Half hearted approach cannot turn efforts into results. This is what has been happening with education in India by which we cannot pace up with the world. India is way behind in turns of expenditure for its education sector. It spends a mere 4.9% of its GDP on education, and of this one-third is spent on higher education. According to global studies our contribution towards education is only.85% of GDP on research as against the US, which spends 2.74%, China (2.10%), Japan (3.58%), Germany (2.84%) and South Korea (4.29%), Minister of State, HRD, Mahendra Nath Pandey said in a written reply to a question in Parliament.
The government is aware of this situation and is putting in all efforts to increase the budget allocation. It is at the same time requesting higher educational institutions to generate funds in this regard through their internal resources by means of consultancies/research, the minister said.
This year, the budget allocated for higher education to Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) is around Rs. 33,000 crore as compared to Rs.30,000 crore. But research has received a step motherly treatment, with only Rs. 315 crore only allotted for it.
THIS SHOWS GOVT. ATTITUDE TOWARDS RESEARCH
In other parts of the world, a common approach has been adopted for funding research in universities through various funding agencies, which sans in India. In India, budget to cover overhead expenditure like the cost of space, electricity, A/C, security, etc. is very small due to which the critical and significant cost of R&D establishment is left untouched, putting the onus on the university to support projects, or the cost of faculty time spent on research, or other indirect costs.
Recently, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken serious note of it. It has begun focusing on research through its two schemes — Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT), and Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY). These have been launched in the last two years with a purpose of generating funds for research purposes. IMPRINT aim is to focus on research in higher educational institutions, with an allocation Rs. 487 crore for a period of three years, beginning 2016-17. UAY promotes industry-sponsored, outcome-oriented research projects with a budget of Rs. 475 crore for a period of two years beginning 2016-17.
