The world panorama is present process a profound transformation. Geopolitical alliances are being redrawn, financial borders are tightening and tariffs, applied sciences, and total provide chains are being weaponised with impunity. In this new world order, nationwide sovereignty has develop into synonymous with technological sovereignty.
The Narendra Modi authorities’s response to this altering panorama has been pragmatic and bold. Over the previous decade, it has laid the inspiration for a contemporary innovation economic system — increasing its digital public infrastructure (DPI), opening strategic sectors reminiscent of defence and area to personal enterprise, and nurturing the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. Now, the Prime Minister has determined to deal with the power underinvestment in analysis and improvement (R&D).
In 2024, India’s complete R&D expenditure stood at about $18 billion, lower than one-twentieth of China’s $450 billion, and even beneath Israel’s $25 billion. To obtain management in strategic and important applied sciences, India should goal a minimum of $200 billion by 2035, roughly 3% of our projected GDP. This would require a big improve in authorities funding and a larger dedication from business, which as we speak contributes to solely a 3rd of the nation’s R&D spend, the other of the worldwide development. The problem is appreciable however not insurmountable.
India has a powerful scientific and institutional base. Our IITs and IISc, Bengaluru, now produce extra postgraduate students than undergraduates. The scale and high quality of R&D at these establishments have additionally markedly improved. The following examples illustrate this development: IIT Madras has created the world’s most detailed 3D photographs of the human foetal mind at a decision 10 instances sharper and at a tenth of the worldwide price; IIT Kanpur has developed a synthetic coronary heart projected to price one-seventh the value of the present market chief; IIT Bombay has pioneered CAR-T cell remedy for most cancers, slashing remedy prices for Indian sufferers by as much as 90%; And, IISc Bangalore has created a brain-inspired analog computing platform with 16,500 conductance states in a single molecular movie, revolutionising AI computing.
This surge in innovation has been matched by the federal government’s coverage actions. The new framework for the benefit of doing analysis has eliminated layers of approvals and given scientists larger autonomy. These reforms have been in comparison with the 1991 financial liberalisation moment. The creation of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), modelled in half on the US’s NSF, is ready to reshape India’s analysis panorama. With a projected ₹50,000 crore price range over 5 years, it should fund fundamental and utilized analysis throughout universities, schools, analysis establishments, and R&D labs with business collaboration at its core.
If the ANRF is about capability constructing, the brand new ₹1-lakh-crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund goals to catalyse private-sector R&D funding in strategic and rising applied sciences. It will provide long-term, low-cost financing, together with fairness and hybrid devices, to corporates, start-ups, and FROs growing breakthrough applied sciences in fields reminiscent of semiconductors, quantum computing, area, biotech, power, and extra.
Crucially, the fund can be managed by professionals, not the federal government, with funding selections made by unbiased committees of specialists from finance, business, and technology. In design and intent, it presents a historic alternative for presidency and business to work collectively and innovate throughout sectors. The division of science and technology’s intensive consultations with all stakeholders augurs properly for an environment friendly execution. The Fund has the potential to remodel India’s deep-tech ecosystem and present the nation the strategic autonomy it wants in a world the place China is attempting to develop and implement a brand new set of worldwide buying and selling norms.
There are historic parallels price remembering. Not many people realise that the US was not the worldwide chief in technology and innovation on the finish of World War II. Its transformation started with SCIENCE: The Endless Frontier, a 1945 report commissioned by President Roosevelt and authored by Vannevar Bush, which led to the creation of the US’s National Science Foundation (NSF) and different companies. It argued that to fight illness, guarantee nationwide safety, elevate dwelling requirements and create new industries, and jobs, the federal government should create scientific infrastructure, develop expertise, and incentivise the personal sector to take a position in R&D. This imaginative and prescient powered America’s post-war dominance. For India to realize PM Modi’s imaginative and prescient of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, innovation and technological excellence should develop into a nationwide mission.
The authorities, on the highest stage, has performed its strongest hand but. Now, others too should rise to the event. All arms of presidency should recognise that it is a important nationwide guess, which calls for urgency, conviction, and braveness. Occasional errors are inevitable in breakthrough analysis: They must be handled as studying, not lapses. If implementation turns into risk-averse, the chance will slip away.
Countries world wide have discovered methods to provide home applied sciences preferential entry to their markets, permitting their corporations to hone their merchandise to perfection earlier than taking over the world. Unless we do the identical, lots of our potential future world winners could also be stillborn and our path-breaking initiatives might underachieve their potential.
In world innovation ecosystems, from the US to China, Japan, and South Korea, probably the most worthwhile corporations are constructed on mental property and human capital. In distinction, India’s business has traditionally underinvested in proprietary innovation. They have the monetary and organisational muscle to take cutting-edge analysis from lab to market. They should make investments extra in R&D, collaborate with academia, purchase or fund promising start-ups, and place extra religion in Indian science. Our start-ups are already displaying the way in which.
India’s digital public infrastructure has already proven how visionary public coverage, executed at scale, can remodel governance. The RDI Fund has the potential to do the identical for innovation. If authorities, business, and academia pull collectively, the RDI Fund may very well be the beginning of a brand new innings.
Saurabh Srivastava is co-founder and former chairman, Nasscom. The views expressed are private