Dr. Sharma added that analysing our achievements, potential and planning for the future are critical in coming anywhere near a global power in science and technology. "The details have not come to me yet. Whatever they plan, they plan it in certain paper work without having critical assessment, involvement of the universities and those research-oriented strategies have not taken over. This is the past experience that we have had. For example, we have been asking - has there been an assessment of the post-Pokharan-II event. After Pokaharn, based on what we achieved assessment should have been done but it didn't. Most of the research, 70 to 80 per cent, is diverted towards defence and nuclear development, which remains a secret. So we have no way to assess what was our capability at the present level so that can achieve in the next 20 years. So the goals in science and technology policy are flawed due to incompetency and non-proper assessment of our capabilities."

The UPA-II government is trying to give momentum to growth of science and technology to accelerate the pace of discovery, diffusion and delivery of science-led solutions for serving aspirational goals of India for faster, sustainable and inclusive growth. The latest policy document will set up ground rules towards these objectives.

The department of science and technology in a recent survey has suggested that Indian research should be diversified to emerging areas such as computer sciences and drug discovery rather than being grounded in traditional areas such as agriculture and tropical medicine, which receives substantial government funding.

An analysis carried out by the Thompson Reuters, too, suggests that the country's research portfolio showed strength in physical sciences, despite resources being dedicated to agricultural sciences and plant and animal sciences. During the 1980s and 90s the country's research output was virtually stagnant when other Asian nations overtook India.