R&D Spending In India Less Than China And Brazil: Education Ministry

As per latest Research and Development (R&D) statistics released by the National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the expenditure in India tripled during the period from 2004-05 to 2014-15. However, its size as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remained at 0.7 per cent as compared to 4.3% in Israel, 2 per cent in China and 1.2 per cent in Brazil, said Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' today in Parliament.

The minister said the less amount of investment by the private sector is one of the reasons India stays behind.

"One of the reasons is less investment by the private sector on R&D, which accounts for 65% to 75% of the total R&D investment in most technologically advanced countries of the world as compared to only about 30 per cent in India," the minister said.

According to the minister, Government of India has taken a number of initiatives to enhance investment in R&D as well as to promote and improve the overall research eco-system in the country. 

These include Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY), which promotes industry sponsored, outcome-oriented research with an outlay of Rs.475.00 crore. 

25% of the funds under UAY are contributed by the Industry. 

Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) focuses on socially relevant research in higher educational institutions with a budget provision of Rs.487 crore. 

Establishment of 9 research parks at a total cost of Rs.775 crore, 8 of them being in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and one in Indian Institute of Science (IISc). 

These research parks will propel innovation through incubation and joint research between academia and industry. 

Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme launched with an outlay of Rs.1650 crore incentivises the most meritorious students to pursue research in the frontier areas of science & technology by offering attractive rates of fellowship from Rs.70,000/- to Rs.80,000/- per month in addition to research grant of Rs.2.00 lakh per year for five years.

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