Research and innovation funding is set to double and there will be significant extra funding for improving ‘world-class’ institutions, under the proposals for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first budget in his second term in office.
A new National Research Foundation (NRF) to fund, coordinate and boost research in science, technology, the humanities and social sciences at universities in India will be allocated central government funds.
The higher education regulatory body the University Grants Commission (UGC) also launched a scheme this week to boost research culture and also cross-disciplinary research, as part of the government’s drive to improve research.
In an indication of the government’s focus on improving research and research governance, the proposed NRF will be a self-governing apex body formed under the chairmanship of the prime minister and with the government’s principal scientific advisor as co-chair.
It will be funded by a direct transfer of 1% of the central government’s budget estimates every year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on 5 July in her first budget speech. Sitharaman was previously India’s defence minister.
Strengthened research eco-system
“NRF will ensure that the overall research eco-system in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areas relevant to our national priorities and towards basic science without duplication of effort and expenditure,” Sitharaman said.
“We would work out a very progressive and research-oriented structure for NRF. The funds available with all ministries will be integrated in NRF. This would be adequately supplemented with additional funds," she added.
The idea of the NRF was first unveiled in the National Education Policy (NEP) – a long term planning document – released as a draft on 31 May, with the government now moving swiftly to put it into place. Sitharaman said the government would follow the NEP.
The NEP document, which is currently going through a consultation process, has not yet been finalised.
“The primary problems are the lack of a research culture and mindset, limited funding and lack of research capabilities in most universities,” noted Asfia Zafar, research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
“Several schemes were launched in the past, but their impact was limited due to their very conventional implementation model. The NRF will hopefully change the scenario.”
Budget increases for higher education, research
The government has allocated INR948.5 billion (US$13.8 billion) for the education sector in the 2019-20 fiscal year – which is 3.3% of the national budget. Of this, INR383.17 billion (US$5.6 billion) is for higher education – an increase of around 8% compared to last year’s higher education allocation.
More strikingly, the total allocation for research and innovation has more than doubled in the budget from INR2.4 billion (US$35 million) million last fiscal year to INR6.09 billion (US$88.8 million) in the current budget, reversing a steady decline over the past decade. Research spending is currently around 0.7 % of India’s gross domestic product.
The NRF will also create an ‘Innovation Fund’ to support innovative projects at pre-incubation, incubation and start-up level, Sitharaman said.
Suitable infrastructure and qualified staff will be provided to achieve the objectives, according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The NRF will focus on building high-quality human resources, comparable to the global best with a good understanding of research and innovation methods. It will create substantial numbers of interconnected ‘Centres of Global Excellence’ as drivers of research and innovation, with deep connections to society and the economy, according to Sitharaman.
Centres of excellence
Centres of Excellence will be established in existing institutions of high repute and focus on ‘thrust’ areas of national importance. These centres will conduct world-class research in ‘thrust’ fields, train high-quality technical human resources of global standards and aggressively engage with local higher education institutions and the research community, especially for developing high-quality human capital.
To attain excellence, the new education policy proposes to maintain a ‘catchment’ of 40-50 institutions with increased autonomy, to which special incentives to improve performance would be provided.
The government has allocated INR4 billion (US$58 million) – up more than threefold from around INR1.3 billion (US$19 million) allocated last year – for building world-class higher education institutions and to fund more institutions to boost their performance in world university rankings to reach within the top 200.
To this end, the government approved the Institutions of Eminence (IoE) scheme in 2017 with six institutions – three public and three private – already named.
The IoE scheme aims to establish 10 world-class institutions from each of the public and private sectors. Any further declaration of IoEs shall automatically be a part of this ‘catchment’, according to the ministry.
The original proposals for Institutions of Eminence stated the government would name 30 IoEs – 15 public and 15 private institutions.
Funding of NEP proposals
Sitharaman also said the government will bring in the new National Education Policy “to transform India’s higher education system to one of the global best education systems” – an indication that the NEP will be a major plank of Modi’s second term.
The budget allocation to central universities has been increased by nearly INR4 billion to INR68.43 billion. The flagship Indian Institutes of Technology are allocated only a slight increase of INR64.1 billion this year as against INR63.26 million in 2018-19.
But the allocation for the Indian Institutes of Management, which were given autonomy last fiscal year, saw a significant drop – INR4.46 billion for all the Indian Institutes of Management in 2019-20 compared to INR10.36 billion in the 2018-19 budget.
The latest budget reduces the allocation for education regulators the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education. In its NEP, the government recommends a new overarching regulator to be known as the Higher Education Commission of India.
Draft legislation to set up the Higher Education Commission of India would be presented in the year ahead, Sitharaman said, adding: "This will help to comprehensively reform the regulatory system of higher education to promote greater autonomy and focus on better academic outcomes."
However, there has been some opposition in parliament in the past to a regulatory revamp.
Bid to attract foreign students
The government's plan is to launch a 'Study in India' programme to attract foreign students in higher education. "India has the potential to become a hub of higher education,” Sitharaman said.
"India is yet to harness the full potential of its wide education network to attract international students. The initiatives in India to promote the internationalisation of higher education have been very limited,” she said.
Under the ‘Study in India’ programme, a centralised admissions portal and a helpline have been put in place. Around 100 participating institutions also offer fee waivers to meritorious students under the scheme launched by the Human Resource Development Ministry last year. More than 30 countries have been identified under the Study in India programme for promotional activities.
To give impetus to the inbound flow of international students, 2,500 scholarships will be on offer from the current year. The construction of 20 ‘state-of-the-art’ student accommodation facilities for international students has been approved, to be built at various higher education institutions in India.
Boost for research culture
Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) this week introduced the STRIDE scheme in order to boost research culture in the universities across India. STRIDE – Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy – will not only work to increase research but also to identify young talent, encourage innovation, build capacity and promote transdisciplinary subjects.
Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said the “STRIDE scheme will help students and faculty to contribute towards India’s developing economy with the help of collaborative research”.
He added that a focus on humanities and human sciences would “boost quality research on Indian languages and knowledge systems”.
UGC Chairman Dhirendra Pal Singh said: “STRIDE will provide support to the innovative research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.”
A new National Research Foundation (NRF) to fund, coordinate and boost research in science, technology, the humanities and social sciences at universities in India will be allocated central government funds.
The higher education regulatory body the University Grants Commission (UGC) also launched a scheme this week to boost research culture and also cross-disciplinary research, as part of the government’s drive to improve research.
In an indication of the government’s focus on improving research and research governance, the proposed NRF will be a self-governing apex body formed under the chairmanship of the prime minister and with the government’s principal scientific advisor as co-chair.
It will be funded by a direct transfer of 1% of the central government’s budget estimates every year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on 5 July in her first budget speech. Sitharaman was previously India’s defence minister.
Strengthened research eco-system
“NRF will ensure that the overall research eco-system in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areas relevant to our national priorities and towards basic science without duplication of effort and expenditure,” Sitharaman said.
“We would work out a very progressive and research-oriented structure for NRF. The funds available with all ministries will be integrated in NRF. This would be adequately supplemented with additional funds," she added.
The idea of the NRF was first unveiled in the National Education Policy (NEP) – a long term planning document – released as a draft on 31 May, with the government now moving swiftly to put it into place. Sitharaman said the government would follow the NEP.
The NEP document, which is currently going through a consultation process, has not yet been finalised.
“The primary problems are the lack of a research culture and mindset, limited funding and lack of research capabilities in most universities,” noted Asfia Zafar, research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
“Several schemes were launched in the past, but their impact was limited due to their very conventional implementation model. The NRF will hopefully change the scenario.”
Budget increases for higher education, research
The government has allocated INR948.5 billion (US$13.8 billion) for the education sector in the 2019-20 fiscal year – which is 3.3% of the national budget. Of this, INR383.17 billion (US$5.6 billion) is for higher education – an increase of around 8% compared to last year’s higher education allocation.
More strikingly, the total allocation for research and innovation has more than doubled in the budget from INR2.4 billion (US$35 million) million last fiscal year to INR6.09 billion (US$88.8 million) in the current budget, reversing a steady decline over the past decade. Research spending is currently around 0.7 % of India’s gross domestic product.
The NRF will also create an ‘Innovation Fund’ to support innovative projects at pre-incubation, incubation and start-up level, Sitharaman said.
Suitable infrastructure and qualified staff will be provided to achieve the objectives, according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The NRF will focus on building high-quality human resources, comparable to the global best with a good understanding of research and innovation methods. It will create substantial numbers of interconnected ‘Centres of Global Excellence’ as drivers of research and innovation, with deep connections to society and the economy, according to Sitharaman.
Centres of excellence
Centres of Excellence will be established in existing institutions of high repute and focus on ‘thrust’ areas of national importance. These centres will conduct world-class research in ‘thrust’ fields, train high-quality technical human resources of global standards and aggressively engage with local higher education institutions and the research community, especially for developing high-quality human capital.
To attain excellence, the new education policy proposes to maintain a ‘catchment’ of 40-50 institutions with increased autonomy, to which special incentives to improve performance would be provided.
The government has allocated INR4 billion (US$58 million) – up more than threefold from around INR1.3 billion (US$19 million) allocated last year – for building world-class higher education institutions and to fund more institutions to boost their performance in world university rankings to reach within the top 200.
To this end, the government approved the Institutions of Eminence (IoE) scheme in 2017 with six institutions – three public and three private – already named.
The IoE scheme aims to establish 10 world-class institutions from each of the public and private sectors. Any further declaration of IoEs shall automatically be a part of this ‘catchment’, according to the ministry.
The original proposals for Institutions of Eminence stated the government would name 30 IoEs – 15 public and 15 private institutions.
Funding of NEP proposals
Sitharaman also said the government will bring in the new National Education Policy “to transform India’s higher education system to one of the global best education systems” – an indication that the NEP will be a major plank of Modi’s second term.
The budget allocation to central universities has been increased by nearly INR4 billion to INR68.43 billion. The flagship Indian Institutes of Technology are allocated only a slight increase of INR64.1 billion this year as against INR63.26 million in 2018-19.
But the allocation for the Indian Institutes of Management, which were given autonomy last fiscal year, saw a significant drop – INR4.46 billion for all the Indian Institutes of Management in 2019-20 compared to INR10.36 billion in the 2018-19 budget.
The latest budget reduces the allocation for education regulators the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education. In its NEP, the government recommends a new overarching regulator to be known as the Higher Education Commission of India.
Draft legislation to set up the Higher Education Commission of India would be presented in the year ahead, Sitharaman said, adding: "This will help to comprehensively reform the regulatory system of higher education to promote greater autonomy and focus on better academic outcomes."
However, there has been some opposition in parliament in the past to a regulatory revamp.
Bid to attract foreign students
The government's plan is to launch a 'Study in India' programme to attract foreign students in higher education. "India has the potential to become a hub of higher education,” Sitharaman said.
"India is yet to harness the full potential of its wide education network to attract international students. The initiatives in India to promote the internationalisation of higher education have been very limited,” she said.
Under the ‘Study in India’ programme, a centralised admissions portal and a helpline have been put in place. Around 100 participating institutions also offer fee waivers to meritorious students under the scheme launched by the Human Resource Development Ministry last year. More than 30 countries have been identified under the Study in India programme for promotional activities.
To give impetus to the inbound flow of international students, 2,500 scholarships will be on offer from the current year. The construction of 20 ‘state-of-the-art’ student accommodation facilities for international students has been approved, to be built at various higher education institutions in India.
Boost for research culture
Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) this week introduced the STRIDE scheme in order to boost research culture in the universities across India. STRIDE – Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy – will not only work to increase research but also to identify young talent, encourage innovation, build capacity and promote transdisciplinary subjects.
Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said the “STRIDE scheme will help students and faculty to contribute towards India’s developing economy with the help of collaborative research”.
He added that a focus on humanities and human sciences would “boost quality research on Indian languages and knowledge systems”.
UGC Chairman Dhirendra Pal Singh said: “STRIDE will provide support to the innovative research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.”
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