NITI Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda Report

& Transforming S&T in India:

Economic Survey

By Dr. Roman Saini

NITI Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda Report2017-18 To 2019-2020

S&T: Context and Challenges

● We have experienced a loss of momentum in the development in the S&T during the 1970s and 1980s, while we continued to build on the S&T infrastructure in subsequent decades after the independence.

● Later, there has been some return of this momentum in recent years.

● However, India has made substantial progress but China’s progress in S&T has been far faster.

● Transformation in India’s S&T sector would require rapid progress over the next fifteen years.

Factors for declining progress in S&TIndia’s progress in S&T have been held back as:1. Public funding in Research and Development (R&D) is low.2. Private investment in R&D also remains low.3. Management of S&T initiatives is inefficient and non-uniform.4. Government schemes for innovation have been producing inadequate

results5. Technological development in key sectors has been slow.6. There is a lack of a well-functioning national ecosystem.7. The higher education system has lagged in terms of R&D as well as

producing an adequately trained scientific workforce.

Goals for 2017-2020 for S&T

Over the next three years, the agenda has envisaged the following;

● We should direct our S&T efforts to creating a supporting environment for innovation and development and focus on priority sectors.

● Indian innovations should address the needs of the burgeoning middle class and rural residents.

● We must facilitate the development of affordable and durable products that are suitable for the local demand and context.

To achieve this broad vision, following course of action can be taken;

● First, we must put in place mechanisms to attract funding for and manage S&T initiatives.

● Second, we should ensure that S&T is harnessed in a strategic manner to address challenges in key enabling sectors.

● Third, we should direct our efforts to building a powerful national innovation ecosystem, through incubation facilities, quality higher education and supportive policies.

1. Funding And Management of S&T

1. Evaluate existing government schemes in science, technology and innovation:

a. This will help us identify any duplication of efforts, reduce approval times, increase accountability and collaboration between entities and measure outcomes.

b. Schemes that are not delivering on their objectives should be discontinued with and the released funds should be spent on revamping and consolidation of well-functioning schemes and on new high-priority schemes.

2. Develop clear guidelines for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in S&T:

a. We can achieve this by facilitating collaboration between academic institutions, government departments and industry, through PPPs.

b. We need to recognize that PPPs in S&T are different than those in infrastructure.

c. R&D projects are associated with a higher risk and longer timelines for achieving results.

3. Create a body to coordinate all public S&T efforts and actors:a. This body will coordinate with Science and Technology Departments,

concerned line ministries, state governments, academics and researchers, private sector leaders in the field and other stakeholders.

b. The main function of the body is to identify and deliberate national issues, recommend priority interventions in S&T and prepare frameworks for their implementation.

4. Improve the Administration of the Patent Regime:a. There are widespread complaints about delays in the grant of patents

in India. b. Slow processing often discourages potential applicants from filing

patents that need to be reformed.

5. Rethink the Teaching-Research-Industry Link:

● The Prime Minister’s initiative to create ten public and ten private world-class universities offers an extraordinary opportunity in this respect.

● Research must be made an integral part of the responsibilities of faculty members at these universities with teaching burden correspondingly reduced.

● The universities must also be given autonomy to attract research staff from abroad or local research bodies to create a critical mass of research faculty in specific areas.

● The universities must then be evaluated and ranked according to both teaching, research output and funding received from the private sector.

2. Priority Sector for S&T Interventions

1. Water Management

a. The government should prioritize the development of cost-effective, implementable, scalable, water sector technologies.

b. Technologies like desalination, recycling, removing heavy toxic metals from water, and water conservation technologies can work for realizing the target of “Water for All”.

c. These efforts should begin before 2019 to ensure that access to water remains uninterrupted as the country urbanizes and industrializes at a rapid pace.

2. Agriculture

a. First, it should seek to develop technologies for rejuvenating soil affected by overdose of pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic chemicals.

b. Second, it has to invite research to help develop cost effective technologies for implementing Precision Agriculture (PA) or satellite farming or site specific crop management (SSCM) for farming management based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops.

c. Finally, it should invite scientists to develop cost-effective technologies for food storage and transportation to minimize post-harvest losses in agriculture.

3. Energy

a. To drive growth in a sustainable manner, the manufacturing sector needs reliable access to a variety of energy sources, including sustainable energy.

b. For example, we should explore the conversion of coal into Methanol and other non-polluting forms of energy to fuel transportation.

c. It should also incentivize stakeholders to develop technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combining with hydrogen for producing Methanol (fuel) and olefins (for use in textile and other industrial applications).

4. Waste Management

a. The government urgently needs to fund the development of cost-effective technologies for addressing waste accumulation in solid, semisolid and liquid forms as well as technologies to convert "waste to energy."

b. It should encourage the development of technologies for transforming agricultural waste into Methanol or other forms of energy.

c. For example, it could explore self-sustaining bio-energy models or devices that have multiple uses including organic manure production.

d. Along with the private sector, the government should harness new technologies for converting waste into productive materials such as manure and gas.

5. Health

a. The government should help to develop creative and cost-effective solutions to recurring vector borne diseases such as chikungunya, dengue and drug resistance malaria.

b. Solutions may take the form of new vaccines, devices that help detect and kill mosquitoes carrying the viruses.

c. In addition, they help to create sanitary conditions that prevent the multiplication of mosquitoes in the first place.

6. Connectivity and Security

a. With respect to connectivity, the government should help develop affordable technologies for providing nationwide digital connectivity.

b. So that, they will form the backbone for e-governance, e-health, communications, rural innovations and entrepreneurship in realizing the Digital India Vision.

c. It should also encourage the development of technologies to address national security such as foliage penetration through wall imaging radars.

3. Creating an Innovation SystemIn a nutshell, our goal is to work towards an environment where innovation can thrive and provides the following:

1. Human capital

2. Quality education and R&D

3. Collaborative ecosystem

4. Availability of funding

5. Transparent regulations and a robust legal system

6. Culture for innovation and entrepreneurship

1. Human Capitala. India should pro-actively encourage entrepreneurs and researchers

from around the world to develop, design and build products in India.b. A centralised system for granting entrepreneur visas based on set

criteria including novelty in technology, sector, job creation potential and ease of dissemination of the product/service among others should be set up.

c. Talent and experiences of the large Indian diaspora should be tapped by engaging them in short term assignments, courses and other activities which would enable them to contribute to India's development.

d. The government should engage with Indian High Commissions globally to formulate a strategy for engaging the Indian diaspora.

2. Quality Education and R&D

a. In February 2016, the Union Government approved the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to promote an innovative environment and entrepreneurial spirit starting at the school level.

b. We should capitalize on this momentum and encourage AIM’s efforts to build a strong national innovation ecosystem.

c. Quality higher education and research should be the key areas of focus in this exercise.

d. In order to encourage innovative thinking at the school level, a provision to evaluate a student’s proven track record of innovation (e.g. awards and patents among others) should be introduced at the admission stage for higher education institutions.

3. Collaborative Ecosystem

a. One of the key requirements for effective innovation is the ability to disseminate it into the society.

b. A new technology that cannot be diffused into the economy does not benefit the society.

c. By 2020, government institutions such as BARC, ISRO etc. should pilot 5 partnership agreements with private institutions to ensure dissemination of some of the latest technologies into the society.

4. Availability of Funding

a. The Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee (AIPAC) constituted by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2015 was chaired by Shri. N.R. Narayana Murthy.

b. The committee has made a slew of recommendations to improve the ease of doing business in the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) sector, which include venture capital and private equity funds, an essential pillar for the start-up ecosystem.

c. However, the recommendations that have not been implemented but are important for the improvement of the AIF sector should be assigned a priority and issued a potential timeline for implementation.

5. Transparent Regulations and a Robust Legal System

Over the next three years, all key stakeholders including various Ministries / Departments and State Governments along with the nodal department i.e. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) should work collaboratively to fully implement the key objectives of the policy which include:

1. IPR Awareness: Outreach and Promotion2. Generation of IPRs (stimulating IPR generation)3. Legal and Legislative Framework4. Administration and Management5. Commercialisation of IPRs6. Human Capital Development

Digital Connectivity: A Challenge● The Digital India Programme, an inter-ministry campaign launched in

2015, has made significant progress in its nine growth areas. ● Despite significant progress in the past decade, digital connectivity in

India remains low, particularly with respect to Internet connections.● Currently, India has only 151 million broadband subscribers relative to

nearly 1,060 million telephone subscribers. ● Tele-density, or the number of telephone connections for every 100

individual is 83. ● In rural areas, the teledensity is one-third that of urban areas. ● Approximately 55,619 villages do not have mobile coverage.

Strategic Objective for Digital ConnectivityThe action agenda for enhancing digital connectivity is based on the following strategic objectives:

1. Enhancing digital infrastructure.

a. Soft and hard digital infrastructures are critical for enhancing connectivity and, more generally, promoting economic development.

b. This include network and cloud computing, fibre optic cables, mobile network penetration and regulatory framework including digital standards.

2. Developing software for services that can be provided digitally.

a. Digital provision of services for individuals and firms will help reduce transaction costs.

b. Electronic databases and online applications for government departments will increase efficiency, automation and transparency.

3. Empowering citizens digitally.

a. In the long term, digital connectivity will be important in empowering citizens by enhancing engagement, knowledge sharing, collaboration and providing opportunities for participative governance.

3. Access to Broadband Internet to Rural Households

a. The access to Internet to be made available under BharatNet is a prerequisite for enhancing other aspects of digital connectivity.

b. For example, two of the pillars of the Digital India campaign – e-Kranti and Information for All – require Gram Panchayats to access the Internet.

c. In this respect, the current progress of BharatNet is less than satisfactory.

d. In Andhra Pradesh, the state government has exercised to carry the cable on electric poles on its own and has already connected all Gram Panchayats.

4. Wireless Connectivity

a. For last-mile connectivity, we must urgently provide policy support to ISPs such as Right of Way permissions and permissions to promote access at select locations.

b. We should also explore commercial models to deploy Wi-Fi services.

c. For example, we could facilitate arrangements between different ISPs to share infrastructure or transfer assets at the end of the contract period.

d. Our goal should be to bring 15-kbps connections to at least 30% of the rural households by December 2019.

5. Enabling Infrastructure for Connectivity in Rural and Remote Areas

a. While rural residents accounted for 68 % of India’s population in 2011, they made up 73 % of the offline population.

b. The high cost of Internet services deters many low-income households from accessing the Internet.

c. Although the absolute costs of locally manufactured devices and data plans are low relative to other countries, they remain unaffordable for the poorest segments of the population.

d. Keeping regulatory barriers to the minimum necessary would lead to healthy competition in the mobile sector driving down the costs of devices and data plans.

6. Digital Literacy and Awareness

a. Access to digital services does not necessarily imply digital involvement.

b. To ensure take-up of the proposed services, we need to make sure that citizens are able to navigate them easily.

c. In parallel to other activities, schools, gram panchayats and vocational training institutes should provide basic training in using digital services and the Internet and cyber security awareness.

d. The curriculum for this training should be developed taking into account the focus areas of the Digital India campaign and the skills needed to use its programs.

7. Cyber Security and Data Protection Laws

a. Cyber security could be particularly important for digital financial services. Data related to digital transactions could be sold and the consequences would be unpredictable.

b. We should explore the coverage of existing data protection laws, assess the extent of their applicability to different services and put in place any measures to prevent the misuse of data.

c. From a transparency perspective, the additional data will help with better governance and prevent tax evasion.

d. However, without any clear guidelines on ownership, use and sharing of the data, there is a large scope for misuse.

8. Digital Financial Services

a. We can improve the environment for digital transactions in two ways: maintaining the regulatory structure and emphasizing financial literacy.

b. Maintain the current regulatory structure providing payment bank licenses that is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

c. The existing regulatory structure will incentivize competition, spur innovation, drive lower costs and encourage adoption of digital payments platforms.

d. An increased emphasis on financial literacy over the next three years will help drive wide participation in financial markets.

9. E-Governance

e-Governance in India faces several challenges that lead to its slow spread and below-potential citizen engagement:

1. E-services often do not provide end-to-end solutions.

2. Interfaces may not be available in vernacular languages.

3. Technologies are limited in scale in terms of infrastructure and adoption by public authorities.

4. Connectivity and enabling infrastructure to access e-services remains limited.

5. Digital literacy remains poor.

Over the next three years, the following action points focus on steps to improve e-Governance through specific platforms or features.1. Scale up grievance redressal portals at the state level and utilize data to

improve the resolution of grievances.

2. Ensure the adoption of e-office by different ministries and departments.

3. Central Government Ministries/Departments should provide services electronically where possible.

4. Develop end-to-end service delivery through common back-end applications through the adoption of three main pillars: Aadhaar numbers, e-Sign and digital lockers.

5. Use Digital Lockers to store and share information.

Public and Preventive Health

● Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of families and communities through promotion of healthy lifestyles, research for disease and injury prevention and detection and control of infectious diseases.

● Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations.

● Over the course of the next three years, the healthcare system in the country must prioritise public health and shift from being curative to preventive.

● Public and preventive health interventions work well for communicable and non-communicable diseases.

● Moreover, being a pure public good, public health will inevitably be under-provided in any market mechanism.

● The most important step for prioritising inter-sectoral public health will be the creation of a designated focal agency within the Union Health Ministry.

● The functions carried out by this entity should include disease surveillance, monitoring of health status, educating the public, providing evidence for public health action and enforcing public health regulation.

● An autonomous counterpart to the focal point in the Union Health Ministry should be considered at the state-level for coordinating with different agencies for public and preventive health initiatives, including those pertaining to the social determinants of health like nutrition, drinking water and sanitation.

● An important role for preventive health is in targeting disease risk factors including smoking, high blood pressure and sanitation.

● Early screening must be promoted so that diseases can be prevented or treated at an early stage. This can help to avert costly hospital-based treatment.

● Additionally, evidence-based preventive health interventions like breastfeeding as well as infant and young child feeding during the first two years of life should be mainstreamed through adequate budgetary allocations and plans of action at the national-level.

● To focus on public and preventive health, the concept of grassroots male health workers could be reintroduced to supplement Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) at the village-level.

● Screening for non-communicable diseases should be extended to 75% of the population over the next three years to arrest premature mortality.

● The screening should be conducted once every three years.

● Preventive health messages must integrate the practice of traditional medicine, and these must not be left to merely oral translation of knowledge across generations.

● The practice of Yoga should be made a regular activity in schools through certified instructors.

● During the three-year period, a minimum of 10,000 Yoga instructors should be certified.

Assurance of Health CareFor health care institutions in the public sector, several steps need to be taken to improve quality over the next three years:1. Quality certification of public hospitals (up to the level of district

hospitals) should be carried out and should be ranked and nudged towards improvement.

2. Existing district hospitals should be strengthened to conform to the Indian Public Health Standards. The “Kayakalp” award should be used as a planning tool for improving water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in public health facilities as opposed to only for assessment.

3. For enabling communities to avail of facilities at the district-level, up to 20% of district hospitals must be linked with medical colleges during the three-year timeframe to reduce the load on tertiary care institutions.

4. Nine sanctioned All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) should be made fully functional.

5. Co-location of Ayurveda Yoga Unani Siddha Homeopathy (AYUSH) services should be ensured in 50% of Primary Health Centres (PHCs), 60% of Community Health Centres (CHCs) and 100% of district hospitals.

Access to Medicine

● There is a trade-off between lower prices on the one hand and quality medicine and discovery of breakthrough drugs on the other.

● It is therefore recommended that the Drug Price Control Order may be delinked from the National List of Essential Medicines.

● For ensuring access to essential medicines, we must review the business model of the Jan Aushadhi Stores, as their rollout has been slow.

● In order to facilitate online access to quality medicines in a cost-effective and timely manner, the E-pharmacy Policy should be formulated and implemented.

● An authorization mark should be stamped onto approved drugs for sale, similar to the FSSAI stamp on food products.

● The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules should also be modified for the prescription of generic drugs.

● Further, a third-party certification system may be put in place for drug manufacturers along with the establishment of quality testing laboratories.

● The process for granting approvals for clinical trials and market authorization is complex with a lengthy timeline.

● It currently takes around two years in India compared to three months in Singapore. There is, therefore, an urgent need to reengineer the existing approval process.

Focusing on Key Social Determinants of Health1. Nutrition

a. There is an urgent need for a full-fledged and web-enabled Nutrition Information System.

b. It should be synergised with the Health Management Information System and the Mother and Child Tracking System.

c. It should also incorporate data from Swachh Bharat.

d. The WCD Ministry in Bihar has already piloted a software application. This application needs to be replicated across the country.

2. Drinking water and Sanitation

a. To address water quality issues, a minimum of 26,500 arsenic and fluoride affected habitations should be treated in rural areas.

b. A “Jal Mitra” from every village could be incentivised to ensure that water resources are free from contamination.

c. Additionally, an incentive mechanism could be considered for encouraging the construction of accessible toilets for the differently abled.

d. Further, developing a Knowledge Resource Centre for providing technological support for the Swachh Bharat Mission could be considered in States that do not yet have it.

Air PollutionAir pollution can be considerably reduced within three years by taking the following actions:

1. Find alternatives to crop residue burning.

2. Reduce pollution from cooking fires.

3. Reduce pollution from brick kilns.

4. Reduce in-city vehicle pollution.

5. Install flue gas desulfurizer, on all coal power plants in or close to densely populated areas except those less than 5 MW capacity and those older than 25 years by 2020.

Regulation of Polluting Industries● Regulation should be based on scientific studies of public health and

other benefits.

● We should introduce a change in legislation/rules so that the Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) are obliged to make rules and set standards by conducting or referring to scientific studies on the benefits of any given rule in terms of health and other benefits

● In addition, institute a requirement to publish all monitoring data on the PCBs’ websites.

● This is important to ensure that the wider scientific community is involved, so that mistakes can be corrected and procedures can be continuously improved.

● In this line, we may consider change in legislation/rules that gives power to PCBs to levy graduated fines depending on the seriousness of the offence and whether it is repeated.

● Closure and cutting electricity/water should be the last resort.

Forests and Tree Cover

According to agenda of action, following actions can be taken for reduce the declining forest and tree cover across India;

1. Improving the effectiveness of afforestation programs

2. Removing restrictions on forest product markets

3. Preventing forest fragmentation by linear projects

4. Invasive species control

5. Focus on Northeast India

Sustainable Management of Water Resources

● India’s vision for water sector is to ensure water security for economic prosperity and environmental stability through sustainable management of available water resources with people's’ participation.

● To achieve the above vision, India will have to adopt specific strategies.

● Following are the list of key strategies along with the specific actions for each strategy:

1. To provide irrigation to all farms (Har Khet Ko Pani) with improved on-farm water-use efficiency (Per Drop More crop)

a. Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of existing water bodies, which are not in use, needs to be given high priority for water management, particularly in drought-prone areas.

b. A nationwide Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign needs to be launched making farmers aware of the benefits of adopting Micro-Irrigation Systems with use of solar energy for better on-farm water use efficiency.

2. Encourage industries to utilize recycled/treated water and ensure zero discharge of untreated effluents

a. A program needs to be launched to ensure universal adoption of smart water meters by 2021 for industrial units consuming large volume of water.

b. Also, an initiative can be launched to ensure different types of industries meet certain share of their demand through recycled water.

c. To achieve efficiency, tradable permits for the use of regular (non-recycled) water may be introduced.

d. By 2019, benchmarks may be established for water use in water-intensive industries.

3. To create additional water storage capacity to enhance utilization of surface water resources potential of 690 BCM

a. By 2019, specific programmes may be launched to reduce siltation of existing dams and reduce seepage loss through selective lining of canals.

4. Ensure long-term sustainability of the limited ground water resources

a. In areas, where groundwater is available in plenty, sustainable development of ground water should be promoted which would also facilitate creation of sinks to store excess water during the rainy season.

Groundwater Banking

● Groundwater banking is “the practice of recharging specific amounts of water in a groundwater basin that can later be withdrawn and used by the entity that deposited the water”.

● Some clear advantages of groundwater banking are:

○ Low fixed costs as compared to dam and reservoir construction,

○ No requirement for rehabilitation and resettlement and

○ Less environmental changes.

● However, it is accompanied by limitations of establishing distribution networks, pumping costs, and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs, among others.

Transforming SnT in India: Economic Survey: 2017-18

Time to Transforming SnT in India

● We have entered the era of Artificial Intelligence where the human like robot “Sophia” has not only been developed but has also become a respectful citizen of a sovereign state, Saudi Arabia.

● This is the ultimate example of the great vision and strong desire to transform the SnT for the highest development and happiness of the human race.

● Therefore, we cannot glorify only historical contributions made by us and cannot even rest on its laurels for long.

A report submitted by a group of scientists has been quoted as saying:

“The stature of Indian science is a shadow of what it used to be … because of decades of misguided interventions.

We have lost self-confidence and ambition and the ability to recognize excellence amongst our own.

In a false sense of egalitarianism, we often chose the mediocre at every level”.

Why Science?

For Society:

● Basically, science, technology, and innovation have instrumental and intrinsic values for society ever since the beginning of the civilization.

● For example in modern, open, democratic societies where the pursuit of science are critical;○ The adherence to norms of discourse is needed for social harmony.○ Primacy is accorded to facts and evidence to maintain transparency. ○ A scientific temper with its spirit of enquiry is the fundamental duty.○ The ability to challenge the status quo is always appreciated. ○ The elevation of doubt and openness cannot be compromised.

● Hence, the open spirit of inquiry that is fundamental to science can provide a bulwark against the darker forces of dogma, religious obscurantism, and nativism.

● Even in the 21st century, these are not only threatening Indian society but also resurfacing around the world.

For Economy:

● In fact, science, innovation and technology are key drivers of economic performance and financial well-being of a nation.

● As India emerges to be one of the world’s largest economies, it needs to gradually move from being a net consumer of knowledge to becoming a net producer.

● Vigorous efforts to improve the “ease of doing business” need to be matched by similar ones to boost the “ease of doing science.”

For Security:

● Investing in science and technology is also fundamental to India’s security such as:

○ The human security of its populations.

○ The resilience needed to address the multiple uncertainties stemming from climate change; and

○ The national security challenges stemming from new emerging threats, ranging from cyberwarfare to autonomous military systems such as drones.

● Hence, without any delay, India needs to rekindle the excitement and purpose that would attract more young minds and energy to the scientific enterprise and innovation.

● It is required due to;

○ The dizzying pace and expansion of scientific research and knowledge on the one hand, and

○ The higher importance given to careers in engineering, medicine, management and government jobs among India’s youth on the other.

● Doing so would lay the knowledge foundations to address some of India’s most pressing development challenges.

● In addition, it will pave the way to maintaining a decent, open and democratic society.

India’s achievements in science and technology

● The nuclear energy program

● The hybrid seeds program that underpinned the Green Revolution to the space program, including the Mangalyaan mission which highlighted India’s niche of doing cost-effective, high-technology research.

● India’s important participation (involving three major Indian research institutions) in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment which successfully detected the existence of gravitational waves.

● India’s vaccines and generic-drugs which have saved millions of lives the world over.

Input & Output: Some Evidence

Inputs for SnT

1. Research and Development Expenditures

2. Ph.Ds. in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

Outputs of SnT

1. Publications

2. Patents

Input: Research and Development Expenditure

● Investments in Indian science, measured in terms of Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD), have shown a consistently increasing trend over the years.

● GERD has tripled in the last decade in nominal terms and doubled in real terms.

● However, as a fraction of GDP, public expenditures on research have been stagnant – between 0.6-0.7 percent of GDP – over the past two decades.

● Public expenditure is dominant, although its share has come down from three-fourths of all expenditures to about three-fifths.

● About three-fifths of the public investment is spread over the key government science funding agencies like Atomic Energy, Space, Earth Sciences, Science and Technology and Biotechnology.

● Given the country’s severe health challenges, the low – and virtually stagnant in real terms – budget of the ICMR is striking.

● India’s spending on R&D (about 0.6 percent of GDP) is well below that of major nations such as the US (2.8), China (2.1), Israel (4.3) and Korea (4.2).

● However, in India, the government is not just the primary source of R&D funding but also its the primary user of these funds.

● Even more, government expenditure on R&D is undertaken almost entirely by the central government; state governments have little share.

● As a lower middle-income country, it is not surprising that India’s spending on R&D lags upper-middle income and high-income countries such as China, Israel, and the U.S.

● However, it currently underspends even relative to its income level.● In addition, most other countries, especially East Asian countries like China,

Japan, and Korea have seen dramatic increases in R&D as a percentage of GDP as they have become richer.

● India, on the other hand, has only seen a slight increase. ● At its current rate, India would just barely reach GERD of 1 percent of

GDP by the time it was as rich as the USA.

Input: Ph.Ds. in STEM

● Indian Ph.D. students obtain their degrees either within India or abroad, especially in the US and there are less than half as many Ph.D. students in STEM from India in the US as from China.

● It appears that fewer Indian students have been enrolling in recent years for such degrees, whether due to more attractive options after a master’s degree or rising work visa challenges.

● On the other hand, there has been an increase in Ph.D. enrollments in India.

● This increase is in part the result of concerted efforts by the government, such as the Prime Minister Research Fellowships at the IITs.

● Overall, though, India has far fewer researchers than other countries.

Output: Publications● Broadly, the publication trends reveal that India is gradually improving its

performance as measured by an important metric – publications.

● However, there is a downside to the increase in publications.

● There are many journals that publish non-peer-reviewed manuscripts for a substantial fee.

● The major catalyst for their explosive growth is “the demand created by increasing emphasis on the number of research publications as an important determinant of the academic performance of a faculty/scientist being considered for appointment or promotion”.

● The Nature Index ranked India at 13 in 2017.

● The Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year covering the natural sciences.

● But there is still a considerable lag in levels between India and the other two large countries.

● The rate of improvement in China between 2001 and 2011 is dramatically better than India.

Output: Patents

● If journal publications reflect a country’s prowess in science, patents reflect its standing in technology.

● According to the WIPO, India is the 7th largest Patent Filing Office in the World.

● On one hand, much of India’s low patent output could be due to its lower middle-income status.

● However, patents have grown much faster with income in countries like China, Korea, and Japan.

● Unless there is a greater focus on R&D, rising income alone will not allow India to catch up in the near future.

● While India’s patent applications and grants have grown rapidly in foreign jurisdictions, the same is not true at home.

● Residential applications have increased substantially since India joined the international patent regime in 2005.

● However, the number of patents granted fell sharply post 2008 and has remained low.

● While Indian residents were granted over 5000 patents in foreign offices in 2015, the number for resident filings in India was little over 800.

● In 2016-2017, there were only 132 examiners for all patent applications in India. This has meant that patent examination and granting can take 5 or more years

Expanding R&D in India: The Way Forward

● Clearly, India needs to redouble its efforts to improve science and R&D in the country first and foremost.

● It should be done by doubling national expenditures on R&D with most of the increase coming from the private sector and universities.

● Some ideas are discussed below:1. Improve math and cognitive skills at the school level:

a. While India has made considerable strides in improving access to primary and secondary education, learning outcomes have been weak.

b. This weakness denies India access to the intellect and energies of millions of young people.

2. Encourage Investigator-led Research:

a. India needs to gradually move to have a greater share of an investigator-driven model for funding science research.

b. A step in this direction occurred in 2008, with the establishment of the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of DST.

3. Link national labs to universities and create new knowledge ecosystems:

a. Universities have students but need additional faculty support, while research institutes have qualified faculty but are starved of bright young students brimming with energy and ideas.

4. Increase funding for research from private sector as well as from state governments: a. The private sector should be incentivized to both undertake more

R&D but to also support STEM research through CSR funds.b. Govt. can also work with the private sector to create new R&D

funding opportunities which are in line with private sector interests. c. Efforts like the 50:50 partnership with SERB for industry relevant

research under the Uchchatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) is a good example of what could help make such partnerships fruitful.

d. State governments too need to recognize the need to invest in application oriented research aimed at problems specific to their economies and populations.

5. Take a mission driven approach to R&D: a. India has the potential to be a global leader outright in a number of

areas if it is willing to invest. However, this will require a deliberate focus in a few key areas.

b. The potential missions given below were chosen for their strategic importance and potential for societal impact.A. National Mission on Dark MatterB. National Mission on GenomicsC. National Mission on Energy Storage SystemsD. National Mission on MathematicsE. National Mission on Cyber Physical SystemsF. National Mission on Agriculture

6. Leverage scientific diaspora: a. There are, today, more than 100,000 people with PhDs, who were

born in India but are now living and working outside India (more than 91,000 in the U.S. alone).

b. There are a number of government programs such as the Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme, the INSPIRE Faculty Scheme, the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship and the VAJRA Scheme.

c. These schemes could be enhanced to take advantage of opportunities to recruit in a way to build whole research groups; the inducements should be such as to allow them to do good research rather than financial.

d. It would ensure that home grown talent has a level playing field.

7. Improve the culture of research:

a. While the age of peak productivity of scientists has shifted upwards over the 20th century, it is still less than fifty.

b. Great achievements in the sciences decline after middle age, and youth, conceptual achievement, and scientific revolutions are linked.

c. Hence it is imperative that there be greater representation of younger scientists in decision-making bodies in their areas of expertise.

8. Greater public engagement of the science and research establishment:

a. Much of science is – and should be – a public good, and hence that will always require substantial public funding.

b. But the need for publicly funded science means that national laboratories and other publicly funded R&D institutions need to make much stronger efforts to engage with the public and not make their research centers quintessential ivory towers.

c. Scientists need to create broad public support for their work and not treat it as an entitlement, given the many claims on the public purse. And if they do that, they will find a receptive and supportive public.

Applications of S&TEconomic Survey 2018-19

● ‘Science without humanity’ is one of the Mahatma Gandhi’s Seven Social Sins, published in Young India on October 22, 1925, to provide deep insights into the role of social and political conditions shaping human behavior.

● Each of these is a statement of principle that can be interpreted and utilized for nudging people towards desirable behaviour.

● ‘Science without humanity’ implies that Science and Technology has a huge potential to simplify and benefit human lives.

● Two chapters in the Economic Survey, Chapter 4 and Chapter 10 explains how the behavioural principle, “Making it easy to choose” has been used, by which technology can make things simple to understand, cut through layers of processes and target the benefit to the actual beneficiary.

Ch. 4 - Data "Of the People, By the People, For the People"

● Data is being created continually everyday as people use digital services.

● Concurrent with this data explosion, the marginal cost of data has declined exponentially and the marginal benefit to society of using this data is higher than ever.

● Together, the advancements of technology in gathering, storing, processing and dissemination have lowered the marginal cost of data to unprecedented levels.

● Data privacy and security are the challenges associated with creating and storing data.

● However, data can be treated as a public good by using technology.● It will require three features by the government to have efficiency

1. While any ministry should be able to view the complete database, a given ministry can manipulate only those data fields for which it is responsible.

2. Updating of data should happen in real time and in such a way that one ministry’s engagement with the database does not affect other ministries’ access.

3. Most importantly, the database should be secure with absolutely no room for tampering.

Transforming India’s data infrastructure

Benefits● Government becomes beneficiary due to better targeting in welfare

schemes and subsidies by reducing both inclusion and exclusion errors.

● Private sector firms become beneficiaries as the insight gained by analysing data can be used to cater to unmet need in different fields like education and predict demand, discover untapped markets or innovate new products.

● Citizens become beneficiaries as they gain easy and improved access to services like the DigiLocker for storing documents digitally and Non-Banking Financial Company-Account Aggregator (NBFC-AA) by the RBI which enables citizens to access data from banking institutions in a machine readable format.

Ch. 10 - Effective Use of Technology for Welfare Schemes- Case of MGNREGS

● The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was initiated to ameliorate rural distress by providing at least 100 days of manual labour at minimum wages to anyone who seeks employment under the program.

● Creation of productive assets for prescribed quality and durability, social inclusion, gender parity, social security and equitable growth form the founding pillars of the programme.

● MGNREGS wages were transferred to the panchayat bank accounts and a significant number of workers had to collect wages in cash from the gram panchayat office.

● This led to several inefficiencies, including widespread corruption, political interference, leakage, and significant delay in wage payments

● The implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer was a challenge as

○ As per a World Bank report, until 2015, close to 50 per cent of the country’s population did not have bank accounts.

○ Verifying the identity of genuine beneficiaries and transferring wages directly into their bank accounts posed problems.

Use of technology

1. JAM trinity enabled the roll-out of DBT

● In 2015, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched to ensure universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household.

● The accounts were linked to their unique Aadhaar numbers, which facilitated cross verification of identities.

● The expansion of mobile payment options enabled the Government to ease the connectivity issue as people could get access to banking facilities using their mobile phones.

2. National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS)

● It was implemented in the year 2016.

● Under the system, the Central Government directly credits the wages of the MGNREGS workers, on a real time basis, to a specific bank account opened by the State Governments.

● This initiated the implementation of DBT in the Scheme.

● It streamlined the system of fund flow and ensured timely payment of wages.

3. Aadhar Linked Payments (ALP)

● It was introduced in 2015.

● It enabled

○ Avoidance of ‘ghost’ beneficiaries

○ Cutting bureaucratic red tape due to direct transfer of wages to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries

Benefits of DBT

● Providing timely release of payments.

● Ensuring correct funds are transferred to correct beneficiaries, reducing corruption & leakages in system.

● Reduction in delays in system for funds transfer (improving programme performance and instilling trust and confidence in system by beneficiaries).

● Strong focus on security, tracking and monitoring of funds (through use of digital sign/signatures and convergence/interoperability)

● Reconciliation process during payments between intermediate agencies involved in funds transfer (near real time tracking, accountability and transparency).

● Streamline the verification process and end to end funds release process in all the beneficiary oriented schemes.

Impact of DBT on effectiveness of MGNREGS

● Coverage: more people are reporting for work.

● Timely Payment of Wages: payment of wages within 15 days.

● Demand for MGNREGS Work: it is expected that there will be an increase in demand for work under the programme in distressed areas.

● Supply of MGNREGS work: 20% increase in the supply of work in blocks that are affected by drought.

● Impact on Vulnerable Sections of the Society: after implementation of ALP, women, SC and ST workforce increased under MGNREGS during times of economic distress.

Thank You!