The government’s think-tank NITI Aayog in April released a report on the Ease of Doing Research in India. Seventy-six percent of the respondents said the industry rarely supported funding for projects in their discipline.

This is hardly a surprise.

Private investment in R&D in India has historically been very low, even in sectors like the pharmaceutical industry where private corporations have made huge profits only to plough that excess capital into real-estate or failing movie studios. As a result, it has been the Indian state, not the private sector, which has traditionally had to cough up the capital for R&D in India.

Much of the Indian government’s funding for R&D is routed through various government institutions like the Technology Development Board, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. Typically, these bodies invite grant applications from industry and academia, which are assessed before making the final grants.

While this funding has generally been modest, in November, the Indian government announced an ambitious fund of Rs 1,00,000 crore for R&D for the public and private sector. Officially called the Research Development & Innovation fund, it will be funded through loans and equity investments.

The Research Development and Innovation scheme targets sunrise sectors as well as sectors important for economic security and strategic purposes. Earlier this year,...

Read more