In 2047, in terms of science, India should be in top 3 or 5: PSA Ajay Kumar Sood

Sood said a science and technology roadmap for 2047 was being worked upon, and is likely to be finalised in the coming months. Excerpts:

What is the government’s vision for Indian science?

As we speak, the science and technology for 2047 is being formed in a more specific manner. There was a long discussion on it a few days ago. Right now, we only have the broad contours of this vision. We have to fill in the details and make an implementation plan in consultation with all the stakeholders… What I can say is that the interventions that the government has made in science policy in the last few years are not random. They are being made with a purpose.

What is that purpose? Where does India want to be in science?

We have fairly good scientific traditions and a fairly strong base. But if you look at any of the commonly used indicators to measure the scientific strength of a country, we are far behind, way below the global average. That is because our contribution in science is not proportional to our size or potential. This has to change.

We must improve on these indicators… things like GERD (general expenditure on research and development), the number of researchers per million population, women in science, number of patents and other similar ones. And it is not just about quantity. We must improve the quality of our research as well. Take the example of publications. India is currently third, I think. But we have to ask how much of those are appearing in the top one per cent of the journals. That is where we have to improve, not just in the number of publications. Or citations… are we in the top one per cent?

I am not a great fan of just increasing the numbers. There has to be quality output… At the same time, increasing the base is also important. We cannot have a small pool and expect everyone to be making fundamental contributions. So, both numbers and quality have to be improved.

Of course, we have to give our researchers the right environment, adequate resources, and the right incentives, and that is what we are trying to do.

So, if you ask me where India should be, say in 2047, in terms of science, I would say we should be in top three or top five in all these commonly used indicators. Actually, top three. That is where we belong, and that is what we must aspire to achieve. It is with this purpose that we are moving forward.

How realistic is that target?

It is not a standalone target… It affects, and gets affected by, our progress in other areas. Improving our science and technology output is linked to our economic growth. It is essential for our goal to become a developed nation by 2047. The kind of economic growth that is required to take us there — 8 or 10 per cent or more — would not be possible without deployment of breakthrough technologies. It is these technologies that will drive economic growth in the coming decades. Most of these technologies are still being developed, and there is an opportunity for India to make fundamental contributions in these areas, take leadership, and reap the benefits… A Viksit Bharat will have to be a leader in science. There is no other way.

What are the interventions that will take us there? The National Research Foundation (NRF) is one big decision that the government is banking heavily on.

NRF is not going to solve all our problems, but it is a very important move. It seeks to promote research in universities and colleges, thus expanding our base. And it would bring in new resources to fund research…

After Independence, research in the university system has seen a sharp decline even though many of them have done a fairly good job in imparting education. Somehow, research got delinked from education. In any other developed country, both go together. We see that happening quite well in some of our top institutions like IISERs, IITs, IISc, some medical institutions and a few others. But their number is very few, considering the size of the country. So this has to be corrected.

But it is not the fault of the universities alone. It is more of a systemic fault. Many universities such as Allahabad University, BHU, Aligarh, Panjab University, even Delhi University have very fine research traditions. But they were not given the resources they needed. Most state governments do not have an identified research and development budget. We are trying to change these things… pushing hard.

When people say they would like four per cent of our GDP to be spent on R&D, it cannot come from the government alone. The government spending has to be leveraged to attract private spending to support an R&D ecosystem. The NRF would enable such a system.

Right now, the business R&D money is mostly utilised in-house. Businesses are looking to solve their immediate problems, and that is where their resources are channelised. Nothing wrong with that. This is how businesses would operate in the absence of a strong network and ecosystem. So, we are trying to create these long-term partnerships where industries become part of technology development. When these technologies mature, they would already have a head-start in absorption and deployment.

This part we have not done very well till now, and we hope that NRF would change that.

But laboratory-industry partnerships have existed for long.

Yes, they have, but these are mostly in the nature of short-term project-focused partnerships. What we are trying to do is achieve bigger collaborations and results that will drive the sector itself. For example, development of electric vehicles is a priority sector for the country. This area is not specific to just one or two industries. There are a whole lot of technologies involved. We would like to get everyone involved in this with the objective of creating Indian brands that are globally competitive.

Another example is the Smart City programme. What is smartness? This can be in the form of smart mobility, circular economy, sustainability, smart communication and similar areas. Each of these elements requires the development and deployment of new technologies, new solutions. There are R&D challenges in each of them. So again, the idea is to get everyone together for this, in long-term partnerships.

This, of course, does not mean that we are focussing only on translational research. Basic fundamental research is also important.

But can we be doing everything?

See, NRF is technology or specialisation agnostic. It is about expanding the scientific base. But we have identified a few priority areas, guided by our national interests, which we would like to fast-track. These include clean energy, energy security, quantum technologies, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, system biology, precision medicines. These are the areas where we need to build comparative advantage and take leadership. Not just at the service level. But in technology development itself. We should be able to build for ourselves, as well as the rest of the world. This is the vision for Viksit Bharat.