Science minister, Jitendra Singh tabled the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Bill proposes to establish the National Research Foundation, a new body that will provide “high level strategic direction for research, innovation and entrepreneurship.”
NRF to replace SERB
The NRF replaces the Science and Engineering Research Board, established in 2008. The objective then was to establish a “…Board with administrative, financial powers and operational flexibility to promote basic research in science and engineering in order to achieve higher levels of excellence in internationally-competitive basic research.”
The NRF however proposes a more expansive definition of research which includes science, engineering, information technology, liberal arts, social sciences and the humanities. The SERB only envisaged funding research, whereas the NRF – a reading of the text suggests – can fund and receive money from private sources, philanthropic and international organisations. With the repeal of the SERB, all the funds available to that organisation will now be available to the NRF.
The SERB was comprised of a governing board, chaired by the Secretary, Department of Science and Technology and had as its members secretaries from various scientific ministries, health ministry, Indian Council of Medical Research, representatives from government research labs.
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PM to preside
The NRF governing board will be presided over by the Prime Minister of India (PM) and have the minister of science and education as ‘vice president.’ There is also an explicit inclusion of five members from business and industry, who can be nominated to the Board by the PM. The NRF will have an executive council to manage day-to-day affairs. The eligibility criteria determining membership to the council and advisory committees, are essentially like that of the SERB. The NRF will be “administratively” managed by the Department of Science and Technology.
“The bill, after approval in the Parliament, will establish NRF, an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction to scientific research in the country as per recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), at a total estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crores over five years (2023-28),” the Science Ministry said in a statement.
Mr Singh in an interaction last month said that a key ambition of the government, via the NRF, was to increase private sector contribution to research and more research funding for state universities. However except for a reference to “encouraging” private and public sector units to invest in research, there is nothing to suggest greater fund flow to state universities.
“It’s an effort well begun. However, like all Bills, the details will be spelt out in the Rules and we’ll only then know if this will be substantively different from the SERB,” a senior scientist, who was privy to the drafting of the NRF Bill, told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.
Private funding still low
Statistics from the Ministry of Science and Technology suggest that only 36% of India’s research expenditure – of roughly ₹1.2 lakh crore – came from the private sector in 2019-20, when the latest such figures were published. This is one of the reasons why India’s expenditure on R&D hovers around 0.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), well below the 1-2% that is characteristic of countries with a stronger science and technology infrastructure and the global average of 1.8%.
In China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S., the private sector contributed 70% of the research expenditure. About 70% of India’s research funds were taken up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Department of Space (DoS), the Department of Atomic Energy and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) garnered about 20%.
