For a science budget in the backdrop of a pandemic, it does make big moves but leaves some crucial details to be filled in later. Finance Minister quoted Rabindranath Tagore in her budget speech – “Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark”. Until the details come in, faith must be kept that what the big print has given, the fine print will not take away.
This is a well-intentioned document that tries to balance many disparate factors that shape the budget allocation process in India.
Ignorance and illiteracy about the budget can legitimately be interpreted by the Government as indifference.
According to the World Bank (2015 data) India spends 0.63% of its GDP on research and development. This is much lower than the World average (2.23%). Other countries that have similar fractions of GDP allocated to R&D include Latvia, Thailand and Tunisia. Consequently, there have been several claims, primarily from the scientists (e.g. this and […]
