Indian R&D Scenario; A comprehensive coverage

The Potential:
By 2008, forecasts McKinsey, IT services and back-office work in India will swell fivefold, to a $57 billion annual export industry employing 4 million people and accounting for 7% of India's gross domestic product. That growth is inspiring more of the best and brightest to stay home rather than migrate. What India requires today is to analyse the amazing growths achived by countries like China, Vietnam etc and use the huge manpower resources effectively.
(I have given an idea to achieve this utilisation here)

Facts:
For all its R&D labs, India remains visibly Third World. IT service exports employ less than 1% of the workforce. Per-capita income is just $460, and 300 million Indians subsist on $1 a day or less. Lethargic courts can take 20 years to resolve contract disputes. And what pass for highways in Bombay are choked, crumbling roads lined with slums, garbage heaps, and homeless migrants sleeping on bare pavement. More than a third of India's 1 billion citizens are illiterate, and just 60% of homes have electricity. Most bureaucracies are bloated, corrupt, and dysfunctional. The government's 10% budget deficit is alarming. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims always seem poised to explode, and the risk of war with nuclear-armed Pakistan is ever-present.
So it's little wonder that, compared to China with its modern infrastructure and disciplined workforce, India is far behind in exports and as a magnet for foreign investment. While China began reforming in 1979, India only started to emerge from self-imposed economic isolation after a harrowing financial crisis in 1991. China has seen annual growth often exceeding 10%, far better than India's decade-long average of 6%.

Strengths and Weaknesses (India-China):
Still, this deep source of low-cost, high-IQ, English-speaking brainpower may soon have a more far-reaching impact on the U.S. than China. Manufacturing -- China's strength -- accounts for just 14% of U.S. output and 11% of jobs. India's forte is services -- which make up 60% of the U.S. economy and employ two-thirds of its workers. And Indian knowledge workers are making their way up the New Economy food chain, mastering tasks requiring analysis, marketing acumen, and creativity.

Future Vision:
India also is working to assure that it will be able to meet future demand for knowledge workers at home and abroad. India produces 3.1 million college graduates a year, but that's expected to double by 2010. The number of engineering colleges is slated to grow 50%, to nearly 1,600, in four years. Of course, not all are good enough to produce the world-class grads of elite schools like the IITs, which accepted just 3,500 of 178,000 applicants last year. So there's a growing movement to boost faculty salaries and reach more students nationwide through broadcasts. India's rich diaspora population is chipping in, too. Prominent Indian Americans helped found the new Indian School of Business, a tie-up with Wharton School and Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management that lured most of its faculty from the U.S. Meanwhile, the six IIT campuses are tapping alumni for donations and research links with Stanford, Purdue, and other top science universities. "Our mission is to become one of the leading science institutions in the world," says director Ashok Mishra of IIT-Bombay, which has raised $16 million from alumni in the past five years.

If India manages growth well, its huge population could prove an asset. By 2020, 47% of Indians will be between 15 and 59, compared with 35% now. The working-age populations of the U.S. and China are projected to shrink. So India is destined to have the world's largest population of workers and consumers. That's a big reason why Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) thinks India will be able to sustain 7.5% annual growth after 2005.


Source: Businessweek Dec 8,2003

Analysing patenting activity and investment in Science

Analysing patenting activity and investment in Science

Abstract: India has stressed development in Science and Technology (S&T) from the
very beginning of the plan period. The paper highlights the S&T
investment in the country since independence in comparison with a
declining trend in patents obtained by Indians over the period. The paper
analyses this disturbing statistics. It tries to find out the reasons behind
such performance in the Research and Development (R&D) front in spite
of hefty investment. Finally there are some suggestions for formulating a
concrete policy boosting R&D to obtain competitive advantage through
patenting.

-Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri
Junior Research Fellow (UGC), Department of Library and Information
Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-32
E-mail: sabuj_c@yahoo.co.uk
Barnali Sengupta
Revenue Officer (WBCS), Block Land & Land Reforms Office, English
Bazar, Malda-732101
E-mail: barnachaudhuri@yahoo.co.in

Link to the complete research paper

India will take 163 years to match China's R&D

12 Feb 2007, 1216 hrs IST,PTINEW DELHI: India will take 163 years to match the scientific workforce of China if it continues to add researchers at the current rate, a mathematician has claimed. According to the 2002-03 figures, China had 8.5 lakh workers in the research and development sector as against 1.15 lakh in India. "Just to catch up with what China is today: 7,35,000 scientists to be added at 4,500 per year, it will take us 163 years," Gangan Prathap, scientist-in-charge of the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore said in the latest issue of journal Current Science . The statistics state that India annually produces some 4,500 doctorates as against 40,000 PhDs in China every year. Prathap said his calculations were on the assumption that China does not add any scientists to its R&D workforce and India continues to add at the rate of 4,500 a year. India spent $3.7 billion on science as against China's $15.5 billion R&D budget for 2002-03. Chinese scientists produced 50,000 research papers that were cited by peers in their studies as against 19,500 by India. The Ministry of Science and Technology is seeking a five-fold increase in budget allocation in the 11th Five Year Plan. It has also unveiled a Rs 1,350-crore plan to attract students to science.

read more | digg story

Need of more R&D (Research and Development ) Activities in India

The article states the present condition of Student Research Activities in India and compares them to that of other countries. It also delves into the growing concerns over the dismal state of higher education in educational institutions and strives to provide some workable and permanent solution.

read more | digg story

A Controlled and Effective Education System for a country

The future of a country depends on the abilities of the young generation and it is the responsibility of the country to identify and enhance skills of every individual to gain optimum output from every citizen.
Further, the economic growth of a country is depicted by the amount of foreign exchange it owns and one sure fire way of ensuring a continuous flow of foreign exchange is to create a big patent base. For this we need to generate more and more research and generate ideas which could be transformed into products that generates long term benefits.
A child starting his education needs to be continuously tested for the abilities displayed by him/her and guided accordingly throughout his training stage to enable him to reach the goals desired by him and to use his capabilities to achieve the actualization of self and betterment of the society.
For the first few years when his mental and capabilities have just started developing, we need to ensure that he/she gets a conducive environment where we develop a strong morality, an open mind and a healthy body. For this from the age of 3 to the age of 5(The formative years), the education should majorly focus on making the child understand the basics of morality, discipline and 'the general meaning on good'. It should also include healthy sports and games that are aimed at instilling qualities of leadership and innovativeness at the same time providing entertainment and adequate exercise of physical and mental capabilities.
After this from the age of 5 to 10, the education should focus on teaching him about his/her culture, introducing concepts of religion, history,geography,language etc of the country. Also it is required to impart knowledge about the basics of science and mathematics.
At the end of the year, an aptitude test needs to be held to test the physical and mental capabilities of the child and a comparison needs to be made to the ambitions of the child to decide the future of the education. Based on the evaluation, the further course structures should be made such that they enhance the capabilities of the child towards achieving the desired ambition. e.g if the child wants to go into defence services, the course should emphasize on developing physical capabilities, leadership qualities, scientific skills and most importantly discipline. Whereas if the child wants to be an athlete, development of physical capabilities should be given more importance. If the child wants to a scientist, development of physical capabilities should not be given lower priority to development of scientific skills. In short from now on the education structure needs to be more flexible and more moulded keeping in mind individual aptitude and capabilities and thus more personalised. This should exist from the age of 11 to 18.
During this time tests should be taken to check whether the child is correctly responding to the course properly and is actually gaining from it and make changes as necessary.
After 18 a test needs to undertaken to check what are the ranges of profession the person is suited for and guide him/her to a graduate course for the same. At the final year, the person needs to be tested for various things like, what are the specialisations that need to be introduced to create a trained individual with special skills better suited for a job set, whether he is more suited to corporate environment or he needs to be put in the government enterprises and whether he/she is suited for further education. e.g if a person is graduating in computers, he may be suited for specialising in databases and is eligible for having further education in distributed databases. A person who is more suited to be a politician, needs more emphasis on developing better people skills, culture and morality exposures, management and financial skills with leadership quality development and philosophy.
At this time, it is important for non government organisations like IEEE, ACM, CSI, SIAM, IET, IAENG etc provide mentorship facilties and facilitate industrial trainings, internships etc for enhancing the scope of education through combining practical knowledge with theoretical knowledge. This will also help identify individuals who are better suited to Research and Development activities and can be separately trained into more effective product and idea generators.

Lack of motivated students in science

The lack of young and talented students in science has often been bemoaned in this column and recent editorials (Curr. Sci., 2002, 82, 241–242; 903). It is paradoxical that on one hand, good students are unavailable for filling research and faculty positions in basic and applied sciences, while on the other, a large number of science graduates and postgraduates languish among the ranks of unemployed. The various schemes like national science talent search scholarships,
etc. unfortunately may have an inherent shortcoming. The highly competitive nature and process that these selections entail, ensure that only the most ‘academically’ brilliant students
make it through. Unfortunately, science as a career offers poor rewards for those talented people, whom the greener pastures of engineering, medicine, bureaucracy or business claim at the first opportunity. But how far do these various schemes and selection procedures attract or select young, competent people who love doing science and research, but are less gifted
than their more brilliant peers? Is academic brilliance, often the result of superior memorization capability, to be the main or only yardstick for selection? Do originality in thought, innovative ability and passion for hands-on science despite meagre rewards, count for naught? The
selection processes may perhaps be discounting these very qualities, which many gifted scientists of this century possessed, while not exactly being stars of the academia. Science and research should no doubt ensure a decent standard of living for its practitioners, but in the
final analysis are better done by those for whom it is a passion, not just a profession.

M. R. RAGHUNATH
Peninsular Aquaculture Division of
Central Institute of Freshwater
Aquaculture,
Hessarghatta Lake PO,
Bangalore 560 089, India
e-mail: raghumr@vsnl.in

Research is a delicate intellectual activity which requires a sensitive human interaction between the scholar and the guide. A thorough understanding between the two individuals, one aspiring to do something creative and another inspiring the activity, is needed. But nobility has become a
rare virtue in our milieu. Irresponsibility, jealousy, arrogance and even coldvillainy have become common traits of persons even in the institutes of learning and research. It is human to err. Unless the guide takes it lightly, even a small mistake of the research student shall be deemed unpardonable. Any slight displeasure that crops up due to social, cultural or academic reasons, between the guide and the research student is surely to the disadvantage of the latter. In an
atmosphere where research guides (more so in universities) are influenced by extraneous
feelings like caste, community and group, the student is a helpless partner at the mercy of the teacher-guide. Very few guidelines exist to correct the situation, to do justice and to save the
young soul when the mutual relation goes astray. Higher academic authorities feel embarrassed to come openly to protect the weak and help the guide to guide the student with a human face. The student also can err and misbehave, but the system has a structure to punish the
guilty very easily. The problem becomes confounded if either of the two belongs to the opposite sex. The percentage fallout of students from research is around fifty in universities (slightly less in research institutes), which is more often than not due to hostile treatment meted out to the young scientists. As the cynical attitude in supervisors cannot be eroded by a simple rule or regulation, the issue has to be discussed at higher fora of scientific administration of the country to develop a self-corrective mechanism, ensuring smooth research activity with a human face.


CHANDU SUBBA RAO
Department of Geophysics,
Andhra University,
Visakhapatnam 530 003, India
e-mail: ahivisakha@hotmail.com

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 82, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2002

Growing Concerns over dismal state of teaching and research activities in Indian Educational Institutions

Manmohan Singh on the state of R&D in India

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a speech yesterday at the Platinum Jubilee (75th anniversary) of the National Academy of Sciences (one of India's three -- three! -- science academies).

The Hindu reports:

"How can we achieve our development goal if we do not perform well in the field of basic sciences," Dr. Singh asked, pointing at the standard of research in the universities and even in the IITs.

What worried the Prime Minister more was the "divorce" between research and teaching, which was hampering the growth of the spirit of inquisitiveness and enquiry among students. The universities were unable to mobilise adequate financial and intellectual resources to support creative research and development efforts unlike in the past when they were at the centre of advanced research and attracted great talent.

Some quick data from this ToI report:

He then went on to outline the UPA government's plans to increase the allocation on science and technology from less than 1% of the GDP to 2% in the next five years. The 10th five-year plan has allotted Rs 25,243 crore to promoting research in institutions under scientific departments.

National investment in R&D hovers around 0.6-0.7% of GDP. Singh's statement would mean a quantum jump in funds available to academic institutions: two per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) would translate into a figure in the region of Rs 64,000 crore.

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/