Research funding in India continues to face challenges, primarily due to limited contributions from the private sector. While the government remains the dominant source of funding, foreign agencies also play a role.
However, the Indian private sector’s involvement remains minimal, according to a recent study by researchers from the University of Delhi and Banaras Hindu University, which has yet to be peer-reviewed.
Declining Gross Expenditure on Research and Development
India’s gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) has been on the decline.
In 2008, GERD accounted for 0.9% of the country’s GDP, but by 2021, this figure had decreased to 0.64%. There has been a persistent call to increase GERD to over 2% of GDP, a target that remains unmet.
Analyzing Research Funding Trends
The study, commissioned by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, aimed to understand the sources of funding for technical publications.
Researchers analyzed publications between 2011 and 2022, totaling 920,284 papers, to determine how many acknowledged funding support and where it came from.
Funding Acknowledgment in Indian Publications
Of the total publications analyzed, only 54.79% acknowledged receiving funding. This is significantly lower than other countries such as China (86.48%), Japan (71.13%), and developed nations like the US, Germany, and the UK, where the average acknowledgment rate stands at 68%.
The proportion of funded publications in India initially rose from 49.93% in 2011 to 57.83% in 2018, but it later declined to 52.68% by 2022.
Government Dominates
The study revealed that most of the funding in Indian research comes from Indian agencies, with 87.63% of publications receiving support from these organizations.
Additionally, 73.6% of the research was funded by foreign agencies.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) emerged as the top funder, contributing to 22.48% of the research publications.
A report from DST highlighted that the Indian government accounts for 43.7% of funding toward research and development, whereas the private sector’s contribution stands at only 36.4%.
A Global Comparison
The study points out that in contrast to India, many developed countries receive more funding from the private sector than the government.
This highlights a critical gap in India’s research funding model, which relies heavily on public sources.
As reported by thehindubusinessline.com, the need for greater involvement from the Indian private sector is clear, as it is a major contributor to research funding in countries like the US, Germany, and the UK.
