The announcement in the interim Budget for 2024-25, of a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore to bolster the research and innovation ecosystem within the country, has sparked enthusiasm within the scientific and research communities. The decision to rebrand the slogan, ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ (by Lal Bahadur Shastri) to ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan’ (A.B. Vajpayee) to now ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan’ (by the Prime Minister) is intended to reinforce the foundation of research and innovation for development. The significance of research and innovation cannot be overstated in fuelling economic growth, technological advancement, and global competitiveness. However, to fully realise the impact, it is crucial to assess the current research and development (R&D) funding landscape in India and its resulting output. This entails examining India’s comparatively lower R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP alongside its noteworthy output in terms of patent grants, PhDs awarded, and publication outputs. Analysing the quality of this output is equally imperative in understanding the true implications of these initiatives.
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India’s R&D is witnessing significant growth, with a notable increase in Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) from ₹6,01,968 million in 2010-11 to ₹12,73,810 million in 2020-21. However, with research and development investment as a percentage of GDP standing at 0.64%, India falls behind major developed and emerging economies such as China (2.4%), Germany (3.1%), South Korea (4.8%) and the United States (3.5%).
