As the Narendra Modi government gears up to present its second full-fledged Budget on February 29, the scientific community is looking for higher outlays, incentives for innovation, and big bang projects. Modi has been generous with his praise for Indian space scientists who sent the Mangalyan (Mars Orbiter Mission) at a fraction of the cost of international projects. Similarly, he has been stressing on innovation, startup ideas and mega projects in renewable energy (solar) and on expanding nuclear energy.

Will Finance Minister Arun Jaitley take the cue and provide a much-needed booster dose to science and technology?

If he does, it will inject energy and excitement in researchers and the private industry to develop indigenous technology. It will also enthuse the youth to pursue careers in science.

Inherent issues

Budget 2015 did increase allocations in tune with inflation, but it was termed a letdown by the scientific community. Nuclear science and space got neither big allocations nor support for venturing into newer areas.

The Ministry of Science and Technology, which runs the Departments of Science & Technology (DST), Biotechnology (DBT) and the Centre for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), got an outlay of ₹7,288 crore, higher than the earlier year.

But the problem lay inherently in the Departments’ administration and leadership. The CSIR and many of its chain of 38 national labs did not have directors. The DBT and DST were led by K Vijayaraghavan for a while. Cabinet Minister Harsh Vardhan came in midway.

In one of his Budget speeches, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had placed a scientist on a higher pedestal than management professionals. In successive Budgets, both during NDA and UPA rule, some incentives were meted out. These include raising the weighted tax deduction on R&D to 150 per cent, hiking of corpus for the Technology Development Fund to promote commercialisation of indigenous technologies by private industry and research institutes, and Swarnajyothi scholarships for young scientists.

Big money

But, if the country has to break into the big league, it has to invest big money. As Bharat Ratna awardee and former Scientific Advisor to the PM, CNR Rao, and many other top scientists have often pointed out, the sector needs huge investments to create scientific infrastructure, develop centres of excellence, undertake cutting-edge research, patent and generate wealth.

What the sector sorely needs — and has been persistently demanding — is the long promised increase in R&D as a share of the GDP, which now stands at 0.09 per cent against the promised 2 per cent. Most advanced nations like the US, Germany, France, Japan and the UK have amply demonstrated how a high R&D spend translates into dramatic economic growth.

In India, the onus lies both on the government and the private sector to raise the spends.

To nurture innovation, create a start-up ecosystem in non-IT sectors and improve the overall quality of life through technological solutions, it is imperative that we jack up funding and ensure appropriate utilisation of funds.

Will the Finance MInister bite the bullet? We shall know on February 29.

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