Speaking of India’s achievements in the pharmaceutical field and its historic Chandrayaan mission, the British science magazine Nature said that in addition to becoming an economic powerhouse, India is “ready to take the next step and become a scientific powerhouse.”

in editorial The magazine, titled “How India Became a Science Powerhouse,” said India is one of the most prolific countries in terms of research output and listed steps that could help India achieve this goal, especially closing the funding gap.

The editorial began by referring to the Lok Sabha elections starting on Friday, saying the winner would take charge of the world’s fifth-largest economy, which is expected to become the third-largest by 2030.

“In addition to becoming an economic powerhouse, India is poised to take the next step and become a scientific powerhouse. It is not a given yet, but it could happen. Basic research has been boosted for several consecutive years,” researchers told the Nature news team. Neglected by the country’s current government, the thriving research system needs greater autonomy,” said an editorial published on Tuesday.

The magazine urged the Indian government to close the funding gap and said one way to achieve this was to encourage businesses to contribute more, as other major economies have done.

“If policymakers and industrialists can do this, there is an opportunity to put rocket boosters on par with the country’s impressive scientific achievements,” the magazine said.

“Indeed, there is much to learn from. India had the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical industry (by volume) in 2021-22, according to government data, and was a major supplier of affordable and generic drugs, some of which were “It is vital to the country’s economic development. Last year, India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing and the first country to land near the south pole of the moon.”

Expenditure as % of GDP

The report notes that India lags behind only the United States and China in research output, with the number of Indian universities increasing from 760 to 1,113 between 2014 and 2021. Seven Indian Institutes of Technology were also established, bringing the total number of Indian Institutes of Technology to 23. It said that as two new Indian science education and research institutions.

The magazine highlights that India did all this despite spending just 0.64% of its GDP on research and development (R&D) in 2020-21, compared with China’s 2.4%. The report also said that the average R&D expenditure among the 38 high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is about 2.7%

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the share of India’s R&D expenditure rose steadily after economic reforms were introduced in 1991, peaking at 0.82% of GDP in 2009-10 before declining to current levels.

Private recommendation

Comparing the country with economies of the same size, the editorial said that in OECD countries, an average of 74% of R&D expenditures come from the private sector, compared with only 40% in EU countries (66% in EU countries). Indian%.

“Today, India has many multinational companies in sectors such as construction, information technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, etc. They can contribute more to the country’s research – both in terms of funding researchers and infrastructure,” the report said.

The magazine said that in August 2023, Parliament approved legislation to establish the Anusandam National Research Foundation, which will allocate 500 billion rupees to universities and laboratories over 5 years, 70% of which will come from non-governmental sources. However, it said more needs to be done to encourage Indian businesses to be “more generous”.