On the other hand, Brazil was spending 1.3 percent, Russia 1.1 percent, China 2.4 percent and South Africa 0.60 percent.

India is also far behind in terms of patents

India is also far behind in patenting new discoveries and inventions. In 2022, India was at the sixth position in the world in this matter. Only 30,490 patents of India were approved in 2022. At the same time, during this period, 3.23 lakh patents were filed in America, about 8 lakh in China, 2 lakh in Japan, 1.35 lakh in South Korea.

America and Korea are ahead in publishing research

India was among the leading countries in terms of research publications. More than 3 lakh research and studies were published in India. More than 15 lakh such research were published in America. Whereas, 9.8 lakh research were published in China. More than 1 lakh research papers were published in South Korea. 2.8 lakh research were published in Britain. In this matter, India was ranked third after America and China. Vinod Shrivastava says that a lot of research is done in India, but most of it is just in name. Only a few useful research are done. Some want to become professors, some want to do something else. There is less work related to research.

In which areas was most research done?

According to Science and Engineering Indicators, 2022, the highest number of research papers in India were published in the field of Computer and Information Science (18 per cent). This is followed by Engineering (17 per cent), Health Sciences (16 per cent), Biological and Biomedical Sciences (12 per cent), Physics (11 per cent) and Chemistry (08 per cent).

Women have increased in the field of research, but are lagging behind men

In terms of research and development, as of April 1, 2021, 5.55 lakh employees were working in the field of research and development in India. Of these, 3.62 lakh employees were directly working in the field of research. Of these, 67,441 were women. The number of women has doubled in the last 20 years. While the participation of women in this sector was 13 percent in 2001, it increased to 25 percent by 2020. In terms of numbers, 848 women were principal investigators, while 232 women were in support.