The Union Cabinet’s approval for setting up the National Research Foundation (NRF) with a Rs 50,000-crore fund to promote research is an important initiative in a crucial area of knowledge and development. The decision has actually come late. The NRF is conceived as an apex body to “promote, fund and mentor scientific research in higher education institutions across the country”. India’s research capabilities in all areas, especially in science and technology, are poor and too inadequate for a country of our size, talent, economic status and ambitions. While the overall standards are low compared to the world in most of our educational institutions, the quantum and quality of research done there is still worse. We are way behind other countries in the matter of original inventions and the number of patents filed. The low spending on research is one reason for this. While China spends about 2.6 per cent of its GDP on research and plans to increase it by 7 per cent every year, India’s spending is only 0.66 per cent of our much smaller GDP. There are private companies abroad that spend more on research than we as a nation do.
The NRF with a perspective for a five-year period from 2023 to 2028, is therefore a good start. It aims to “impact Indian universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories” and to “forge collaboration between the industry, academia, government departments, and research institutions”. India’s private sector is not known for its keenness and capabilities for research. In most countries, the private sector leads the way and there are close linkages between the industry and educational institutions and among different sectors in the matter of research. The 2020 New Education Policy (NEP) had proposed that close links should be established between teaching and research institutions. The NRF will hopefully enable this. There are large areas in agriculture, industry, environment, climate, etc., where the country has needs and problems that are specific to it. The solutions have to be found within the country.
Standards of education have to improve from the schools onwards to make good research possible at higher levels. Basic science should get more attention and encouragement, and decisions like removing the theory of evolution from the syllabus do not send out good signals in that respect. Scientific temper should be promoted and the habit of questioning and the right to criticise established authority in any field should be encouraged. Creativity and innovation thrive only in an environment of freedom. The fact that the NRF will have the Prime Minister as its ex-officio chairman shows the importance the government attaches to it. But it should not be a bureaucratic body and should have sufficient autonomy to be effective.