India's research riddle

It has the highest public sector budget for research in the world as a share of GDP, but the private sector lags way behind

India has landed on the moon on a shoestring budget, becoming only the fourth country in the world to do so. India’s successful moonshot was a remarkable achievement, especially considering that much of its space programme has been developed indigenously. One key reason for this is that within India’s limited spending on research and development (R&D), priority has been given to its space endeavours. While we applaud our space programme, our broader underspend in R&D needs to be addressed.

India’s R&D spending peaked at around 0.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, and has declined since then