Science and Technology › IPR and science policy

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.

No subject here changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all

Patient capital: Money invested with no expectation of an early return, so that it can fund work whose payoff is years away.

Foundation model: A large artificial intelligence model trained on broad data that can then be adapted to many tasks, such as a large language model.

GERD: Gross expenditure on research and development: everything a country spends on research in a year, by government, industry and universities together, usually read as a share of national income.

deep tech: Ventures built on a significant scientific or engineering breakthrough, with long development times and high technical risk.

soft loan: A loan on easier terms than the market offers, usually a long repayment period at a low rate of interest.

Persistent identifier: A permanent, unique, machine readable code attached to a grant, a paper or a researcher, so that the same thing can be recognised wherever it turns up.

Body corporate: A legal person created by law, which holds property, makes contracts and sues in its own name, separately from the people who run it.

Institution of National Importance: A status conferred by an Act of Parliament on a premier academic institution, which is then governed by that Act.