Lok Sabha Question No. 4211 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-21
Subject: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on R&D
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: GOKARAJU GANGA RAJU

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4211 TO BE ANSWERED ON 21/3/2018

## GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) ON R&D

4211. DR. GOKARAJU GANGA RAJU:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ +ÉÉè® |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ be pleased to state:

- (a) whether India spent only 0.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on research and development in 2015;
- (b) whether owing to the strength of India's economy and growing anti-immigrant atmosphere in some Western countries, India has an opportunity to attract back more scientists as there are more than 100,000 people with PhDs, who were born in India but now live and work outside and if so, the details thereof; and

(c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government to  control  brain-drain  and to  increase  R&D  infrastructure in various sectors?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES AND MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ +ÉÉè® |ÉÉètÉÉäÉÊMÉBÉEÉÒ àÉÆjÉÉÒ, {Éßl´ÉÉÒ ÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉ àÉÆjÉÉÒ +ÉÉè® {ÉªÉÉÇ´É®hÉ, ´ÉxÉ A´ÉÆ VÉãÉ´ÉÉªÉÖ {ÉÉÊ®´ÉiÉÇxÉ àÉÆjÉÉÒ

(bÉ. c-ÉÇ ´ÉvÉÇxÉ)

- (a) As per the latest available statistics, India spent 0.69% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on R&D during the year 2014-15. (b) Government  has  taken  noticeable  efforts  to  attract  overseas  scientists  of  Indian  origin  and  bring them back to work in India. The Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme and the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired  Research  (INSPIRE)  Faculty  Scheme  of  Department  of  Science  and  Technology  (DST)  and Ramalingaswami  re-entry  Fellowship  Scheme  of  Department  of  Biotechnology  (DBT)  provide  attractive avenues  and  opportunities  to  Indian  researchers  of  high  calibre,  who  are  residing  in  foreign,  to  work  in Indian Institutes/Universities of their respective interest and domain. In addition to assured fellowship and research grant for a period of five years for the scientists, provisions to seek for other competitive research grant of Government made these schemes more attractive and popular. VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research)  Faculty  Scheme  is  a  recent  initiative  of  DST  to  bring  overseas  scientists  and  academicians including  Non-resident  Indians (NRI)  and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) to India to work as adjunct / visiting  faculty  for  a  specific  period  of  time  in  public  funded  academic  and  research  institutions.  The growing strength  of  India's  economy,  the  propitious  policy  frameworks  adopted  by  the  Government  and sophisticated  research  facilities  available  in  our  academic  and  research  institutions  attract  more  Indian scientists to return and work in India. (c) Government  has  taken  several  steps  to  encourage  scientific  community  and  motivate  them  to continue  their  research  work  in  the  country.  This  includes  launching  of  new  programmes  /  schemes  and interfacing with other Ministries / Departments and Industries to leverage their resources and expertise in undertaking research of national relevance and thereby enhancing the share of scientific research in GDP. Schemes  like  Fund  for  improvement  of  S&T  infrastructures  in  universities  and  higher  educational institutions  (FIST)  to  build  research  infrastructure  for  enhancing  research  capabilities,  Core  Research Grant,  Start-Up  Grant  for  Young  Scientists  in  the  form  of  Early  Career  Research  Award  and  National Postdoctoral Fellowship, Research fellowships such as JC Bose and Swarnajayanti are targeted at practicing scientists to contain brain-drain and strengthen R&D infrastructure in various sectors.
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