India lags far behind other big countries in terms of research spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and the quality of research papers and patents, according to a report. The report also mentions that many Indian universities do not conduct any research.

The Indian government has announced an ambitious plan to set up a new National Research Foundation (NRF) to invest $6 billion in scientific research over five years. Scientists have mixed opinions on this.

The proposal to create a new "supreme body" for scientific research in India has been welcomed by many scientists as it would help boost India's investment in basic and applied science, Science reported. But some worry that the foundation could be subject to political interference and doubt that it will be able to attract the funding it expects, 70 percent of which comes from private companies.

That goal is "a bit unrealistic," said policy expert Shailja Vaidya Gupta, a former senior science adviser to the Indian government.

The Council of the Union of Ministers of India recently unveiled the NRF proposal, which stems from a report released in 2019 at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report noted that India lags far behind other major countries in terms of research spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and the quality of research papers and patents. The report also mentions that many Indian universities do not conduct any research.

To reverse this, the report calls for the creation of a strong new research agency, similar to the National Science Foundation, to help coordinate science policy and consolidate and expand funding, including peer-reviewed grants to researchers. The agency's annual budget should be equivalent to 0.1 percent of India's GDP. To protect the agency from political pressure and bureaucratic red tape, the report recommends that an independent committee of eminent scientists be formed and its head chosen, and that the agency "operate fully autonomously so that it does not encounter problems when funding good projects." obstacle".

But the new proposal is a far cry from that vision. For example, it requires the prime minister to chair the NRF board, and India's science and technology ministers and education ministers for senior positions.

"It's not a bad idea for the prime minister to be at the helm," said Partha Majumder, a member of India's Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB). Dialogue with business".

But the Indian Society for Breakthrough Science has warned that such an arrangement could expose the NRF to political interference.

Bureaucracy could pose another threat to the new agency, Gupta said. Because the foundation is not an independent body, it will "have to abide by the rules of the various departments," she said.

The plan calls for the NRF to join the SERB. The government says the foundation will receive more public funding than the SERB. Overall, officials want the private sector to provide more than $4 billion in NRF funding between 2023 and 2028.

Ajay Sood, chief scientific adviser to the Indian government, said this reflected the government's "desire to bring others on board and make them partners in the R&D and innovation ecosystem".

Still, others were skeptical, saying: "It's a crazy dream to expect companies to provide more than the government has promised."

Action on the NRF proposals could take place as early as this summer, with parliament scheduled to sit from July 20 to August 11. (Original title "India plans to set up a large institution to fund science")