Three years after Prime Minister Modi announced spending of ₹50,000 crore, spread over five years, on the newly-set-up National Research Foundation (NRF), the body continues to be hugely under-funded.
The Budget 2024-25 allocated ₹2,000 crore to NRF, the same amount as in the Budget 2023-24. However, Budget documents show that only ₹258 crore was spent last year.
On March 3, 2021, while addressing a webinar, Modi observed that the National Research Foundation was being built for the first time in the country. “₹50,000 crore have been allocated for this. This will strengthen the governance structure of the research-related institutions and will improve linkages between R&D, academia, and industry,” he said.
Three years have passed but against the promise to spend ₹50,000 crore, the government allocated nil in the Budget for 2022-23, allocated ₹2,000 crore in 2023-24 but could spend only ₹258 crore and has given another ₹2,000 crore in the Budget for 2024-25.
Explaining why the NRF was “formulated”, the website of the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India says that the body was set up “to make the pursuit of science, humanities, art & and culture accessible and available in the language one is most comfortable with.”
A footnote to the Demand for Grants statement of Department of Science and Technology in the Expenditure Budget notes that the provision of ₹2,000 crore is “to address the pressing need for a professional and comprehensive research framework that directs human and material resources towards carrying out well coordinated research across disciplines and across all types of institutions. The overarching goal of the NRF will be to seed, grow and promote research and development (R & D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout Indian universities, colleges, research institutions.”
Notably, the wordings are exactly the same as in the 2023-24 Budget papers.