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India spends
dismal 0.88% of
GDP on R&D
the entire call set and
97/ 92% on InDels, and
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BioVoiceNews | April 2017
According to the Research
and Development
Statistics, 2011-12
published by the
Department of Science
and Technology, India’s
R&D expenditure is
around 0.88 per cent of
GDP and number of R&D
professionals per million
population are 164.
However, the government
says it is trying to
change the situation.
The Minister of State for
Science & Technology,
Mr Y S Chowdary told
the Parliament recently
that the Government
has proposed several
measures during the
last three years to
increase the number
of R&D professionals
in the country. These
include launching the:
Atal Innovation Mission
(AIM) in Budget 2015,
which is an innovation
promotion platform
involving academics,
entrepreneurs and
researchers; Impacting
Research Innovation and
Technology (IMPRINT) in
November, 2015, which is
a PAN-IIT and IISc joint
initiative to develop a
roadmap for research; and
Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana
(UAY) in December,
2015, which is to promote
innovation of a higher
order to serve the needs
of industry and promote
a vibrant research echo
system across IITs.
Further, the Government
has enhanced the
budget allocation of
the departments under
the Ministry of Science
& Technology during
the last 3 years from
Rs 8,768.36 crore in
2014-15 to Rs 10,353.00
crore in 2016-17, which
helped in supporting a
larger number of R&D
professionals in various
S&T institutions spread
across various states
in the country under
the departments.