The Union Cabinet has approved the introduction of the ‘National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill’ in Parliament, triggering a debate on funding in science and technology. The ‘National Education Policy, 2020’ recommends setting up of the NRF NRF aims to act as a coordinating agency between researchers, various government bodies and the private sector, thereby bringing the private sector into the mainstream of research. In addition to providing research grants to individuals, the NRF Will plan to promote research, develop infrastructure and provide other facilities in universities, especially state universities.
How will the NRF be funded
- The NRF will be provided with a budget of ₹50,000 crore for five years, with 28% (₹14,000 crore) government and 72% (₹36,000 crore) private sector participation.
- The draft NRF proposes to eventually increase the government’s share to ₹20,000 crore per year.
- A provision of ₹4,000 crore will be made by the government from the budget of the existing ‘Science and Engineering Research Board’, as it is being subsumed under the NRF. Therefore, the government has earmarked an additional Rs 10,000 crore over the next five years for the NRF.
- However, this increase seems to be very less as per the potential of the country’s Gross Domestic Expenditure on ‘Research and Development (GERD)’.
- This expenditure is very low (less than 2% of GERD) compared to other large economies such as the US and China.
- As per the last available data (2017-18), India’s GERD was ₹1,13,825 crore.
- India’s GDP was 7.6 and 5.1 times less than that of US and China respectively, India’s GERD was about 24 times less than these two countries during the same period and this gap has widened further in the last five years.