State of Student R&D Activities in India.

Everybody accepts that, India today is a global player in the software industry and are making progress in our other industries too.

The progress of a country is measured by the size of its patent base. A single patent on a product can earn revenue for 15 years that increases the GDP by a really significant amount and is a steady and reliable source of foreign exchange.

The question that all of us need to ask ourselves today, is: "Is the rate at which we are progressing industrially at an acceptable rate?" & “Are the number of patents being filed every year comparable to the global patent base?” If the answer to either of these questions is in the negative, we need to address it with carefully, since it is at the base of the economic development of any country. Here we look into the problem causes, identifying the main cause of these problems and start eliminating them from the grass root level.

Even with the high rise of Technical and Non-Technical educational institutes rising up in India, there has been a gradual decrease of the number of R&D posts being filled by students. As stated by R. Chidambaram, “It is necessary to reverse the current trend of diminishing attraction for careers in R&D by providing a guaranteed career profile to the highly talented students on completion of the 10 + 2 stage. Simultaneously a new educational model with liberal funding of selected high-quality post-graduate University Departments is needed”. [9]

One of the major factors for this trend could be the present structure of technical and professional courses in India. India currently has 113 universities and 2,088 colleges, many of which teach various engineering disciplines. Engineering colleges in the country have been growing at 20 per cent a year, while business schools have grown at 60 per cent. Five Indian states--Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala--account for 69 per cent of India's engineers. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Orissa account for only 14 per cent. But despite the rise in colleges, the quality of Indian engineers is questionable on account of "the lack of trained faculty and dismal state spending on research and development in higher education". As engineering education grows, its quality has to improve. According to the National Institute of Education Planning & Administration, the share of government expenditure on technical education presently hovers around 4 per cent.

The other major factor is the budget allocation for R&D activities. In China, the amount spent on research and development, especially in engineering fields, is a good 10 per cent. Apart from poor government expenditure, experts say one of the biggest drawbacks, slowing India down is overlapping. We have degrees like a Bachelor of Computer Application, Master of Computer Application, Bachelor of Engineering/Technology in Computer Science/IT, BSc in Computer Science, MSc in Computer Science and an integrated M.Sc in Computer Science/software engineering" says C R Muthukrishnan, Dept. of Comp. Sc. & Engg., IIT-Madras. In terms of curricula, he says, these programs are highly overlapping. They attempt to be everything to everyone.

Experts add that implementation of the curriculum--for degree programs in computing across Indian engineering colleges--also tend to be poor. Another drawback is the negligible infrastructure these institutes possess. For instance, there is a severe shortage of competent faculty in computer science/IT across all engineering institutes in India.

A year ago, the UR Rao Committee that studied the problems afflicting engg. & higher education in India said that, to improve R&D, India needs well over 10,000 PhDs and twice as many M.Tech degree holders. India produces barely 400 engineering PhDs a year, mostly from the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, as opposed to 4,000 produced in the basic sciences.

According to a McKinsey Global Institute study on the emerging global labour market [11], India produces a large number of engineering graduates every year, but multinationals find that just 25 per cent of them are employable. 'In India, the overall quality of the educational system, apart from the top universities, could improve significantly,'the report said.It added that improving the suitability of graduates is far from simple, but educational improvements could be coordinated closely with domestic and multinational companies to develop practical skills training in universities and external management training programs. 'Study and work abroad programs can help students gain international experience and create a worldwide diaspora of highly educated and globally minded workers,' the McKinsey study pointed out.

Global R&D Expenditures:

Worldwide R&D performance is concentrated in a few developed nations. In 2000, global R&D expenditures totaled at least $729 billion, half of which was accounted for by the two largest countries in terms of R&D performance, the United States and Japan. Over 95% of global R&D is performed in North America, Asia, and Europe. Yet even within each of these regions, a small number of countries dominate R&D performance: the United States in North America; Japan and China in Asia; and Germany, France, and the United Kingdom in Europe.

Wealthy, well-developed nations, generally represented by OECD member countries, perform most of the world's R&D, but several lesser-developed nations now report higher R&D expenditures than most OECD members. In 2000, Brazil performed an estimated $13.6 billion of R&D, roughly half the amount performed in the United Kingdom [5]. India performed an estimated $20.0 billion in 2000, making it the seventh largest country in terms of R&D in that year, ahead of South Korea [4]. China was the fourth largest country in 2000 in terms of R&D performance, with $48.9 billion of R&D, only slightly less than the $50.9 billion of R&D performed in Germany [6].

Considering that India, is still a developing nation, it might not be fair to directly compare total expenditures on R&D with other developed nations. Let us compare the ratio of R&D share to the GDPs of various countries.

Let's look at India's spending on science and technology R&D. Since most of this money comes from the government (private sector R&D spend is probably about a third of government spending), we have to start with the budgetary allocations.

Table 1. Ministry-wise expenditure budgets

Department/Ministry	2007 Budget	2006 Budget
Atomic Energy	3796	3173
Space	3858	2997
Defense	3186	3011
Agriculture	2460	2276
Medicine	1520	1341
DST	1775	1177
DSIR	1902	1550
DBT	694	510

The total comes to about 19,191 crores, up nearly 20 % from 16,035 crores last year. Of this, we have just seen that a big chunk -- nearly 40 percent -- goes to mission-mode R&D programs in the Departments of Atomic Energy, Defence and Space. A huge chunk of the rest is used up by R&D organizations that come directly under the various ministries/departments (CSIR labs, ICAR labs, etc).

From the above figures we can see that, India’s total spending on R&D is approximately 1% of the GDP - compare this with 1.22% for China in 2002 [2] and 2.67% currently for the US.

Relation between R&D and National Patent Base:

Consider Dipak Shukla’s comment on the need of R&D for increasing the patent base of a country: “The burgeoning and the rapidly disseminating shibboleth intellectual property rights (IPRs) normally relate to intangible property having intellectual matters in its background. Intellectual property (IP) is the outcome of creative brain and intellect. IPRs are facsimile to movable and immovable properties and are characterized by specific rights as well as limitations. The separate and distinct types of intangible property, viz. patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, know-how, trade secrets, etc. are collectively alluded as IP.
IPRs are and will be a quintessential component of an innovative knowledge generated and acquired through research and development (R&D) efforts and thereafter protected by an individual, a team, an organization and a nation as a whole. In the present global scenario innovation – which is a process of continuous improvement or a new process – has become imperative for self-sustenance, economic growth and competitive business advantages. It is through R&D that an individual is capable of bringing forth new and innovative ideas. Interfacing IP with R&D will pave the way to productive knowledge protection, enrichment of innovative ideas, creation of well-articulated human resources and also nurturing of an innovation culture.”[1] The abysmally low aggregate expenditure on R&D may well be cited as the reason to explain the “abysmally small number of scientific publications”. The effect of which can be seen through comparison of table 2[1] and table 3 [1].

From figures in table1., we can also see that, DST offers about Rs. 350 crores through SERC and another 150 crores through the nano-mission, and DBT offers about 200 to 300 crores. Even if you add the support for extramural research from other S&T related ministries (which typically is less than 5 percent of their total budgets), the total academic research support would still be less than 2000 crores -- or about 450 million US dollars.Comparing it with the data supplied in table 4.[8], it's about one-and-a-half million dollars per university, i.e academic R&D support for the entire country of India is about the same as (or, even smaller than) the R&D expenditure in a (largish) US state university

Conclusion:

From the above facts and figures, we identify two potential problem areas that need immediate addressing, via:

1. Inadequate allocation of budget towards Academic R&D activities,

2. Course structure of various professional courses being offered.

The solution to the first problem is to keep in mind the allocation of appropriate funds for Academic R&D while preparing the budget. However, it is not necessary that only the government needs to allocate funds to academic R&D activities. In fact, the government should also encourage private organizations and companies to invest part of their profits towards Universities and Colleges, since they shall also be at the profitable end, if the number of successful student R&D activities increase.

Also, these organizations along with the government should take up the initiative of encouraging R&D activities among students and spread awareness through the means of competitions, seminars, mentoring facilities and achievement awards.

We have many glaring examples of techniques to improve course structures to churn out more successful researches applied by various developed nations, the prime example being that of China. According to Mr. V.P Kharbanda, “With globalization and international competition, university–industry symbiosis has gained importance, particularly in China. Since the initiation of reforms of the science and technology system, it has tried to re-establish its higher education system and the research base in terms of institutional infrastructure and manpower. One of the significant moves has been to link its R&D institutions as well as higher education system to meet its economic and social needs. Industry and the academia are collaborating in more diverse ways for technological innovations in an ideological environment, which was, in the recent past, definitely adverse to private entrepreneurship and profit motives. However, it still lacks the capacity to translate indigenous innovations in terms of economic gains on a scale to compete in the globalized world. Industry mainly depends on import of technologies for its survival. R&D capabilities of the firms need to be strengthened to fully exploit the indigenous knowledge base.” [10]

It can thus be seen that the solution to the second problem, lies in understanding the needs of the country and industry to remodel the entire educational structure.

References:

[1] Dipak B. Shukla,”Need to inculcate the culture of intellectual property protection in research and development”, Current Science, Vol. 92 No. 11, 10 June 2007.

[2] Dennis Normile, Is China the next R&D superpower?, Electronic Business, 7/1/2005

[3] Science and Engineering Indicators 2006,” Chapter 4 Research and Development: Funds and Technology Linkages “, National Science Board.

[4] UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO/UIS), http://www.uis.unesco.org, accessed 7 April 2005.

[5] Red Iberoamericana de Indicadores de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Iberomerican Network on Science & Technology Indicators) (RICYT). 2004. Principales Indicadores de Ciencia Y Tenologia 2003. Buenos Aires , Argentina .
[6] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2004. Main Science and Technology Indicators Database.

[7] Union Budget 2007-2008, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

[8] Industrial Funding of Academic R&D Rebounds in FY 2005, NSF 07-311, January 2007.

[9] Chidambaram R., “Patterns and priorities in Indian research and development”, CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 77, NO. 7, 10 OCTOBER 1999.

[10] Kharbanda V.P, “Academia–industry symbiosis: The new norm of science in socialist China”, CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 77, NO. 7, 10 OCTOBER 1999.

[11] McKinsey Global Institute, “Emerging global Labour market”, June 2005, http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/emerginggloballabormarket/