Government's Shift to Private Research Funding: Is it the Right Move for India's Future?
Magilan Karthikeyan | 25 February 2025 | The Wire
The recent news of the appointment of Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, a Microsoft executive, as the first CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) signals the privatisation of research funding in India. In August 2023, the Union cabinet approved the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 (ANRF) in parliament to replace the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which had been in place since 2008.
At the time of its inception, the government claimed that the primary objective of ANRF is to bolster the country’s research and development (R&D) capabilities in universities and colleges. In the Union budget for 2021-22, the government announced Rs 50,000 crore for ANRF over a five-year period. However, the minister of state (independent charge) for the Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha in 2024, clarified that 72% of the funding (around Rs 36,000 crore) for ANRF would come from private sources, while the remaining Rs 14,000 crore over five years would be contributed by the government, translating to an annual expenditure of Rs 2,800 crore…