NITI Aayog report
"Ease of Doing Research & Development in India: Removing Obstacles, Promoting Enablers"
To supercharge the nation's scientific ecosystem! Here are the quick facts and data insights you need to know: 👇
📈 The R&D Data Gap:
India's Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) stays low at 0.64% - 0.65% of GDP, compared to the US (~3.5%) and South Korea (~5.3%).
Public funding accounts for 64% of India's R&D expenditure, leaving private sector participation relatively modest.
Researcher density remains at just 262 full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers per million people.
⚠️ Core Systemic Bottlenecks:
Fund Flow Frictions: Turnaround times for approved grants often exceed a year, and automatic year-end budget withdrawals disrupt active projects.
Administrative Burden: An absence of professionally managed institutional R&D offices leaves scientists bogged down by tedious non-scientific tasks.
The Postdoc Gap: Postdoctoral fellowship support is restricted to about 2,500 per year nationwide, limiting long-term research continuity.
The Lab-to-Market Disconnect: Despite high publication and patent counts, commercialization is weak due to ineffective institutional Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs).
💡 The Action Roadmap (Proposed Enablers):
Vigyan Nidhi: A proposed digital public infrastructure with a ₹1,000 crore GoI seed grant to ensure zero delays in researcher fellowship disbursals.
NISPG: Setting up a National Institute for Science Policy and Governance to manage independent STI data collection and train science administrators.
RDI Clusters: Building state-level Research, Development, and Innovation Clusters in PPP mode to offer shared prototyping, validation, and IP infrastructure.
Trust-Based Governance: Decentralizing financial powers and shifting to researcher self-certification for routine processes.
Deep-Tech Support: Relaxing ESOP taxation for deep-tech startup talent and introducing a legally anchored cross-sectoral regulatory sandbox framework.
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