Science Ministry survey on research and development in India gets weak response from private sector

Due to tepid response from private research and development (R&D) firms, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), which conducts a periodic National Science and Technology Survey to gauge the state of scientific research in India, is set to postpone the publication of its analysis.

The biennial survey, which originated in the mid-1990s, now surveys around 8,000 research and development bodies – public and privately funded – and provides insight into questions such as the country’s domestic expenditure on research and development; the share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) devoted to it; the number of scientists (including the proportion of women) in the country; patents generated, and how India fares on research spending compared to other countries. The last report was published in March 2023, but it only included data up to 2021.

Data for the survey is sourced by the Science Ministry by sending a detailed questionnaire to organisations involved in scientific research. Though the identities of firms are masked, the data is used to ascertain general trends on the state of scientific research.

The latest edition of the survey was launched in December 2024 with firms given time until September 30, 2025 to submit responses. While most of the responses from governmental institutions were in, the private sector response has been weak.

“We will likely extend the date till November 30 and publish the results within a month,” said Arvind Kumar, the head of the National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), the division of the Science Ministry in charge of the exercise. He was speaking at a workshop organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Friday, to encourage private sector participation in the survey.

As of September, 73% of government R&D institutions had shared their data but only 35% of industry bodies (registered with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) and 9% of multinational companies had shared their responses, according to data shared at the forum.

The last survey reported that in 2020–21, India spent only 0.64% of its GDP on scientific research – the lowest since 1996 (excluding defence research). Industrially developed countries such as the United States, China, Japan, Finland, South Korea, and Germany spend anywhere from 1.5% to 3.5% of their GDP on R&D.

Another concern is the funding mix: about 75% of India’s R&D spending comes from the public sector, whereas in most advanced economies, private firms contribute the lion’s share.

Praveen Arora, former head of NSTMIS, noted that companies were not forthcoming with information, raising the possibility that private sector contributions were not reflected in the analysis.

Industry participants said that a major challenge in furnishing such information to the government was that the parameters of what constituted “research and development spending” was not clear.

“Many a time, the questionnaire doesn’t provide clarity on the numbers that we need to fill. Given that India’s GDP per capita is low, India’s spend on R&D is actually fairly impressive and we should not at this time compare it to the industrially advanced nations,” said Sankalp Sinha, General Manager, IBM India, who attended the workshop.