Science Ministry survey on research and development in India gets weak response from private sector

Due to the warm reaction from Special Research and Development (R -C), the Ministry of Science and Technology (Most), which conducts a periodic National Science and Technology Survey to measure the scientific research status in India, will postpone its analysis.

The biennial questionnaire, which emerged in the mid -1990s, is currently investigating the approximately 8,000 research and development organs financed in public and specially, and provides information about the country’s internal expenditures on research and development; The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); The number of scientists in the country (including the proportion of women); Patents have been produced and how India operates on research expenditures compared to other countries. The last report was published in March 2023, but only included data until 2021.

The data related to the survey are provided by the Ministry of Science by sending a detailed questionnaire to the organizations participating in scientific researches. Although the identities of the companies are masked, the data are used to determine the general trends on the status of scientific research.

The latest edition of the questionnaire was launched in December 2024 with the time to respond until September 30, 2025. While most of the responses from government institutions were found, the private sector intervention was weak.

Arvind Kumar, the President of the National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), said Arvind Kumar, “We will probably extend until November 30 and publish the results within a month. He spoke in a workshop organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Friday to encourage the participation of private sector to the survey.

As of September, 73% of the government’s RES institutions shared their data, but according to the data shared in the forum, only 35% of the industrial bodies (registered to the Ministry of Science and Industrial Research) and 9% of multinational companies shared their responses.

The last survey reported that in 2020-21, only 0.64% of India’s GDP in scientific research – the lowest (except for defense research) since 1996. Industrially developed countries such as the United States, China, Japan, Finland, South Korea and Germany spend 1.5% to 3.5% of GDPs at R).

Another concern is the financing mixture: approximately 75% of India’s RAR expenditures come from the public sector, while most of the developed economy contributes to the lion’s share.

Former President of NSTMIS, Praveen Arara said that companies did not come with information and increases the likelihood that private sector contributions should not be reflected to the analysis.

Industry participants said that the parameters of what constitutes a great difficulty in giving such information to the government is that the parameters of what constitutes the “research and development expenditures” are not clear.

“Many times do not provide clarity about the numbers we need to fill in. Given that India’s GDP per capita is low, India’s spending on Ring is actually quite impressive and we should not compare it with industrially developed nations,” he said.