Patralekha Chatterjee | To develop India, spend on R&D, let diversity flourish

Prime Minister Modi now has more political space to do what he wishes to do. The poll results have hugely boosted the morale of the party cadre and strengthened his hand.

If this widely accepted hypothesis is correct, then it is on us, the citizens of India, to demand that all that is framed as part of vision statements are implemented and issues that do not typically feature in poll speeches but are critical to India are addressed.

A key theme is the Narendra Modi government’s vision of India turning into a developed nation, or “Viksit Bharat”, by 2047. One key requirement to reach this goal is ramping up research and development (R&D). The Economic Survey 2023-24 drew attention to India’s progress in R&D, noting a significant uptick in patents and better global rankings. But the country’s investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP remains quite poor.

“India spent 0.64 per cent of its GDP on R&D in 2020-21, while the same amongst other developing Brics countries was Brazil (1.3 per cent), Russian Federation (1.1 per cent), China (2.4 per cent), and South Africa (0.6 per cent). Most of the developed countries spent more than two per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on R&D,” according to Research and Develo-pment Statistics 2022-23, brought out by the Union government’s ministry of science and technology.

In India, GERD (Gross Expenditure on Research and Development) is mainly driven by the government. The Central Government contributed 43.7 per cent of the R&D budget in 2020-21, state governments 6.7 per cent, higher educational institutions 8.8 per cent, and public sector industry 4.4 per cent and the private sector 36.4 per cent.

In stark contrast to this 36.4 per cent, enterprises spend 77 per cent of R&D expenditure in China and around 75 per cent in the United States. This indicates a need for greater corporate engagement in research and innovation.

Now, change appears to be in the air here.

The interim Budget for 2024-25 announced allocation of a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus for R&D, marking an important step in India’s journey towards becoming a global leader in innovation. This infusion of funds is expected to foster progress in diverse fields such as technology, healthcare, academia and the environment and strengthen India’s position in the global research ecosystem.

India has enacted the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) 2023 Act to foster a R&D culture. The act empowers the ANRF board headed by the Prime Minister to provide high-level strategic direction. It also seeks to bring together universities, R&D institutions, government departments and industry for basic and applied research. India has 165 institutes of national importance. However, most of the institutions face a challenge to get funding for basic research.

India’s renewed interest in fostering a R&D culture is good news but it is too early to predict how this will impact the research and development landscape in the country and which areas will be the most impacted.

If we are talking about becoming a developed nation, we must closely examine what we do and what developed nations do. The number of researchers per million people in India has gone up to 262 in 2020 from 255 in 2017 and 110 in 2000 but India still has a relatively small number of researchers per million inhabitants compared to the US (4,245) and China (1,225).

Some areas like drugs and pharmaceuticals dominate R&D spending. But even there, Indian companies typically spend 5-6 per cent of their revenues on R&D, compared to 15-20 per cent by global pharma giants. Traditionally, India’s industry has tilted towards research output that can be immediately commercialised. However, it is universally accepted that basic research remains the cornerstone of advanced level research. India has typically bought technology for many industries. This partially explains why the Atma Nirbhar Bharat story has faced so many bumps.

The quality of research is a critical issue. Despite improvements, India’s share of high-quality research articles in peer-reviewed academic journals remains significantly lower than that of China and the US. Historically, institutions of higher education in India have focused mainly on teaching and research has remained peripheral to numerous institutions.

Given this background, more funds for research are undoubtedly welcome but there is another critical issue which needs attention — freedom to speak out boldly and fearlessly. Researchers must aim to tell the truth, even if doing so risks making one’s superiors or institution look bad. Freedom to voice a view is as critical for research in physical sciences as in social sciences.

As famous bioethicist David Resnik once observed that “freedom of speech is one of science’s most important norms. People must have freedom of thought and speech to generate different points of view. Progress cannot occur if the majority uses its power to suppress minority viewpoints. Placing restrictions on communication can alter scientific work and can have a negative impact on the research environment”. Freedom of speech, Dr Resnik noted, is “important for educating and informing the public about scientific issues with policy implications. People need to hear different perspectives to develop well-informed and cogent opinions about policy issues”.

“Science works because we commit to a method of discovery, there is agreement on what counts as evidence, and, most importantly, we are incentivised to show others that they are wrong. It is a collective act that slowly converges on the truth. But our findings can only be trusted if we are free to find the opposite to whatever current political sentiments suggest is the right answer,” says Michael Muthukrishna, an associate professor of economic psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We are Going.

Research marks progress, new knowledge, new insights that can benefit the public at large. And progress comes out of a churn of diverse points of view. It needs freedom from fear — fear of failure and fear to dissent.