Did the 2026-27 Union Budget dwell as much as India’s science ambitions and scientists’ expectations? The views differ relying on what particular sectors have obtained and the initiatives introduced, and so they’re not all rosy. Here are feedback from seven leading scientists from round India, together with heads of key departments, institutes, and a leading State college, compiled by New Delhi-based freelance science journalist T.V. Padma for The Hindu.
To learn this feedback in article kind, click here.
N. Kalaiselvi, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
CSIR director-general N. Kalaiselvi.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
I view the Union Budget 2026-27 as a powerful and reassuring affirmation of the Government of India’s perception in science, expertise, and innovation as engines of nationwide progress and self-reliance. The Budget displays continuity and confidence in public analysis establishments, with sustained help to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and CSIR, together with enhanced allocations for nationwide laboratories, capability constructing, and mission-oriented analysis. This regular funding trajectory gives an enabling basis for long-term scientific functionality and influence.
I’m significantly inspired by the introduction of a number of mission-mode and sector-focused initiatives on this Budget. Programmes akin to Biopharma SHAKTI, India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Mission, and expanded help for digital elements manufacturing and significant minerals are well timed and forward-looking. These initiatives resonate strongly with CSIR’s strengths in indigenous expertise improvement, superior supplies, course of innovation and translational analysis. The emphasis on enhancing manufacturing techniques in areas akin to water, power and significant minerals, together with help for MSMEs, design-led innovation and sustainable manufacturing, aligns intently with CSIR’s ongoing reforms and Technology Transfer Commitments — 2030.
The Budget additionally sends a transparent sign that science-led options will play a central function in addressing nationwide priorities—from healthcare and clear power to manufacturing competitiveness and local weather motion. CSIR, with its nationwide laboratory community and deep {industry} linkages, stands absolutely ready to translate this coverage intent into deployable applied sciences and measurable outcomes. I’m assured that the Union Budget 2026–27 will additional strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem and speed up progress in direction of Viksit Bharat.
L.S. Shahisdhara, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru
L.S. Shashidhara
| Photo Credit:
HANDOUT E -MAIL/The Hindu
We welcome the bulletins of ₹10,000 crore over 5 years for the biopharma sector and ₹20,000 crore as half of this 12 months’s allocation underneath the RDIF. Indian scientists, significantly in the organic sciences, have confronted important funding shortfalls following main modifications launched in 2024-25 to the fund-flow system and delays in the transition from the erstwhile SERB to the ANRF. These disruptions might have resulted in underspending by DBT and DST/SERB/ANRF throughout each the 2024-25 and 2025-26 monetary years. Thankfully, nonetheless, this underspending has not resulted in decreased budgetary allocations, and the outlays for DBT, DST, and ANRF stay unchanged from the earlier 12 months. ICMR, which has demonstrated sturdy spending efficiency in FY 2025-26, has obtained a 25% improve in its budget.
It seems that the budgetary allocation underneath the new Biopharma SHAKTI scheme has been made to the Department of Pharmaceuticals. It is necessary to recognise that many instruments and applied sciences underpinning biopharma originate from researchers working throughout various areas of the life sciences, together with biomedical and agricultural analysis. Indian academia and the R&D sector possess substantial experience in fashionable artificial biology, bioengineering, and computational and AI-driven approaches to protein design and metabolic engineering. Expanding this neighborhood by means of short-term coaching programmes and internship schemes would additional strengthen nationwide capability. We due to this fact request the Department of Pharmaceuticals to actively interact the broader life sciences neighborhood in the design and implementation of schemes underneath Biopharma SHAKTI.
While the therapy and treatment of illnesses are crucial in the quick time period, preventive measures to scale back the general well being burden are equally necessary for India, given its massive inhabitants and uneven entry to healthcare. A portion of the budgetary allocation underneath Biopharma SHAKTI, together with the enhanced funding for ICMR, could possibly be successfully utilised to provoke and help such long-term preventive well being programmes.
Globally, small- and medium-sized grants to rising analysis teams play a crucial function in advancing each primary and utilized science. In India, such help is basically offered by DBT, ANRF, and ICMR, and we hope these businesses will improve the quantity of such grants. Finally, we sincerely request the Expenditure Division of the Ministry of Finance to facilitate easy and well timed fund stream, which is able to considerably improve our means to develop indigenous options for well being, agriculture, and the atmosphere.
Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
Rajesh Gokhale
| Photo Credit:
File photograph
The Union Budget 2026-27 reinforces biotechnology’s central function in advancing India’s self-reliance in bioeconomy and biopharma. The budget estimate for DBT in 2026-27 is Rs. 3,446 crore, representing a 1.2x improve over the revised estimate (RE) of 2025-26 (Rs. 2,830.45 crore), reflecting sustained prioritisation of biotechnology.
BioPharma Shakti, with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore over 5 years, is a serious enhance for the DBT’s mandate to handle the rising burden of non-communicable illnesses akin to diabetes and most cancers. This initiative will even speed up indigenous improvement and manufacturing of biologics and biosimilars, strengthening affordability, entry, and international competitiveness.
The DBT- National Biopharma Mission (NBM), carried out by means of BIRAC, has already created a powerful basis by supporting R&D throughout vaccines, biologics, biosimilars, diagnostics, and medical gadgets, together with GCP-compliant scientific trial websites, illness registries, vaccine networks, expertise switch places of work, and shared infrastructure. Overall, NBM has offered a basis stone for BioPharma Shakti, which is able to construct on this ecosystem and scale it additional.
Looking forward, DBT already prioritises cell and gene remedy (CGT) as a strategic frontier by means of a proposed nationwide mission centered on indigenous expertise improvement and value discount. DBT will proceed to anchor initiatives and packages on biologics and biosimilars, leveraging on iBRIC+ establishments’ R&D and innovation energy. BIRAC-DBT will additional broaden co-development help for biologics underneath the RDI Imitative.
This 12 months’s budget and initiatives are additionally aligned with the BioE3 coverage of the Government of India, which promotes superior biomanufacturing for biotherapeutics akin to monoclonal antibodies, mRNA remedy, and CGT, CCUS, sensible biomanufacturing, and so forth.Building on the BioE3 and BioRIDE scheme, DBT will additional scale up biomanufacturing hubs, biofoundries, and bio-AI hubs underneath the BioE3 coverage, establishing ‘Moolankur’ hubs that combine AI with biology to allow high-performance biomanufacturing.
Renu Vig, Vice-chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Renu Vig
| Photo Credit:
RV1811 (CC BY-SA)
The Union Budget 2026-27’s emphasis on ‘University Townships’ is a welcome shift towards industry-integrated studying. As Vice-Chancellor of 4th oldest multi-disciplinary training and analysis state college in the nation, I consider such establishments should lead the ‘Knowledge Partnership’ in each State’s bid for these townships. Rather than being seen as separate from new developments, these legacy universities ought to be anchor companions in these new industrial-academic zones.
We ought to envision ‘Thematic Clusters’ the place a legacy State University leads in the Basic Sciences, Humanities, and regional innovation, whereas technical institutes present the essential toolsets. This sort of multi-disciplinarity is the core of the NEP 2020, and it’s already in the DNA of legacy establishments. These universities educate greater than 80% of our college students and have constructed the nation’s mental basis over a long time; they’re a nationwide asset that have to be nurtured to make sure the success of India’s new instructional map.
States can contain their universities whereas making ready proposals for bidding and in a while use the present obtainable experience for organising the townships. Legacy universities ought to be leaders of this initiative.
Tarun Souradeep, Director, Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru:
Tarun Souradeep
| Photo Credit:
File photograph
It is extraordinarily heartening to notice the express encouragement for Astronomy and Astrophysics by means of help for the institution of main nationwide observational amenities in India in the Budget 2026. Astronomy and our place in the Cosmos have been the prime quest for humankind since our intelligence prompted the first cycle of quests and conquests. These amenities would offer a singular platform to undertake, develop, and innovate to beat new targets at the highest degree of expertise, permitting Indian scientists to tackle additional difficult new quests. While most might know that the ubiquitous CCD cameras in mobiles had been developed for Astronomy, much less well-known is that the expertise underlying higher-speed 4G and 5G sequence developed in astronomical instrumentation laboratories a pair of a long time earlier, stepping past radio frequencies into the microwave band and past. I’m excited that this additionally paves the manner for proposals for observatories in the microwave and Terahertz bands of Astronomy, accessible from the distinctive, dry Himalayan heights of Ladakh, which is able to enable India to develop experience in strategic dual-use expertise whereas selling India as a first-rate international vacation spot for observatories at these frequencies.
The improvement of detector expertise at the microwave and terahertz ranges ties into the Budget 2026 help for the semiconductor mission, the place, at the pinnacle of functionality, superconducting semiconductor chips working near -273 Centigrade (milli-Kelvins) would open new Astronomical home windows whereas offering quantum sensor expertise capabilities crucial to the Nation’s purpose to realize international parity in quantum computing, communications, and fashionable defence infrastructure.
C.P. Rajendran, Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru
C.P. Rajendran
| Photo Credit:
File photograph
Although India’s gross R&D expenditure has risen nominally, its share of GDP has stagnated between 0.64% and 0.7% for years, far behind superior economies. The 2026-27 budget for science follows a globally modern script, prioritising utilized sectors like house purposes, AI, semiconductors, and quantum expertise.
This 12 months’s fund allocation for these sectors merely continues established tendencies. Despite a acknowledged coverage mannequin that emphasises private-sector contributions, public funding nonetheless accounts for roughly two-thirds of whole R&D expenditure. The authorities has didn’t sufficiently enthuse personal capital to put money into indigenous technological analysis, revealing a continued, structural desire for importing mature international expertise over fostering home innovation.
The Department of Space obtained a 2.16% funding improve, reflecting sturdy political backing for flagship packages like the Gaganyaan manned mission—a high-visibility challenge that may ship important political optics forward of an election.
The budget additionally envisions upgrading 4 main astronomy amenities, together with the National Large Solar Telescope and the National Large Optical Infrared Telescope, a transfer that might strengthen photo voltaic physics and astrophysics analysis.
However, this dedication is undercut by a stark funding contradiction. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), the premier establishment tasked with leading this very work, has obtained no further budgetary help. While the new telescopes carry an estimated price ticket of Rs 3,500 crore, the IIA—alongside 24 different autonomous analysis establishments—will collectively obtain solely Rs 1,623 crore. This disparity reveals a precedence for seen infrastructure over the foundational scientific capability required to utilise it successfully.
The challenges confronted by analysis establishments like the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) mirror a systemic disaster in primary analysis. National priorities have shifted decisively towards short-term, mission-mode programmes, ravenous basic science of sustained help.
While general R&D budgets might present nominal will increase, they persistently fail to outpace inflation, leading to an efficient year-on-year reduce in actual analysis funding. Consequently, India’s whole R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP has remained stagnant. This persistent underfunding of primary science is compounded by an atmosphere of extreme paperwork and top-down micromanagement inside businesses like the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
This administrative burden actively hinders researchers, obstructing the well timed and efficient execution of even authorized initiatives. The final result’s a paradox of low fund utilisation and unmet goals, the place the equipment of governance stifles the very innovation it’s meant to foster.
The case of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is emblematic of a broader sample: bold bulletins adopted by minimal funding and a shift in priorities away from primary science. Conceived to invigorate analysis, the ANRF has been tormented by an absence of transparency and an over-reliance on private-sector partnerships centered on “prototype development,” sidelining curiosity-driven basic analysis. Despite an preliminary five-year promise of Rs 50,000 crore, it has obtained a meagre Rs 2,000 crore for the second consecutive 12 months.
An analogous disconnect defines the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) fund, introduced final 12 months to help deep-tech initiatives in the personal sector with a promised Rs 1 lakh crore over seven years. To date, solely Rs 3,000 crore has been disbursed, elevating the crucial query: “Spent on what?”
The funding disparity is stark. While public labs obtain restricted funds, the personal sector is allotted ten occasions extra public cash by means of such schemes. This philosophy extends to fiscal coverage, the place big-tech corporations like Meta and Google are provided a tax vacation till 2047 to determine information centres in India. These amenities are huge energy guzzlers, a key purpose such corporations search offshore areas. This incentive not solely represents a big switch of public sources however will even impose an incredible, long-term pressure on India’s power grid for many years.
The 2026-27 budget allocates a revised estimate of ₹3,200 crore to speed up the implementation of 50,000 college labs nationwide. This initiative goals to foster hands-on studying and innovation, producing pupil curiosity in rising applied sciences like robotics, AI, and the Internet of Things, and making a pipeline for future researchers. However, this promising funding is launched into an academic atmosphere already compromised by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its subsequent initiatives, which essentially undermine the spirit of inquiry and innovation the labs are supposed to nurture.
Pradeep T., Professor of Chemistry, IIT-Madras
Pradeep T.
| Photo Credit:
IIT-Madras
The Union Budget introduced right now embeds science, analysis, expertise, and training throughout a number of mission-mode initiatives and institutional interventions. Instead of presenting analysis as a standalone sector, the Budget positions it as an enabling basis for financial progress, strategic autonomy, and workforce preparedness underneath the imaginative and prescient of Viksit Bharat. The speech displays continuity with current coverage instructions whereas increasing the scale and scope of science-linked nationwide programmes. Explicit funding plans for this transition are introduced.
Taken collectively, the provisions in the Union Budget 2026–27 point out a transparent coverage path towards system-level strengthening of India’s analysis and expertise ecosystem. By embedding analysis explicitly inside missions on biopharma, semiconductors, crucial supplies, and superior manufacturing, the Budget strikes past remoted funding towards sector-spanning analysis platforms. The growth of specialised establishments (akin to NIPERs), nationwide analysis amenities, scientific trial networks, and industry-linked analysis and coaching centres is prone to improve the scale, range, and translational potential of superior analysis in India. The emphasis on full-stack capabilities, regulatory science, and value-chain integration suggests an intent to maneuver from expertise adoption towards expertise creation. If this strategy strikes in direction of different areas, will probably be an important help for Vision 2047.
The proposed University Townships and inclusion-focused measures deal with long-standing structural constraints in greater training and analysis, probably enabling sustained progress in human capital. Simultaneously, investments in frontier infrastructure and rising expertise training sign continuity in India’s aspiration to be a world contributor to superior science and expertise.
The budget largely presents coverage views on India’s progress trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial for numerous missions/ministries to allocate sector-specific funding to create the essential S&T breakthroughs crucial for realising the goals of numerous missions. Systematic improve in allocation in the coming years is crucial to make an influence globally and particular particulars in direction of this imaginative and prescient are anticipated in the course of time.