If India is to attain the status of Viksit Bharat by the year 2047, its foundation has to be laid on strong research and innovation in science, technology, artificial intelligence, health, education, service delivery, governance and solution of various social issues. This way alone, India can compete in global markets by producing world class goods and services for export and domestic markets which will benefit the economy. National security is also dependent upon latest technology in defense which we import from other countries at a huge cost and increasing our vulnerabilities in critical times. Without being self-reliant in technology the dream of Viksit Bharat cannot be fully realized.

The current scenario in innovation and research is far from satisfactory. Numerically, India is the third largest contributor of Ph.D thesis in the world with 40000-50000 Ph.D theses every year, while USA produces 55,000–60,000 Ph.Ds/year while China with 70,000–80,000+ Ph.Ds/year is at first place. The majority of research output (50-60%) in India is in science and engineering disciplines with social science contributing 15-20% and humanities, commerce and other fields contributing the remaining. The thesis output has increased from 25000-30000/year since 2015-16 to 40000-50000/year due to government funding, UGC regulations and mandatory Ph.D for faculty positions. Majority of theses come from Central and State universities, IITs and IISc. However, despite an increase in number of doctoral theses, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis regarding quality. The quantity of research output which is not matched by improvements in research standards and global relevance is not commercially useful. Sweden, Switzerland, USA, South Korea and Germany are innovation leaders and these countries invest more than 3% of GDP in R&D compared to 0.7% of GDP by India. USA leads in research to patent linked output in science. India, on the other hand, has low patent conversion. The main reasons for India lagging in innovation conversion are weak industry-academia collaboration, focus on quantity over quality, limited funding for product development, poor commercialization ecosystem etc.

The research quality can be evaluated from the fact that no Indian has ever won the Nobel in Science since C.V. Raman (1930) while working in India. Others like Har Gobind Khorana, Subrahmanyan Chanrasekhar and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan pursued their Nobel winning research outside India. In top innovation countries, universities, industry and government are inter-connected, whereas in India, universities are often isolated without any industry or government involvement in research.

A case in point is MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) which has strong industry collaboration with focus on applied and commercial research leading to 25-30% research projects having commercialization potential, 10-15% leading to patents and 3-5% becoming startups. More than 30000 active companies have been founded by the alumni of MIT alone.

In India, majority of research is academic and repetitive. Only a small fraction of research is for innovation and problem solving. The financial or non-financial incentives were so framed that it facilitated quantity of research than high risk high impact research. For instance, earlier advance increments were given to lecturers if they completed Ph.D, which involved huge financial implications in increased salary and pension benefits. Promotion is also linked to the number of research papers published. Therefore, the focus is on volume of work done rather than the quality of work. Similarly, research scholars get fellowship for conducting research. Although these research scholars are funded from public money, there is no interaction with government or civil society for selection of research topic. Majority of research scholars prefer academic topics due to structural and institutional challenges. There is no support from government departments in data collection. Even routine information is not provided. There is trust deficit on both the sides.

We need to create an ecosystem of research in our universities for providing solutions to various problems faced by industry, government and society. Topic selection should be in close coordination with industry and government departments. Health, education, agriculture, water supply and sanitation, environment, justice delivery, artificial intelligence, science and technology and many social issues including drug addiction and rehabilitation of addicts after deaddiction should be prioritized areas of research so that meaningful policies could be framed on the basis of empirical data.

India needs to increase spending on R&D to at least 2% of GDP. Certain steps need to be taken to incentivize quality research in universities and research institutions for creating an environment of innovation and commercial use. Universities should work in close coordination with the government and the industry for research and development and for third party evaluation of research work to ensure transparency and accountability of research. Industry ought to be provided additional tax and non-tax incentives for funding quality research leading to patents or startups. The financial incentives to researchers by the government, in the form of advance increments or otherwise should be linked with implementable solutions and implemented patents. Financial incentives and career advancement opportunities should be provided to all the employees if research leads to implemented solutions of problems faced by government or society and leads to patents. Policies should be so framed that these encourage qualitative research over quantitative one. Once ecosystem of research is created, India may become innovation hub of the world. / DAILY WORLD /

( The author is a retired IAS officer reachable at nayarh@yahoo.com.)