New Delhi: India has jumped from 7th to 3rd global ranking in scientific publications as per the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2022 report of the United States. This was disclosed here today by Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh after a review with Union Secretary Department of Science & Technology (DST) Dr S. Chandrasekhar.
The National Science Foundation is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.
Lauding the consistent efforts of India’s scientific fraternity, Dr Singh also informed that India’s scholarly output increased from 60,555 papers in 2010 to 1,49,213 papers in 2020.
Dr Jitendra Singh also took pride that India now ranks 3rd in terms of the number of PhDs in science and engineering. He was also apprised of the fact that the number of patents granted to Indian scientists at the India Patent Office (IPO) during the last three years has also increased from 2511 in 2018-19 to 4003 in 2019-20 and 5629 in 2020-21.
It may be recalled that as per the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 brought out by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), India’s GII ranking has also improved significantly from 81st in 2014 to 40th position in 2022.
Dr Singh said the government has taken several steps to boost the science and technology sector which includes a successive increase in allocations for Scientific Departments, incentivizing investment by the private sector to increase their share in GERD, improving the ease of doing business in the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) activities; introducing flexible tools for public procurement; creating avenues for collaborative STI funding through portfolio-based funding mechanisms such as Public-Private-Partnerships and other innovative hybrid funding mechanisms.
A senior official informed that the Department of Science and Technology is likely to get 20 per cent more money in the upcoming Union Budget 2023-24 in comparison to last year.
In the last budget, DST received Rs 6,002 Crore, which was 42 per cent of the total fund of Rs 14,217 Crore allocated to the Ministry of Science and Technology. DSIR received Rs 5,636 Crore (40%), while DBT got Rs 2,581 Crore (18%).
The Government has allowed the corporate sector to make R&D investments under the provision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Corporates can invest in technology business incubators or contribute to research efforts carried out by institutions and national research laboratories as a part of their CSR. There are specific investment incentives offered such as Location-based tax incentives that enable 100% deductions of profits generated from establishing and doing business in northeastern states of India.
– global bihari bureau
