NEW DELHI– Experts on Tuesday called for a significant increase in investment in science and technology in India, saying the country’s vast talent pool is not being matched by adequate funding and institutional support.
Speaking at an event in the national capital, the speakers said India’s scientific research priorities must evolve to address growing global uncertainty, rapid technological change, and increasingly complex social challenges.
Nobel laureate Jack Szostak said that while India has an abundance of scientific talent, overall spending on science and technology remains limited.
“India has enormously talented people, but overall investment in science and technology remains very modest. There are bright spots of world-class research, but they are small compared to what India could achieve,” Szostak said at the event organised by Ashoka University.
Szostak said investment in science and education is often viewed as competing with urgent social needs, but argued that the opposite is true.
“The most effective way to address these pressing challenges is to increase investment in science and technology, because that will lead to solutions to the pressing problems of today,” he said.
Former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K. VijayRaghavan, said India needs to expand both the scale and reach of its scientific research ecosystem.
He said that while the country has made substantial investments in select missions and institutions, a key challenge lies in broadening access to research funding beyond a small group of elite centers and strengthening the ability of emerging institutions to effectively use additional resources.
Priyamvada Natarajan, a professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University, emphasized the need for sustained support for fundamental research and higher overall spending on science.
She said the current moment presents an opportunity for India to focus investment on a limited number of high-impact, interdisciplinary areas, adding that much of today’s most important research is highly collaborative.
By investing strategically in emerging fields, she said, India could help shape the next frontiers of scientific discovery rather than merely following global trends.
Rajesh Gopakumar, director of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences and a leading theoretical physicist, stressed the importance of strengthening international collaboration.
“To move forward, we need to open up our horizons,” he said, adding that Indian science must become more international in outlook, adopt global benchmarks, and embrace open-ended inquiry driven by cross-disciplinary and cross-border collaboration.
The speakers said a sustained and broader push for science and technology investment would be critical for India’s long-term economic growth, innovation capacity, and global competitiveness. (Source: IANS)
