The role of research and development in nation-building is crucial, for it accelerates economic growth and global competitiveness, offers tangible solutions to societal challenges, empowers learners with 21st-century global skills-sets, strengthens defence and intelligence capabilities essential for security and strategic positioning, and thereby enhances global reputation and influence. Investment in R&D also enables the scientific community to develop solutions tailored to meet local needs. Focus on research and innovation also helps cultivate a strong, technically empowered youth who can become the propellant of entrepreneurship and development.
India’s expenditure on R&D is merely 0.66% of its GDP; despite this, India has a fairly robust scientific base and is ranked third globally in terms of research publications and PhD graduates. In 2022, India published over 300,000 research papers, highlighting its commitment to advancing knowledge. India ranks sixth globally in patent grants. Thus, it has been a long-pending demand of the scientific community to increase the expenditure on research & development to at least 2% of GDP for scaling-up society-relevant research outcomes. The quote of Bill Gates, “I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts”, is relevant in this context. It is also appropriate to recall the quote of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, “Research is all about four things: brains to think, eyes to see, machines to measure, and money”.
India’s research ecosystem is poised for a major transformation with the operationalisation of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF). This path-breaking initiative of Modi government aims to elevate research and innovation across the demographics and geographies of the nation. With this, a stage is set for a ground-breaking research revolution in the country. It is expected that ANRF would focus on transforming India’s research landscape by promoting interdisciplinary research, building a strong research culture, and establishing India as a global leader of repute, especially in the field of science and research.
Funding mechanism for ANRF is proposed to be on a new model encompassing contributions from industry, philanthropists, and domestic and international sources, including a government share. The contribution and participation of cross section of society in funding and decision making in research sphere is crucial in ensuring that thrust areas of research and resultant outcomes are aligned with real-world needs and that these are effectively translated into ground reality for economic growth and societal well-being.
ANRF is supposed to provide high-level strategic direction for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship across disciplines with coverage on natural sciences, including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health, and agriculture. Thus it has to seed, grow and promote R&D and foster a culture of collaborative research and innovation across disciplines and institutions which are essential to find solutions to the issues confronting human civilization. This would bring a paradigm shift in priority areas of research funding in India. Several path-breaking initiatives are envisaged through ANRF which may include doubling private sector share in R&D, an increase in the number of full-time researchers, enhanced women’s participation in R&D, and a National repository of STI Data to foster innovation and research in the country.
PM Narendra Modi, was at his best while chairing the first meeting of the Governing Board of ANRF. He outlined his vision for the ANRF in crystal clear terms and expectation from it for the public good. As always, he used this opportunity to provide broad direction and roadmap for science, technology and innovation trajectory of the nation. He opined that “today a new beginning has been made with the first meeting of the GB of ANRF.” He stressed the need to identify and remove obstacles in the research ecosystem of the country. He underscored the significance of setting big targets, focusing on attaining them and doing path-breaking research. The PM further said that research should focus on finding new solutions to existing problems. He emphasised that problems might be global in nature, but their solutions must be localised in accordance with Indian needs, reemphasising his commitment for ‘Vocal for Local.’
The Board has undertaken several decisions aimed at breaking the inertia and overhauling the research ecosystem of the nation. One of the landmark decisions of the Board is to launch a program on building research capabilities, especially in those universities where research culture is yet to be developed, through handholding by the established institutions in the hub and spoke model. This will help reduce the gap between the haves and have-nots in the sphere of science & technology. Launching of mission-mode research programs in national priority areas like Electric Vehicles, Advanced Materials, Smart Infrastructure, Photonics, Solar Cells, and Health and medical technology will provide edge to our research ecosystem over western ones besides meeting national goals. Setting-up of Centres of Excellence to support interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences would provide much needed impetus to spearhead multidisciplinary research in these domain knowledge for meeting social imperatives.
The appreciation of view point that there is an urgent need to empower our researchers with flexible and transparent funding mechanisms towards achieving “ease of doing research”- will help researchers to pursue their passion in a hassle free ecosystem. The thrust on both, basic and fundamental research, is as important as translational research, for it empowers learners with creativity and critical thinking. Research support to early career researchers was also considered crucial for capacity building. The Board also underscored the importance of the participation of the industry and discussed various ways to incentivise the industry to co-invest with ANRF in R&D. This approach would also help break-open the siloes between the academia and industry, and will fructify in enhanced collaboration.
The ANRF has the Herculean task of catapulting reforms to facilitate research that brings a tangible impact on society. The Foundation is supposed to shift the focus of research from merely generating research output to quality research necessary for making India Atma Nirbhar and a global leader in research and innovation. This would also strengthen PM Modi’s campaign for ‘Viksit Bharat@2047.’ The foundation would encourage translational research in all universities beyond Technology Readiness Level-3 (TRL-3), confirming a strong desire of the government to taking research outcomes from the lab to real-life applications.
The operationalisation of ANRF signifies an unfettered commitment of the government in transforming research and innovation ecosystem of the nation to make it current and relevant. ANRF is poised to enable quicker decision making pertaining to research issues and greatly reduce response time in addressing the genuine needs of the S&T system and its stakeholders. This is essential for building a S&T system that is at par with the best global practices in the area of promotion and funding of basic as well as applied research. An exciting time is certainly ahead of the scientific community, which has been struggling so long for this moment to arrive. We are looking forward with great zeal towards ANRF for performing its mandated tasks. The scientific community ought to be grateful to PM Modi for making ANRF functional and also for the decision facilitating purchase of scientific equipment without paying GST.
Raghavendra P. Tiwari, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab