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Comrades Editorial · 21 Sep 2026 (PDF)

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In this edition

  1. Strengthening India’s R&D Ecosystem Science & Technology

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Science & Technology

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Strengthening India’s R&D Ecosystem

Source This editorial is based on “A homegrown innovation ecosystem is taking root” published in The Hindu on 19/09/2026. The article highlights that India is shifting toward technology creation through deep-tech missions. However, low funding intensity and weak commercialisation hinder progress, requiring predictable long-term financing and professionalised technology transfer to bridge gaps. India’s Research and Development (R&D) ecosystem is transitioning from adoption to creation, driven by public laboratories, corporate patents, and deep-tech startups developing indigenous technologies like Gallium Nitride semiconductors, CAR-T cell therapy, and private launch vehicles. However, low research expenditure, weak commercialisation, and fragmented industry-academia linkages constrain progress. True innovation leadership requires public research, corporate R&D, and deep-tech entrepreneurship to function as an integrated pipeline from laboratory discovery to commercial scale. What are the Key Developments Shaping India’s R&D Ecosystem?
  • Mission-Mode Expansion of Strategic Deep Technologies:
    • Research funding is increasingly organised around clearly defined national technological missions instead of dispersed, investigator-only projects.
    • The National Quantum Mission targets quantum computers, secure communication, sensing and quantum materials.
      • Four thematic hubs have been established, while quantum fabrication and central facilities at IISc, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur involve investment of approximately ₹720 crore.
    • The BioE3 Policy, MAHA-EV Mission and National Supercomputing Mission similarly promote biomanufacturing, electric-mobility technologies and high-performance computing, strengthening India’s technological sovereignty.
  • Democratisation of Scientific Knowledge and Research Infrastructure:
    • India is reducing inequalities between well-funded metropolitan institutions and resource-constrained State universities.
    • The One Nation One Subscription initiative provides government higher-education and R&D institutions access to over 13,000 journals from more than 30 international publishers through INFLIBNET.
      • It is expected to benefit around 1.8 crore students, faculty members and researchers across approximately 6,300 institutions.
    • Meanwhile, DST’s SATHI centres allow universities, start-ups and MSMEs to share costly analytical instruments, advancing research-infrastructure commons rather than duplicating expensive equipment.
  • Deepening of the Start-up–Laboratory–Market Interface:
    • India’s innovation ecosystem increasingly connects publicly funded science with incubation, prototype development, procurement and commercialisation.
    • BIRAC bio-incubators, Technology Development Board funding, iDEX defence challenges and research parks at IITs help bridge the critical “valley of death” between proof-of-concept and commercial production.
    • The ADITI scheme under iDEX, with an outlay of ₹750 crore, provides grants of up to ₹25 crore for critical defence technologies such as secure communication, autonomous systems and advanced sensors.
  • Maturation of India’s Intellectual-Property Ecosystem:
    • Research output is increasingly being translated into domestically owned patents, technology licences and industrial applications.
    • India recorded approximately 7.5 lakh filings across different intellectual-property categories in FY2024–25, registering about 20% year-on-year growth. Resident applicants accounted for nearly 61.9% of patent applications.
      • The increase reflects greater participation by Indian universities, start-ups and MSMEs, assisted by IP facilitation centres, expedited examination and reduced patent fees.
    • The policy focus is gradually moving beyond mere patent counts towards patent quality, licensing revenue, standard-essential patents and university technology-transfer offices.
  • Unified Research Governance:
    • The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023 created an apex institution named Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) for funding and strategically directing research across universities, laboratories and industry.
    • ANRF envisages approximately ₹50,000 crore during 2023–28, including mobilisation of non-government funding, to reduce excessive dependence on departmental grants.
    • Its PAIR programme uses a hub-and-spoke model, connecting established research institutions with emerging universities. For example, IIT Indore’s ₹100-crore SAKSHAM network covers 165 faculty members across six partner institutions.
    • This marks a shift from isolated research projects towards institutional mentoring, interdisciplinary research clusters and geographically dispersed capacity-building.
  • Crowding-in Private R&D:
    • The ₹1-lakh-crore Research, Development and Innovation Scheme seeks to provide patient, long-term financing for private-sector research in strategically important and technologically complex areas.
    • It supports high Technology Readiness Level projects, acquisition of strategic technologies and the creation of a Deep-Tech Fund of Funds.
    • The scheme addresses India’s structural weakness of low business investment in R&D by promoting public–private risk sharing, technology acquisition and commercial scale-up.
    • Significantly, members of the India Deep Tech Alliance invested around ₹2,170 crore in 56 deep-tech start-ups, reflecting growing private risk capital in AI, space, robotics, biotechnology and climate technology.
  • Building an Innovation Pipeline from Schools to Grassroots Communities:
    • Innovation policy is expanding beyond elite laboratories to cultivate design thinking, frugal engineering and problem-solving aptitude at an early stage.
    • Atal Tinkering Laboratories expose school students to robotics, electronics, 3D printing and computational thinking; the Union Budget 2025–26 announced 50,000 additional laboratories in government schools over five years.
    • The National Innovation Foundation documents and validates farmer, artisan and community knowledge, linking grassroots innovation with intellectual-property protection and product development.
    • Initiatives such as MANAK, INSPIRE and community innovation centres can therefore broaden participation among rural students, women and historically under-represented regions.
  • Internationalisation of Indian Science and Talent Networks:
    • India is shifting from passive technology import towards co-development, mega-science participation and research diplomacy.
    • India’s participation in CERN, ITER, LIGO-India and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory gives domestic researchers access to frontier facilities, global datasets and advanced engineering contracts.
    • The government approved approximately ₹1,250 crore for India’s participation in constructing the Square Kilometre Array, which will strengthen capabilities in radio astronomy, electronics and big-data processing.
    • VAIBHAV Fellowships and SPARC partnerships connect the Indian scientific diaspora and foreign universities with domestic institutions, promoting brain circulation, joint laboratories and internationally competitive research networks.
What are the Key Concerns Associated with India’s R&D Ecosystem?
  • Persistently Low Research Intensity:
    • According to DST’s R&D Statistics at a Glance 2025–26, India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) remained around 0.84% of GDP in 2023–24, considerably below China (2.4%), the United States (3.5%) and other innovation-intensive economies.
    • Limited funding forces laboratories to prioritise short-duration, low-risk projects over frontier research, longitudinal studies and high-cost experimentation.
    • India’s absolute R&D expenditure has increased, but its research intensity remains inadequate for ambitions in quantum technology, advanced materials, biotechnology and clean energy.
  • Insufficient and Concentrated Private-Sector R&D:
    • Although private industry’s contribution has increased to approximately 45% of national R&D expenditure, it remains concentrated among a few large firms and sectors.
    • Private R&D is dominated by pharmaceuticals, automobiles, information technology and a limited group of major corporations, while MSMEs and firms in advanced materials, clean technology and industrial biotechnology possess weak research capacity.
    • Moreover, only about 15% of India’s overall Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) reaches deep-tech ventures, reflecting inadequate patient capital for quantum computing, robotics, advanced communication and other frontier technologies.
  • Institutional and Regional Concentration of Research Capacity:
    • Research excellence remains clustered in a limited number of IITs, IISc, IISERs, AIIMS and central laboratories, creating an innovation divide between elite institutions and the wider university system.
    • Many State universities face inadequate laboratories, faculty vacancies, weak maintenance budgets and limited access to research assistants.
    • This produces “islands of excellence in a sea of under-capacity”, while institutions in eastern, central and northeastern India remain under-represented in national research output.
  • Thin and Precarious Researcher Workforce:
    • India has approximately 354 researchers per million population, significantly below China and innovation-intensive countries with several thousand researchers per million.
    • Delayed fellowships, short-term project appointments, limited postdoctoral positions and uncertain faculty recruitment encourage brain drain and occupational migration away from research.
    • Women’s participation remains particularly weak in senior laboratories, patents and industrial R&D because of career breaks, mobility requirements and the leaky pipeline between doctoral training and scientific leadership.
  • Persistent “Valley of Death” Between Laboratory and Market:
    • Academic research is still evaluated largely through publications and patents rather than technology validation, licensing and social deployment.
    • Universities often lack professional technology-transfer offices, patent-valuation expertise, pilot plants and regulatory support needed to convert prototypes into market-ready products.
    • Researchers, incubators and firms also operate on different timelines. Academia rewards publications, while industry requires cost validation, scalability and assured intellectual-property ownership.
  • Fragmented Governance and Procedural Friction:
    • India’s research funding is distributed across multiple ministries, councils and missions with different application, procurement and reporting systems.
    • Researchers frequently confront lengthy approvals for importing specialised equipment, hiring project personnel, transferring grants and purchasing laboratory consumables.
    • Annual budgeting and rigid utilisation deadlines are poorly suited to scientific research, where failure, redesign and uncertain timelines are intrinsic.
  • Research Integrity and Predatory Publishing:
    • Pressure to “publish or perish” has encouraged paper mills, plagiarism, citation manipulation, predatory journals and low-quality doctoral work.
    • Weak institutional ethics committees and conflicts of interest are particularly serious in clinical trials, AI datasets, genetic research and environmental-impact studies.
    • Retractions and research-misconduct concerns prompted the government to announce that future NIRF rankings would penalise institutions for retracted publications and fraudulent research.
  • Strategic Dependence on Imported Research Inputs:
    • India’s laboratories remain dependent on imported scientific instruments, semiconductor-grade equipment, specialised chemicals, biological reagents and research software.
    • Domestic researchers may design innovations but remain dependent on foreign firms for fabrication, testing and precision measurement—creating a gap between knowledge sovereignty and manufacturing sovereignty.
    • Restrictions on advanced chips and dual-use technologies demonstrate how global technological fragmentation can undermine research continuity.
What Reforms can India Undertake to Strengthen its R&D Ecosystem?
  • Adopt a Predictable Multi-Year R&D Financing Framework:
    • India should replace annual, fragmented allocations with a legislatively backed ten-year R&D investment pathway, progressively raising combined public and private research expenditure.
    • A protected Basic Science Endowment should finance mathematics, theoretical physics, ecology and social sciences, where outcomes are uncertain but constitute the knowledge base for future technologies.
  • Build Regional Research and Innovation Compacts:
    • Research capacity should be decentralised through place-based innovation, rather than merely creating more centrally controlled institutions.
    • States should identify regional specialisations—such as biomaterials in Kerala, precision agriculture in Punjab, mining technology in Odisha and climate-resilient Himalayan systems—and jointly finance them with universities and local industries.
    • District-level living laboratories can allow researchers to test innovations in farms, hospitals, municipalities and public schools under real-world conditions.
  • Professionalise University Technology Transfer:
    • Every research-intensive institution should possess an autonomous Technology Transfer and Commercialisation Office, staffed by patent lawyers, market analysts and regulatory specialists.
    • Create a National Technology Exchange listing publicly funded patents, prototypes, licensing terms and available testing facilities in a machine-searchable format.
    • Researchers should receive transparent shares in licensing revenue and start-up equity, while universities retain safeguards against conflicts of interest.
  • Use Public Procurement to Create Markets for Innovation:
    • The government should become a first buyer, rather than merely a grant provider, for domestically developed technology.
    • Advance Market Commitments could guarantee purchases once specified performance standards are achieved, reducing market uncertainty for vaccines, green steel and climate-resilient seeds. The OECD identifies prototype procurement, test beds and such commitments as major instruments for creating innovation lead markets.
    • Establish an Indian Small Business Innovation Research model, reserving part of departmental R&D procurement for start-ups and MSMEs through phased feasibility, prototype and deployment contracts.
  • Develop a Deep-Tech Scale-Up Finance Continuum:
    • Create a Sovereign Deep-Tech Scale-Up Facility offering first-loss guarantees, convertible grants, venture debt and milestone-linked manufacturing finance.
    • Establish national pilot foundries, materials-testing centres and regulatory test beds, allowing start-ups to validate products without constructing costly facilities independently.
    • Public support should be tied to domestic intellectual property, local manufacturing and measurable technological spillovers, while avoiding permanent subsidy dependence.
  • Create a Stable and Mobile Scientific Workforce:
    • Research careers should become professionally attractive rather than a prolonged sequence of temporary fellowships.
    • Promote diaspora dual appointments, industry sabbaticals and scientist–entrepreneur fellowships, enabling movement between universities, laboratories and firms without ending academic careers.
    • Universities should provide career-re-entry grants and on-campus childcare to reduce the gendered attrition of researchers.
  • Replace Quantity-Based Evaluation with Responsible Research Governance:
    • Create an independent Office of Research Integrity to investigate plagiarism, fabricated data, paper mills and undisclosed conflicts of interest across institutions.
    • Publicly funded research should follow FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data—with exceptions for privacy, national security and commercial confidentiality.
    • Every frontier-technology mission should include ethics-by-design, environmental assessment and citizen participation, ensuring innovation remains consistent with constitutional values and public trust.
Conclusion
  • India’s innovation ecosystem is no longer defined only by public laboratories or software services. A more complex architecture involving universities, strategic research institutions, domestic companies and deep-tech startups is beginning to emerge. The decisive challenge is to transform this promising architecture into a high-throughput innovation system. That requires predictable research funding, patient capital, researcher mobility, professional technology transfer, innovation-oriented procurement and greater participation in global standards. India will become an innovation power not when it files the most patents, but when indigenous knowledge consistently becomes affordable products, globally competitive firms, strategic autonomy and better public services.