Lack of solid investment: China overtakes India in scientific research

03 January, 2012

It is never too late to start. As the government had admitted that China has overtaken India in scientific research, it needs to start making solid investments in R&D to tap the immense talent pool here.

ONLY IF you admit and identify your mistakes, you stand a chance to succeed, is exactly what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has followed. While people across the nation take pride in boasting about the country’s scientific research, but PM Singh has admitted to a gathering in Odisha that ‘country’s relative position in the world of science had been declining and we have been overtaken by countries like China.

Speaking on the 99^th Indian national Science Congress at Bhubaneshwar, Singh’s speech meant to celebrate the scientific advances rather brought disillusionment as he admitted that India lags behind the world, according to The Times of India.

According to the Prime Minister, amount of GDP spent on R&D was very low but Singh suggested that there must be at least an increase of 1% in the total R&D spending. He also admitted the fact that one-fourth of research contribution came from private players which means that government has never been serious to invest in the much-needed sector.

"We have to increase public private partnerships and catalyse significantly increased interaction between publicly owned S&T institutions and industry," The Times of India quoted Singh.
Though, good news is that India has moved from the 15^th rank in 2003 to the 9^th rank in 2010 with respect to the number of publications in peer valued journals.

Another statement by a Union Science and Technology Minister, Vilasrao Deshmkh that China publishes five times more patents than India for every billion US dollars of GDP pointed out the least investment in the sector on the government front. While the government has developed some IT and cyber Parks, but there hasn’t been a substantial investment.

Another important aspect that has been taking a toll on the research front is that talented people, who opt for science, either change their careers or shift overseas for better prospects. People, who do doctorates in sciences, are jobless and they count in thousands. Though there are some societal issues as well but the main reason is the lack of avenues. The US and other countries keep tracking the most talented guys and lure them with massive packages.

The government needs to wake up to the occasion and tap the immense talent pool here by creating opportunities for them. This can either be done by developing research centres on its own or it can encourage private players to take up the job in partnership.