Monday Musing: Social Sciences Key to Shreshtha Bharat
By Dr Samar Verma*
Science Needs Social Insight
India Must Strengthen Social Sciences for National Growth
The world is entering sustained geopolitical churn. A global order once anchored in Western dominance is fragmenting into a more contested, multipolar landscape — one in which technology matters, but ideas, institutions, and social cohesion matter just as much. As trade blocs realign and frontier technologies reshape public life, India is increasingly expected to contribute not only manufacturing capacity and scientific achievement, but intellectual leadership as well. That ambition cannot be met through laboratories alone. A rising India also needs strong social sciences and humanities — disciplines that help societies understand themselves, manage change, and govern complex transitions.
Even as India celebrates its expanding scientific footprint, an imbalance persists in the research ecosystem: the fields that interpret social reality — economics, sociology, political science, public policy, education, history, psychology, and allied disciplines — remain structurally underfunded relative to their national importance.
A measurable imbalance
India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) is estimated at roughly ₹1.27 lakh crore, about 0.67% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the financial year 2024–25. The headline number matters, but so does the distribution. A dominant share flows to natural sciences, engineering, and technology through major agencies and missions, including the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). By contrast, the social sciences and humanities are commonly estimated to receive only around 5–7% of total public research funding — roughly ₹6,000–7,000 crore — spread across a wide range of universities and councils, diluting impact and continuity.
This gap is sometimes rationalised as inevitable for a developing economy that must invest in infrastructure, defence, and industrial capability. Yet today, India’s hardest challenges are no longer purely technical. They are social problems with technological dimensions: inequality and mobility, citizen trust, behavioural change, labour-market disruption, climate adaptation, urban stress, and digital ethics. Underinvesting in the disciplines that generate credible insight on these issues is not merely an academic concern; it is a vulnerability in state capacity and national competitiveness.
Why social sciences indispensable
Technology can accelerate growth, but it cannot, by itself, ensure that growth is inclusive, legitimate, or resilient. In a large democracy, outcomes are mediated by institutions, incentives, beliefs, norms, and political economy. Social science research clarifies how policies land on the ground, why citizens comply or resist, how markets are shaped by behaviour and trust, and how welfare systems perform under stress. In practical terms, it is the difference between policy that is announced and policy that works at scale.
The COVID-19 period illustrates this distinction. India showed strong biomedical capability — developing and delivering vaccines at scale — yet many of the hardest operational challenges were social: countering misinformation, building confidence, protecting migrant workers, and coordinating responses across uneven administrative capacity. These are determinants of outcomes, and they require sustained research in public policy, behavioural science, governance, and communication.
The same logic applies to India’s clean energy transition. Decarbonisation is not only a matter of deploying technology; it depends on adoption, affordability, behavioural change, and coordination across states and cities. Likewise, India’s urban future — shaped by migration, informality, housing stress, water constraints, heat risks, and mobility choices — demands rigorous applied research that connects economics, planning, sociology, and public administration. Social science does not slow innovation; it safeguards innovation by making it adoptable, equitable, and politically feasible.
A policy shift worth recognising
There is a promising shift underway. The government deserves credit for acknowledging the need to strengthen the research landscape. The National Research Foundation (NRF), created in 2023 with an outlay of ₹50,000 crore over five years, is a significant institutional step toward consolidating funding, strengthening research capacity, and attracting private and philanthropic participation. Crucially, the NRF’s design includes a dedicated Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities division and a stated intent to raise the share of support for these fields over time.
This matters not only for the money, but for the signal: national research policy is beginning to recognise that scientific capability and social understanding are complements, not rivals. In a period of rapid technological change, the adoption and legitimacy of innovation depend on institutions, incentives, and trust — precisely the territory of the social sciences.
But architecture alone is not enough
Institutional design is necessary, but it will not by itself create a thriving research nation. The deeper gap is a research culture gap — especially in the social sciences. Too many universities remain teaching-heavy and research-light. Grant systems can be slowed by administrative friction. Data access is uneven, ethics and field protocols are inconsistently supported, and incentives sometimes reward output volume over originality, replication, and cumulative learning.
Social science research also faces structural constraints: smaller typical project sizes, limited institutional overheads to support research administration, and short time horizons that discourage ambitious work. The result is not a lack of talent, but a lack of scaffolding. India cannot expect world-class evidence on governance, inequality, or social cohesion without investing in the machinery that produces it.
CSR and philanthropy as a missing lever
One underused lever is corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic philanthropy. Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 includes research, development, and incubation within permissible CSR activities, yet only a small fraction of CSR spending reaches research — and almost none reaches social science research at scale. With corporate CSR spending exceeding ₹25,000 crore in 2023–24, even a modest reallocation could be catalytic.
This is not mere charity but enlightened self-interest. Companies operate in environments shaped by trust, social licence, labour-market transitions, and regulatory scrutiny. High-quality social research helps firms understand consumer behaviour, workplace dynamics, inclusion strategies, and reputational risk. For philanthropy, sustained investments in evidence and institutions have historically generated outsized public value in health and education. Endowments, research chairs, multi-year grants, and independent evaluation funding can strengthen India’s knowledge infrastructure in ways that annual, short-cycle projects cannot.
What building a national research culture could look like
India’s next phase should focus on systems.
First, strengthen research career pathways. A research ecosystem cannot rely solely on overburdened faculty. It requires full-time researchers, field teams, data specialists, and project managers — supported by professional research administration and credible career tracks.
Second, professionalise research support within universities and institutes through dedicated offices that assist with grant-writing, peer review, compliance, ethics protocols, data management, and project delivery. This is unglamorous reform, but it is foundational.
Third, embed social science in national missions by default — whether in climate, digital public infrastructure, health, or emerging technologies — to study adoption, ethics, distributional impact, and behavioural responses. This would mainstream social sciences and humanities (SSH) as a core capability for national problem-solving rather than as an afterthought.
Finally, invest in social science data infrastructure: credible survey systems, open-access archives (with safeguards), and interoperable repositories that improve research integrity and usability. Better data makes research more cumulative, transparent, and policy-relevant.
A balanced research nation is a stronger nation
India’s scientific and technological ascent is real and worthy of pride. But to translate capability into lasting influence — to lead by ideas as well as inventions — India must restore balance to its research priorities. The NRF is a milestone; it should also become a platform for building a national research culture in which social sciences and humanities are treated as essential state capacity.
Science tells us what is possible. Social science helps ensure that what is possible becomes workable, legitimate, and widely shared. For a nation to become Shreshtha Bharat, that balance is not optional; it is strategic.
*Samar Verma, PhD, is a senior economist, public policy professional and an institution-builder, with 28 years of experience in economic policy research, international development, grant management, and philanthropic leadership. Views are personal.
