Lok Sabha Question No. 4369 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-27
Subject: Quality Indigenous Knowledge Production
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Bellana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-4369

ANSWERED ON- 27.03.2023

## QUALITY INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

## 4369.   SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR BELLANA:

SHRI SANJAY KAKA PATIL:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  looked  into  the  reasons  for  India's  research  ecosystem  lagging  behind compared to other countries with an absence of quality indigenous knowledge production despite India being at the fourth position in producing the highest number of PhD scholars;
- (b) if so, the details thereof indicating Government's plans to rectify this as part of their National Education Policy which aims at the promotion of Indic knowledge through indigenous empirical study;
- (c) whether the Government is aware that students enrolled in doctoral programmes at credible institutions where students need to carry out quality research and write dissertations based on actual research without plagiarism and fabrication, is relatively low at not more than 10-20 per cent of the total as per reports; and
- (d)  if  so,  the  details  of  the  requirements  established  by  the  University  Grants  Commission  (UGC)  for institutions to be considered a teaching/research institution?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINSTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUBHAS SARKAR)

(a) to (d): India currently ranks 3rd in terms of total number of publications based on the National Science Foundation (USA) database and  Department of Science & Technology  (DST) commissioned Study, 2019 based on SCOPUS (Elsevier) database, India's position in terms of quality of scientific research measured by number of citations for scientific publications has improved from 12th  position in 2015 to 9th position in 2018.  The  Government  of  India  through  its  central  Sector  Scheme 'Indian  Knowledge  Systems  (IKS) Scheme' is involved in the promotion of research and development activities on traditional knowledge/Indigenous knowledge theme in the country.

The  Expenditure  Finance  Committee  (EFC)  has  approved  the  creation  of  National  Research  Foundation (NRF) with budgetary provision of Rs. 2,000.0 crore in  2023-24 as  recommended by National  Education Policy (NEP), 2020 to fund outstanding peer - reviewed research and to actively seed research in Universities and Colleges. In order to increase the enrollment of students' doctoral programmes in the country in IITs, IISER,  IISc  and  other  top  central  universities/NITs,  the  Government  of  India  has  launched  the  Prime Minister's  Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme with attractive fellowships in order to attract the best talent into research thereby realizing the vision of development through innovation. In order to promote research in universities, UGC has brought out Guidelines for the establishment of a Research and Development Cell (RDC) in HEIs which encourage collaboration across industry, government, community-based organizations, and agencies at the local, national, & international levels as mandated in NEP-2020. These RDC Guidelines are available on UGC Website.

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