By Abhishek Goel,
“Science in the end will help man. She will make the necessities of life easily accessible to every man, so that humanity will be freed from the tyranny of matter which now humiliates her” wrote Rabindranath Tagore to his friend CF Andrews, in 1915. It was a different world. Most nations were colonies. The discovery of Penicillin was still 13 years away. The average lifespan of people was in its thirties. Air travel was in its nascency. Anti-biotics were not even a research topic. And, research was scattered. This was an era when Einstein wrote in German, Marie Curie in French. And science was fuelled by individual passion, and the largesse of donors.
Since then, the advances in science both worldwide and in India have been huge. And, this has primarily been driven by state funding. Post the world wars, and the decolonisation process, science was seen as a national imperative. Even when India was bloodied, bruised, and recovering from centuries of colonial loot, she saw investment in science to be a national imperative. Advances in science were seen as the key to development, and equality.
In the years since, we are able to overcome food shortages, with science enabled agriculture. We are plumbing the depths of the oceans to find their mysteries. And, we journeyed to the Moon and Mars, when the world said we couldn’t. And, all of this has been enabled by science. And, not just science, but science funded by the people of nations. Science enabled by the vision of scientists, technocrats, and governments. Science is primarily funded by the Indian State. Today, Indian science is highly regarded and respected, and India is now the 3rd largest producer of scientific articles.
If you look at India’s investment in R&D in absolute terms, it clocks in at a high $48 billion per annum. That makes us the 7th highest spender on R&D.
Source : UNESCO
However, if you look at the same figure, as a percentage of GDP, we don’t even figure in the top 15. India spends about 0.7% of its GDP on R&D
And, this is not so much a function of the Government not doing enough, as much as industry not doing enough.
The Indian private sector contributes about 37% of the total R&D spend. If you look at China, the private sector contribution to R&D is over double, at 77%. That figure is similar in Japan, it is 68% in Germany and 71% in the USA.
It is this combination of private and public spending on research that gives a boost to innovation. And, in most cases there is a private public partnership that results in research being conducted at universities and research institutions, to find solutions for the problems that plague the world. While the Indian government has a number of initiatives to boost private sector investment in R&D, the needle has not moved on private contribution to research.
To be able to encourage this, the Government needs to help public private partnerships in key sectors. It also needs to see how R&D can become crucial parts of both the start up policy, and the industrial policy. A key part of the Government role would be to build those pathways from the lab to research.
This will enable India not just to boost innovation, but also make the Indian research ecosystem more attractive as a serious destination for research globally. A parallel can be made with how India scaled up its value in the global IT market. We moved up the value chain from being the back office to the world, to being partners. A similar kind of transformation is needed for Indian R&D. At the same time, we need to incentivise scientists of Indian origin, working elsewhere, to come back to set up labs in India. Maybe, industry can work with the government to enable this.
Recent research from the American National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that when corporations fund research in universities, it increases the number of patents filed. In India, we need to look at how do you convert this great research that is produced by our research institutions, to solutions that deliver genuine impact. And, one key to this in addition to great research is consistent communication.
While we create great research, we aren’t so good at talking about it. If you look at the west, the level of science and research promotion undertaken by universities and research institutions is huge. They not just undertake outreach to other scientists, but also to corporations, to policy makers, and to the general public. This achieves three main objectives – The first is to build a robust research reputation that goes beyond academia. The second is to take the excitement and the potential of the research to others, and find collaborators, including those who would take the research to market. The third is to attract more funding to newer areas of research.
Last year the Government set up the NRF with a Rs.50,000 crore outlay, to catalyse innovation. This year, my hope from the budget is to see how it can help build those pathways between the lab and the market via the entrepreneur. It is a combination of these kinds of initiatives that build a collaborative ecosystem for science that will allow for impact that will transform lives.
(The author is CEO and Co-founder, CACTUS Communications. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of the Financial Express Online.)
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