NRF: New Initiative

NRF will go a long way in promoting the culture of meaningful research if the process is made free of bureaucratic hurdles and all stakeholders coordinate. — Dr. Jaya Kakkar

New Education Policy 2020 included one key recommendation, setting up of the National Research Foundation (NRF). The basic aim is to set up a coordinating agency between researchers, industry, and government; accordingly it aims at bringing industry into the research mainstream. It also aims to fund, promote, and facilitate research of individual and universities (especially state universities). The NRF will have a budget of Rs. 50,000 crore for 5 years; out of this Rs. 14,000 crore will be contributed by the government, and rest will come from the private sector. To be sure, this only partially meets the needs of research for our country. According to NITI Aayog, India currently spends only 0.7% of its GDP on R&D US spent 2.8% while China spent 2.1% (2018-19 figures). In 2017-18 India’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development was nearly 1,14,000 crore. To put things in perspective this was nearly 24 times less than that of US and China although India’s GDP was 7.6 and 5.1 times smaller only than these two economies.

India has only 366 R&D personnel per million population, compared with 2366 for China. Not only this Indian industry invests only quarter of one percent of GDP on in–house R&D, against the world average of 1.4%. Notably Indian government spending on R&D, at 0.3% of GDP, is reasonable not only by world standards but also in view of the fact that given India’s population and developmental imperatives there are other demands on scarce resources. In other words, rather than relying on autonomous government institutes conducting research (supplemented by meager university level research at 0.04% of GDP), the Indian industry needs to put in more resources in in-house R&D by at least 4-5 times the current investment. Alongside, the publicity funded research needs to be scaled up. NRF happens to be a modest attempt in this direction.

The proposed foundation is largely modeled after the National Science Foundation of the US. At the same time the draft bill incorporates some of the best practices from the science agencies of other nations. It aims at bringing critical thinking, creativity, and innovation to the frontiers of research efforts. The NRF seeks to provide high level strategic direction to scientific research. It will work towards fostering a culture of R&D in educational institutions, as well as autonomous bodies. The associated focus will be on ensuring greater private participation. Besides, there will be attempts to integrate all the efforts undertaken by the research bodies and avoid conducting scientific research in silos.

One redeeming factor of the whole scheme is that since private sector will be involved in resource contribution and functioning, this should attract more applied research proposals beneficial to the industry and society. Besides, this means less burden on the government, which can utilize its resources for meeting other developmental needs.

Lofty aims and ambitions, these, certainly. There can be roadblock, however. For example, it is unclear-yet-as to how the government will raise private sector share (Rs. 36,000 crore) from it. Likewise, the success of NRF will be determined by how the government will set and implement the guidelines. The government will have to nudge private sector to come forwards. In scientifically advanced economics like US, Germany, South Korea, etc. the private sector has taken the lead in both conducting and funding such activities. In India their share is only 35%; compare it with figures for Israel (88%). Less than 1% (indeed only 0.3%) of sales budget of even the top firms in India is spent on R&D. 

As for the government it is conscious of its role and responsibilities. For example, the government has made the process of issuing patents very simple, in addition to providing policy support. As a result between 2014-2023 the number of patents issued per year has gone up more than 7 times. The NRF is certainly a laudable initiative. It needs to be done right, however. Implemented, funded, and financed properly (at macro and micro levels) it should certainly produce output that is relevant to our needs, and not merely confined to research labs. As on date, inspite of the huge pool of talent, good laboraturies, outstanding institutions we have failed to realize our potential in scientific research. If the NRF pushes India towards its full capability by not just evaluating and funding research proposals but also by linking research institutions with industry and government, using funds of both, it can lead to meaningful outcomes.

Certainly India is not standing still. India’s ranking in the global innovation index has risen from 81 (2015) to 40 (2022). Likewise, the ranking by number of publications has gone from 7th to 3rd between 2010 and 2020. To put things in perspective, however, the share of US patenting, an indicator of quality of publication, is very small. Both scale and quality in research are needed for India to become a world power. We certainly don’t lack the ability to be on the frontline of science and technology. Yet we remain the buyer of innovations from others.  

So, how can the NRF facilitate the ease of doing R&D?

Well, one, the ministries of the government can have their research steered and managed by NRF. Presently, they make individual efforts with suboptimal allocation of resources. Two, research labs under private sector, government, and academic institutes should share their facilities for bright researchers so that the resources could be optimally utilized and the research outcomes could be widely shared. The outcomes are one kind of externality which has positive implications for other than immediate producer. Three, the distribution of grant for research must immediately follow – without much time gap and based on achievement of predetermined milestones – after the project has been sanctioned. Four, there should be enough motivation for the private contributors to make available their share; for example, tax incentives can be provided. Five, not only the funds should be expeditiously released, the process of release should be hassle free with minimum paperwork or other kind of burden on the researcher. Six, while scientist has to be made accountable for proper utilization of funds as per allocation there should be reasonable flexibility in spending money. Instead of the general financial rules (GFR) independent guidelines should be developed for this purpose. Seven, presently the research funds are very inequitably distributed, resulting in the situation where majority of research students from sciences gain little or no exposure to research. NRF should aim at democratizing the distribution of funds so that vast majority of potential scientists and innovators can benefits out of the whole scheme.

Minus the usual governmental/bureaucratic apathy and rigidity the NRF should produce societally relevant and industry preferred research outcomes.

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