"Private industry surpasses government in India's national R&D spending"
GERD (Gross Expenditure on R&D)
total national R&D spending, public and private, as a share of GDP
BERD (Business Enterprise R&D Expenditure)
R&D spending by the private corporate sector specifically
India's research and development ecosystem has historically been dominated by the state. Since independence, public institutions — the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) — formed the backbone of organised scientific activity. The private sector's contribution to national R&D remained modest through the 1990s and 2000s, constrained by weak intellectual property enforcement, limited risk capital, and a corporate culture oriented toward process efficiency rather than product innovation. The Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020 and its predecessor frameworks repeatedly flagged this imbalance, noting that India's gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a share of GDP had stagnated around 0.6–0.7% for over a decade — well below the levels of peer economies.
The structural response came through a series of institutional interventions. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), established under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023, was conceived as the apex body to seed, grow, and promote research across universities, colleges, research institutions, and the private sector. With a proposed corpus of ₹50,000 crore over five years — the bulk to be mobilised from non-government sources — the ANRF represents a deliberate attempt to shift the financing model of Indian science from purely public grants toward a blended public-private architecture. It subsumes the earlier Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and is governed by a board chaired by the Prime Minister, with the Principal Scientific Adviser as the ex-officio head.
The ANRF's design reflects a global consensus that frontier research requires scale, continuity, and cross-sectoral collaboration that no single government department can provide alone. Its mandate spans basic research, applied research, and translational research — bridging the gap between laboratory discovery and industrial deployment. Critically, it is empowered to forge partnerships with industry, provide matching grants, and fund research chairs in universities, addressing the chronic underfunding of academic science outside the IITs and IIScs.
The broader R&D financing framework in India distinguishes between GERD (total national R&D expenditure, public and private), BERD (business enterprise R&D expenditure), and HERD (higher education R&D expenditure). …
Which of the following statements with regard to the National Quantum Mission (NQM) is/are correct?
1.It aims at developing intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50-1000 physical qubits.
2.Its implementation includes setting up of four Thematic Hubs (T-Hubs) in academic and national R&D institutes across India.
Select the answer using the code given below:
Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF)?
1.NIF is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology under the Central Government.
2.NIF is an initiative to strengthen the highly advanced scientific research in India's premier scientific institutions in collaboration with highly advanced foreign scientific institutions.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
With reference to India's research and development (R&D) spending, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1.In 2023-24, private industry accounted for more than half of India's total national R&D expenditure for the first time.
2.India's Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP currently exceeds that of China.
3.The transport sector is the largest corporate investor in R&D among Indian private firms.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Consider the following statements regarding the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF):
1.It was established under a dedicated Act of Parliament passed in 2023.
2.It subsumes the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).
3.Its governing board is chaired by the Union Minister for Science and Technology.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to researcher density as an innovation metric, which of the following correctly ranks countries from lowest to highest number of researchers per million people?
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