Quantum shift: On private industry and national research spending

For the first time in India's history, private industry accounted for 51.8% of national research spending in 2023-24, surpassing government contributions. This surge, particularly in transport, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and IT sectors, is partly attributed to a post-pandemic realization of research's importance for competitiveness and partly to improved reporting due to new RBI norms and sustainability disclosures. Despite this milestone, India's R&D spending remains low at 0.84% of GDP compared to global leaders. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation, with a significant corpus largely from private sources, aims to further boost research and develop specialized workers and manufacturing capacity.