The national budget presented by
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been hailed as "growth oriented" by
the corporate sector, but Indian scientists seem not too enthused and
say the much-touted "achhe din" (good days) are yet to arrive.
According
to the budget documents, the government has provided Rs.356 billion ($6
billion) for research to various departments in the ministries of
science, atomic energy defence, health, earth sciences, new and
renewable energy and space. This allocation is 17.2 percent more than
last year's but is still a mere two per cent of the total Rs.17,775
billion available with the government for expenses this year.
The
scientists, who were expecting some big bang announcements and a huge
hike for scientific research in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's rhetoric in the past, are depressed that Jaitley's 90-minute
speech left no cause for such celebration.
They note that the
word science finds only a cursory mention in the 47-page budget document
and that, unlike in previous years, science and technology does not get
the prominence it deserved.
It is sad that funding for science
in India continues to remain sub-optimal, C.N.R Rao, scientific adviser
to former prime ministers since 2004 and a Bharat Ratna awardee,
lamented. "I do not know what to say except that (our) science continues
to be in bad shape due to inadequate funding," Rao told IANS.
Only
10 days ago, thousands of PhD scholars turned the spotlight on the poor
state of research funding through nation-wide protests demanding a hike
in the fellowship amount. Noting that no new science projects have been
initiated in this year's budget, Rao said "even existing programmes"
are already feeling the crunch.
"My appeal to the prime minister
is that even now it is not too late to rectify the mistake and allocate
additional funds for science," Rao said. "The increase required is so
small (in comparison to the available total budget) that it will not
even be noticed." He hoped that the science academies in the country
would collectively take up the issue.
M. Vijayan, former
president of the New Delhi-based Indian National Science Academy and a
professor in the Indian Institute of science in Bengaluru, said he too
was surprised at science not getting emphasis on allocations in the
budget. "The hike in allocation this year is only slight, and our
science spending is still hovering around 0.8 per cent of the GDP - far
short of the two percent target," Vijayan told IANS.
The finance
minister's announcement that the government will set up one more IIT in
Karnataka and six more institutions of the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences-type has not brought any cheer either. Rao says this is
a futile exercise "as many such institutions established earlier remain
headless and without laboratory facilities".
But K. Vijay
Raghavan, secretary in the department of biotechnology, an incurable
optimist, did not think the government has let scientists down. "The
budget is good news (for science). No cuts, a modest increase and new
opportunities in entrepreneurship," Raghavan told IANS.
Subhash
Lakhotia, professor emeritus at the Banaras Hindu University, cautioned
that though the modest increase is good news, "an allocation, by itself,
does not mean much unless the amount is really made available in good
time".
Last year, the allocated budget of the government
laboratories and grants for research projects were cut by as much as 35
percent. "This feature is a greater worry as it upsets any planning by
the agencies," Lakhotia told IANS.
But the government's move to
establish an Innovation Promotion Platform involving academics,
entrepreneurs, and researchers and another mechanism called SETU
(Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation) to support all aspects of
start-up businesses in technology-driven areas has been widely welcomed.
"If
administered well, these steps can act as a force multiplier for both
the Make in India initiative and for employment generation," Bhaskar
Ramamurthi, director of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, told
IANS.
( can be contacted at [email protected])
