Substantial quantitative hike in science budget needs generational transformation...
Kindly consider following for the instance:
a) There is high-urgency to scale up the investment in frontier areas of scientific research and matching converging technology to that research like Material Sciences, Genomics and Bio-Medical, Renewable Energy Research and many areas likewise. We have not started to look towards many emerging possibilities of scientific research let alone the budgetary allocations.
b) Our scientific research budget even cannot be compared to budget of Multinational companies like Pharmacology company Pfizer which has research budget more than that of India`s total R&D budget.
c) The discovery of new drugs and their development into useful pharmaceuticals is central to the concept of medical progress. Remembering that Indian government has created separate Dept. of Medical Research and it has got 562 crores compared to 462 crores last year, the OSDD and other efforts of DSIR for invention of new drugs and pharmaceuticals; remains stand-still as Government allocations for drugs and pharmaceuticals research stands decreased from 100 crores in 2008-09 to 96 crores in 2009-10.
d) Remembering that Defense research has many civilian research spin-offs, fresh news report about Defense Minister's submission this month in Parliament reflects that for 70 % of Military technology and equipments procurement India is still dependent on foreign companies and self-reliance is still long way to go.
Different cheerful stories kept propping up about positive Philip Indian Government gave after the Annual Financial Proposal was tabled in Parliament in the first week of the month. “India hikes science budget despite slowdown” (Nature), “The Rebirth of Indian Science” (Business World), and “India pours funds into climate, space research” (Sci-Dev Net) have applauded Government on increase in science budgets.
India`s scientific research continues to rise to the occasion by realizing the challenges of fundamental research, link between research and undergraduate education, frontier areas of research in coming years. But looking at the the vast demography, expansive consumer market and rapidly growing higher education opportunities we are well behind the human resource development of all the sectors compared to the emerging and established countries in scientific research.
While Atomic Energy (from 1703 to 2730 crores), DRDO (from 3413 to 4787 crores), Space (from 2181 to 2828 crores) and Agriculture (from 2501 to 3135 crores) remain the pivotal sectors of Indian Scientific Research the new emerging areas are being given conscious attention. Climate Change, Ecology and Environment related investments are up from 682 to 955 crores while Oceanographic research will have it`s expanded share in the form of 519 crores up from 321 crores in 08-09.
Major thrust areas like Nano-science, Nanotechnology and Bio-Science and Bio-Technologies are witnessing transitional change in the national approach towards high-tech areas which are characterized by serious and expensive fundamental research. DST recently launched Energy Bio-sciences Research centre in University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. While National Mission on Nano-Science and Nanotechnology could not secure beyond 130 crores in 09-10 compared to what it got 145 crores in 09-10 the Department of Biotechnology also saw marginal increase from 821 to 912 crores in current fiscal.
Looking at the last three year trend by tracing the data provided by Statement I – Consolidated Fund Of India - Revenue Account – Disbursements estimates for 2007-08 FY were revised from 8596 Crores Rs. to 7321 Crores Rs. In 2008-09 this proposed allocation(unrevised) went on to become 9208 Crores Rs. This FY 09-10 sees the hike upto 12, 716 Crores Rs. There is one observed and uncomfortable indicator to the aspect of spending of Science budget allocations. Majority of the funds allocated to the basic and industrial science research are facing reduction in the following revised estimates compared to the other ‘Strategic’ sectors like Space, Atomic Energy and Defense which normally are spending more in revised estimates vis-a-vis other scientific bodies.
This raises two important questions. It is not entirely right to raise the doubt on efficiency of other scientific research institutions to spend money but it is observed that compared to the Strategic research institutions they are being little behind in comprehensive spending out of the allocated money. Secondly why we are not able to adapt to demand to initiate large scale public research programs and centers of excellence which will really address to the concern of apparently small but day to day problems of Indian life. Debate of Big Science and Little Science continues to harass the budgetary allocations whenever we watch the sharp divide between civilian and defense research balance tilting towards latter one.
While the trend in spending continues to be encouraging and there are some concrete reasons for the rejuvenation of research system due to the schemes which are launched rapidly in last two years such as formation of new central universities, new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Indian Institute of Technologies, National Science and Social Science Foundation (NS3F) as well as National Foundation for Science and Engineering (NFSE). With an annual budget of Rs 1,000 crore. On the front of Human Resource Development it should be noted that we are spending money but not significantly. There are scholarships of INSPIRE, Young Scientists Programe of DST/DBT, UGC-CSIR JRFs/SRFs but those are minuscule when we look at the negative enrollment, completion and progress reports of the science students throughout their journey in graduation, post graduation and at research level. Government must devote extraordinary attention towards HRD in Science-Technology-Innovation because no committed research is possible unless and untill bright incentives are provided at early age.
India will not be able to respond confidently to the policy changes are being taken worldwide if we do not address the problem of research funding at two levels. Firstly Our failure in motivating private sector to contribute their money towards research is hampering the development of fundamental research in our public funded research institutions. Considering the pros and cons of the debate associated with “Utilization and Commercialization of Public Funded Research Bill 2008” it should be emphasized that new mode of knowledge production will arrive only when Govt-University-Industry will actively work when the fundamental research is directly linked to entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development of the nation based on the supportive funds provided by governments. Enactment of ‘Science and Engineering Research Board’ in Dec. 2008 was very positive development in this regard.
Secondly, we have to establish and fund more research alliances and knowledge networks in order to make cascading effect out of investment in HRD consisting of more and more Ph.Ds, These formal and informal research networks must be empowered by government in order to inspire themselves for more steps in the direction towards venture capital Culture. These people then will really come up with valuable suggestions on how we can transform the picture of spending in Scientific Research will move forward from 0.8 % of GDP to ahead compared to 3.1 % of Japan, 2.7% of USA, 2.5 % of Korea and 1.2 % of China.
National Knowledge Commission has amplified this already magnified problem of HRD in these words: “ If India is to make the transition to a Knowledge economy, it is therefore vital that research and development within the country be dramatically improved. There is ample evidence that India is not well-placed for this future transformation. For example, in many disciplines, there is already a severe shortage of well-trained young doctorates to fill in existing posts in research institutes and universities. This problem is likely to be even more acute in the envisaged elite new universities.” In this respect it should be noted that proposal for Scholarships in Science in Higher Education is lowered by 85 crores in 08-09 budget to mere 40 crores in 09-10 Financial Statement.
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