India to triple expenditure on science research

[Water Car Engineer]

NEW DELHi: India will triple spending on research and development related to science and technology during the Twelfth Five Year Plan starting April this year, Minister of State for Science and Technology Ashwani Kumar said Tuesday.

"The prime minister has approved a vastly enhanced capital outlay for research in science and technology. The expenditure in the sector will be almost tripled from Rs.33,000 crore in the Eleventh Five Year Plan to around Rs.90,000 crore in the Twelfth Five Year Plan," Kumar said on the occasion of National Science Day.

He said India would be allocating two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for research in science and technology in the Five Year Plan from April 2012-March 2017 against the current spending of 0.98 percent.

The ministry has also taken steps to ensure much larger contribution by private sector in research and development expenditure.

"In majority of countries, private sector contributes two-thirds of total expenditure in research in science and technology while public sector gives one-third. But in India, it is reverse as majority of funding comes from government and this needs to be changed," he said.

The minister said he had held meetings with top companies to address the issue and a task force has been set up.

India to triple expenditure on science research - The Economic Times

 

[CarbonD]

how much is 1 crore in millions?? Never encountered them before

 

[Invincible INDIAN]

Not only budget but they need to bring faith in institutions like IIT too.

 

[TalkToMe:D]

how much is 1 crore in millions?? Never encountered them before

1 crore = 10 million

 

[Foo_Fighter]

hmmm.... good move to sum it up.

With the emergence of PPP as a successful concept where both Government and Private sectors reaping the objectives (better system & profits respectively), I believe with the growing private sector contribution (based on economy growth), government made the right move to ensure significant influx of resources to be a healthy partner.

I am sure some people will talk about corruption getting a larger share now, however it does not matter since both will have a ratio and when quantity goes higher the gross implication becomes beneficial for both good and evil. To ensure that evil side (corruption) has least share... the Government needs to get better processes which are more scientific in Nature to ensure lesser human elements in the overall growth. I am sure a more stable India in long run is what neighbors also want and vice versa.

 

[illusion8]

If India could influence reverse brain drain that would be enough, the talent working outside India is phenomenal to say the least. Get those scientists, researchers, technicians, engineers, doctors, nurses, finance whiz kids, Management gurus back to India. All fortune 500 companies have a bunch of Indians in the top echelons. Given the right scope and opportunities there will be a flood of extreme Indian talent returning back to base. The trend is in motion albeit slow.

 

[shiv]

great development. The real strength of a country lies in its Research Environment and Technology innovation. INDIA is looking forward to galloping ahead in this field with the renewed influx of money...

 

[manofwar]

1 crore=$200000
so, 90000crore=18 billion$!!!

 

[sherindian]

List of Indian Americans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

this is just the list of indian americans there are many more in the world.
4 nobel prize winners
100s of proffessors and scientists and mathematicians
15 deans of top schools in us like harvard and cornell

this is a a big loss but i am sure soon or later brain drain will stop.

 

[Shaurya]

It's shameful that a science oriented country like ours doesn't spend much on research and all that, good news ...

 

[Tshering22]

If India could influence reverse brain drain that would be enough, the talent working outside India is phenomenal to say the least. Get those scientists, researchers, technicians, engineers, doctors, nurses, finance whiz kids, Management gurus back to India. All fortune 500 companies have a bunch of Indians in the top echelons. Given the right scope and opportunities there will be a flood of extreme Indian talent returning back to base. The trend is in motion albeit slow.

That will need a lot of things:

- Conducive environment for research

With a jealous attitude of what typical Indian bosses have on employee individual achievement, most of these NRI Indians living outside India and tasted good success, will not appreciate such immature and unwanted attitude.

- Acceptance by red tape agencies

Most government agencies taht control the aspects of dual use tech are still working in the same fashion as they used to in 60s. That has to change.

- Money Talks

Salary structure in India is extremely low compared to what these scientists, engineers etc earn in the other countries apart from comfortable lifestyle. Taxation on salaries is brutally punitive in India and without any returns of any benefits from our "wonderful" governments.

So if you throw the question around to these NRIs, they'd be like "Ha! you're talking money and luring huh?".

Unless these 3 among a large number of other parameters change, we will never get the level of inflow from outside that we need.

For this, entire country and entire society has to change.

 

[zip]

The best news i have heard from this govt .. They should have done it in 12th planning commission

 

[StingRoy]

Simply increasing the budget is not going to solve the issues that universities face. There are several factors which needs to be tackled. There is an incredible amount of bureaucracy involved in our institutions which is the reason of frustration, delays and nepotism.

One of my friends who returned from the US joined one of the top IITs as an asst prof, but he got so frustrated with the system that he decided to return. For every little procurement (like a lab equipment, laptop or a software license) he had to go run after the administrative personnel and fill out umpteen forms... after which they would invite tenders and by the time the tenders are cleared and the vendor selected almost the whole year is over with and the research scholars have moved on with some other topic. It is not just the situation in the IITs, but in various other premier universities in the country. I bet no one is even trying to make this process simpler while planning their budgets.

Throwing money at a problem cannot solve all the issues we currently face.

 

[God of Death]

US$ 18 billion each year for the Science Research is very good news

And private sector already spends tens of billions separately from their own resources.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Lets see what change it can bring . We need to start innovating things as our ancestors did in Ancient times rather than just making cheap copies of the existing technologies for the poor .