NEW DELHI: India’s investment in research and development (R&D) has been continuously increasing over the years and more than doubled in the last 10 years. However, the country’s expenditure as a percentage of GDP remained between 0.6% to 0.7%, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
It was shared that India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a percentage of GDP is relatively much lower than other countries like China (2.4%), USA (3.5%), and Israel (5.4%).
Responding to a Parliament Question from Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT) from Maharashtra, the science & technology minister Jitendra Singh, in his written response, attributed the low percentage mainly to “relatively less investment by India’s private sector” into R&D. He noted that the government has taken several measures to increase investment in R&D, including private sector investments.
“Some of the key efforts include: successive increases in budget allocations, incentivising investment by the private sector to increase their share in GERD, creating avenues for collaborative STI funding through portfolio-based funding mechanisms such as Public Private Partnerships and other innovative hybrid funding mechanisms,” said the minister.
He said, “The Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH), set up under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), aim to boost technology development and innovation with the participation of startups.”
In addition, India also has joint R&D programmes through bilateral and multilateral agreements. Presently, India has bilateral S&T agreements with 90 countries. This includes active joint collaboration with 44 countries and multilateral groups such as the European Union, BRICS, Globalstars (EUREKA), QUAD, G20, HFSPO, EMBO, etc.
Besides, the ministry has also been supporting the Bilateral Industrial R&D Programme under MoU/Agreement with France, Germany, Israel, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and USA. “Through these Bilateral Industrial R&D programmes, Indian industries are encouraged to invest up to 50% of the total project cost with matching contributions from the government,” said Singh.
