The National Education Policy (NEP) seeks multi-disciplinary, inter and Intra departmental research in a bid to promote a research culture that boosts productization. This is as it should be. As per the UNESCO Institute of Statistics data, there are only 156 researchers per million inhabitants in India and currently we spend 0.8% of GDP in research and development (R&D). Compare this against a few countries high on R&D index. Israel spends 4.95% of its GDP, South Korea 4.81%, Japan 3.59%, Germany 3.81%, US 2.83%, France 2.2%, China 2.14%, UK 1.74%, and Canada 1.54%. Science must be nurtured through research and new postulations. In turn, research drives innovation. Innovation spins incubators and start-ups. The entire supply chain of research to products drives economy and helps raise GDP.
It is necessary to promote an incubator culture in our universities that focus on early-stage start-ups. They may not have a business model in place. But they help nurture a start-up by developing a strong idea into a viable product. Needless to say, this process needs funds. Only then our “Make in India” paradigm would exceed the expectations of a Nation on the move.
Many of the professional colleges, unfortunately, don’t have the environment that motivates the faculty to do research. Unless the quality of research and knowledge created is of a high order, a paper cannot be published in a top-ranking journal and be cited upon by others. To write such a paper, faculty members constantly have to update themselves by reading, experiencing and experimenting with innovations, in inter and multi-disciplinary areas and create consultancy linkages with the industry. This ensures they don’t teach outdated stuff. Research is a philosophy and a religion. It possibly cannot be thrust on an institution and its faculty. Enormous funding is required, facilities created and a research ambience provided so that the teachers are motivated enough to spend time in the laboratories. Regulatory overbearing will produce trash in journals that are also trash.
Do we have sufficient number of researchers in every field? Do they have adequate facilities to do both fundamental and applied research? What level of inter/intra/multi-disciplinary research exists? Are they provided sufficient funding compared with the best in the World? Are they sufficiently compensated so that they remain within the system and not fly away seeking greener pastures?
The limited point being that we need to create Intellectual Property, build products, create entrepreneurs and newer heroes, of whom India has seen none or a handful in the last decade. We have certainly seen a rise in Unicorns in the country. But then, we all know this is a different ball game.
A lot of current global research focuses on computer systems, cybersecurity, AI and medical research. Can we let the technology bypass us or can we afford bypassing it? These are the drivers of future job markets. They also inculcate a spirit of curiosity among students. That spirit must be nurtured by our universities. However, not many of our higher education institutions rank high on the world research index.
Only 26 Indian companies as compared to 301 of China are amongst the top 2500 R&D companies in the world.
According to Nature Index Rising Stars, 51 of the top 100 Universities with improved research are from China. None from India. Almost all of our R&D spend is by GOI. None from states. Barring a few in the private sector rest is negligible. It is our cyber coolies that continue to create world class products for US. Cannot our public sector ‘navratnas’ like ONGC invest in research, in universities? On Research Impact (H-Index), India scores 12.6 against China’s 39.2. We publish less and impact even lesser.
There are opportunities galore by setting up institutes on Max Planck model for promoting basic research. Research must connect to productization. Setting up institutes and societies on the Fraunhofer Model for applied research, which earns about 70% of its income, through contracts with industry or specific government projects and the other 30% of the budget sourced in the proportion 9:1 from state Land government grants should be a great idea. We need our applied research to be encouraging a flexible, autonomous and entrepreneurial approach in our universities.
Basic and applied research are needed to promote “Make in India” / “Start-up” India initiatives. The ‘Make in India’ hub for productization could promote massively new products in various sectors like the Defence, Railways, Agriculture and Infrastructure.
Setting up a national research fund (NRF) of Rs. 50,000 Cr over five years, that will amalgamate all research grants currently given by various ministries independent of each other may be a good idea. However, how the Rs. 10,000 Cr available per annum is distributed amongst a host of institutions or how thin it will spread are matters of detailing. Collaborations and partnerships too must happen with the best institutions of the world like the New York Academy of Sciences or the National Academy of Sciences. Students even within the schools must be encouraged to use their STEM skills to present solutions to community problems. Our universities must bring together the fields of Engineering and Computer Sciences, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences for successful entrepreneurship.
Though a skeletal audit, compliance audit and performance audit on research outcomes in various scientific departments and research organisations, is being carried annually, research conducted and its utility to community must also be assessed.
We need to develop a ‘swavalamban’ model that uses Indian tenets in its R&D. It will need support of citizens. Self-reliance, self-responsibility and self-accountability are the pillars on which it stands. Our faculty and students need to change their outlook to life and follow an R&D ‘Dharma’, since this new pathway of development goes beyond reforms. It redefines both the economic model and the research model.
Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Hungarian pharmacologist known for his work on vitamins and oxidation, and awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937 once said, “Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”. That must be our R&D Dharma. ‘Atmanirbharta’ must lay great stress on R&D. These ideas however, need research lab support. Best of research equipment must be made available. We need to diversify the supply chains for self-sufficiency. That said, it needs at least three times the research spends on the current figures.