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Research funding, institutions and awards
How Indian research is paid for and organised: research spending, the national research foundation and funds for innovation, science institutions and their reform, awards, and the careers of scientists. It serves GS3 answers on science policy.
All 6 subjects shown; the 1 that changed from 16 to 31 August 2026 are marked.Show only these
India's research spending
Copy link to India's research spendingPrelims and Mains
For the first time the larger half of India's research bill is paid by private industry rather than by government. The change is in who pays, not in how much, because the total remains small set against the countries India measures itself by.
- The Department of Science and Technology's R&D Statistics 2025-26 put private industry at 51.8 per cent of research spending in 2023-24, ahead of government for the first time.
- Industry now employs more core researchers than the public sector.
- Part of the rise may be better measurement under new disclosure norms rather than new money.
0.84%India's gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) as a share of gross domestic product, up from 0.64% in 2020-21
2.58% and 3.45%the same share for China and the United States
354researchers per million people in India
What changed
6 Aug 2026
6 Aug 2026
- An August 2026 column argued that leadership in frontier artificial intelligence comes from a national innovation system rather than from a funding announcement.
- Such a system rests on universities, advanced mathematics, semiconductor fabrication, high performance computing, energy and patient capital.
- The column asks whether Indian universities host frontier laboratories, whether doctoral talent is retained, and whether firms build chips and foundation models rather than only applications.
29 Jul 2026Update
- Gross Expenditure on Research and Development reached ₹2,44,768 crore in 2023 to 24, or 0.84 per cent of GDP, up from 0.66 per cent in 2019 to 20.
- The private sector's share rose to 51.8 per cent, overtaking government for the first time.
- India ranked 38th on the Global Innovation Index in 2025, from 46th in 2021.
PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: FUND DISBURSED/UTILIZED IN ANRF (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE (opens in a new tab)
Anusandhan National Research Foundation
Copy link to Anusandhan National Research FoundationPrelims and Mains
The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) pays for research in universities and colleges, and its mandate is to widen the base beyond the institutions that already win grants. A review by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) found that public money has not spread that way, and that nobody can see the whole of it in one place.
- Close to 80 per cent of ANRF money goes to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
- Public research money is spread across agencies that cannot see what the others fund.
- NITI Aayog proposes a Unified Project Management System to plan, fund and monitor public research in one place.
- Without a persistent identifier and standard metadata on every grant, money still cannot be traced to results.
What changed
Research, Development and Innovation Fund
Copy link to Research, Development and Innovation FundPrelims and Mains
Where ANRF pays for academic research, the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund lends to private deep tech firms. Its first round of soft loans raised the question that a fund run by investors always raises.
- It caps its own share of any project at half, and is meant to be a revolving pool that returns its capital to the Consolidated Fund of India.
- Of the 22 firms approved loans in the first round, 15 were tied by investment to members of the selecting panel, an Indian Express investigation found.
- Its defenders answer that recusal and supermajority voting are the safeguards.
- They add that panel members' connections in deep tech are the point of having them.
What changed
10 Aug 2026
The Indian Express, 10 Aug 2026: Trust is key, tech fund needs more guardrails (opens in a new tab)
29 Jul 2026Update
- The ₹1 lakh crore scheme gives no grants. It offers long term, low interest loans and equity for up to half the project cost, only for technologies already validated in the laboratory.
- Money flows from a fund held by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation to second level fund managers. The Technology Development Board and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council are the first two, with ₹1,000 crore each.
PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: LOW-INTEREST, LONG-TERM LOANS/FINANCIAL GRANTS UNDER RDI SCHEME (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 23 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: RDI FUND UNDER ANRF (opens in a new tab)
Background reading: The Indian Express, 20 Aug 2026: Dear Editor, I Disagree: For deep-tech fund, members' connections are valuable assets (opens in a new tab)
Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026
Copy link to Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026Prelims and Mains
The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), founded in 1931 by P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata, is an Institution of National Importance run as a society under its own Act of 1959. The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 would repeal that Act and remake ISI as a statutory body corporate.
- Once a governing body's composition and powers sit in an Act, altering them takes Parliament rather than the institution's own members.
- An eleven member Board of Governors and an Academic Council would run ISI, on the pattern of the IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management.
- Faculty and some Members of Parliament read the change as a loss of the autonomy ISI has had as a society.
What changed
Draft National Health Research Policy
Copy link to Draft National Health Research PolicyPrelims and Mains
The National Health Research Policy proposes setting research priorities by disease burden, with the Indian Council of Medical Research as scientific lead in a three tier structure.
What changed
15 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news
- The draft proposes setting research priorities by disease burden and a three tier structure with the Indian Council of Medical Research as scientific lead.
Research integrity
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A retraction is the formal withdrawal of a published paper for error or misconduct, and the count of retractions is used as a measure of a country's research integrity; India ranks among the three countries with the most.
What changed
1 Aug 2026New subjectalso in newsnewly added
- India is among the three countries with the most retracted papers, and in 2025 six of the ten universities with the most retractions were Indian. A retraction is the formal withdrawal of a published paper for error or misconduct.