Ease of Doing Research & Development in India Report by NITI Aayog

Syllabus: GS2/Governance; GS3/Science and Technology

Context

• The ‘Ease of Doing R&D in India’ reported that close to 80% of funding under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), the flagship research funding body, is concentrated in the IITs.

Status of R&D in India

• Low Expenditure on Research and Development: India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) has remained around 0.64% of GDP for many years. This level is significantly lower than major economies:
  • Israel and South Korea spend more than 4% of GDP on R&D.
  • The United States and China spend above 2% of GDP on R&D.
  • The report notes that India’s R&D expenditure has remained stagnant despite rapid economic growth.
• Dominance of Public Sector in R&D: India’s R&D funding is heavily dependent on public funding (with about 64% contribution), unlike the case in several leading innovation economies which have more than 60% of the R&D budget contributed by the private sector.

Major Challenges as per the Report

• Low Investment: Inadequate investment limits scientific infrastructure, advanced technology development, innovation capacity and India’s global technological competitiveness.
• Excessive Administrative and Compliance Burden: Excessive bureaucracy reduces productive research time and slows scientific innovation.
• Rigid Procurement and Financial Rules: Researchers encounter restrictions in procurement of specialized equipment, reallocation of funds, hiring project staff and international collaboration.
• Fragmented Governance and Lack of Coordination: India’s R&D ecosystem is spread across multiple ministries, departments and funding agencies operating independently.
  • This fragmented structure creates duplication of research efforts,  delayed approvals and lack of integrated planning and data-sharing systems.
• Weak Industry Participation: India’s R&D ecosystem is heavily dependent on government funding, while private-sector participation remains limited. 
• Human Resource Challenges and Brain Drain: India faces shortages of skilled researchers, laboratory technicians and interdisciplinary experts despite producing a large number of STEM graduates.
  • It also highlights issues such as limited career progression, inadequate fellowships and migration of talented researchers abroad due to better opportunities and infrastructure.
• Weak Commercialization of Research: Although India produces scientific publications and laboratory-level innovations, conversion into patents, industrial technologies, startups and market-ready products remains limited. 

Recommendations

• Unified Project Management System (UPMS): It is a system to streamline the planning, funding, monitoring, and evaluation of public R&D projects across Ministries and Departments.
• Simplify Administrative, Financial and Procurement Procedures: It recommends reducing the excessive compliance burden on researchers by introducing single-window digital systems and simplified approval procedures.
  • It also calls for greater flexibility in utilization of research grants and project funds.
• Strengthen Industry–Academia Collaboration and Innovation Ecosystems: It recommends building stronger partnerships between universities, industries, startups and government laboratories through research parks, innovation clusters, collaborative doctoral programs and joint industry-funded projects. 
• Improve Research Careers and Human Resource Systems: There is a need to create attractive and stable career pathways for researchers by improving fellowships, compensation structures and long-term funding opportunities.
  • Increase the number of postdoctoral fellowships in S&T by 20% annually, for the next few years, to strengthen the national postdoctoral research ecosystem. 
• Establish Vigyan Nidhi, a digital fellowship platform enabling direct benefit transfers and structured support for postdocs, mobility grants, and industry-linked research positions. 
• Integrated Research Governance: It calls for better coordination among ministries and funding agencies through integrated databases, unified monitoring systems and streamlined governance frameworks to improve efficiency.

Source: TH