The executive and governing boards of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) — a high-level body conceived to give strategic direction to scientific research in India — has no representation from Indian industry, suggests a perusal of the list of members made public by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) earlier this week. There is also no presence of State universities, who the ANRF had said would be among the major beneficiaries of the new structure.

The absence of Indian industry is glaring as the ANRF Act, passed in August 2023, was expected to galvanise research by having close to ₹36,000 crore or 70% of its five-year outlay of ₹50,000 crore from “non-government sources, industry & philanthropists, from domestic as well as outside sources”, Science Minister Jitendra Singh had said in discussions surrounding the passage of the Bill in Parliament last year.

To this end, the text of the Act specifically empowered the President of the Governing Board — in this case the Prime Minister of India — to nominate or appoint up to “…five members from business organisation or industry”, into the Board.

The 15-member Governing Board, as notified by the MoST, however, has only one industrialist — Romesh Wadhwani, an American billionaire of Indian origin and former CEO and chairperson of the Symphony Technology Group. There are two other Americans with Indian roots — Manjul Bhargava, Professor, Princeton University, U.S.; and Subra Suresh, Professor at Large, Brown University and former head of the U.S. National Research Foundation, from which the ANRF draws inspiration.

Only two universities are represented in the body by the Directors of the Indian Institute of Science, and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Ajay Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Union government, is the Member Secretary of the governing body, with the rest of the members comprising the Ministers of Science, and Education, and the Secretaries of the departments under the MoST.

The ANRF replaces the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), established in 2008. Similar to the ANRF, it was set up by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to give strategic direction to technological research. Chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), it too lacked the representation of State universities but it had, among others, representation from the Indian Institutes of Technology; the Chancellors of Nalanda University, and the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra; and one representative from Intel India as a representative of industry.

The ANRF is a significant reform in that it proposes a more expansive definition of research, which includes science, engineering, Information Technology, Liberal Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities — the ANRF Board has among its members Raghuvendra Tanwar, Chair, Indian Council of Historical Research. The SERB only envisaged funding research, whereas the NRF can fund and receive money from private sources, and philanthropic and international organisations. With the repeal of the SERB, all the funds available to that organisation would now be available to the NRF. The ANRF was earmarked ₹2,000 crore for the 2024-2025 financial year. The Hindu reached out via text messages to the Dr. Sood, and Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST for comment on the exclusion of Indian industrialists from the Board. Dr. Karandikar cited the presence of Dr. Wadhwani as an example of industry participation.

A senior scientist privy to the gestation of the ANRF said that the ANRF was originally envisioned as having “minimal” representation of Secretaries of various Ministries, and a more “dynamic” board. “Politically, there was full support for a drastic rehaul of the SERB but the scientific establishment, particularly the Ministries, did not want too much change (from the SERB structure). That said, this is a start and the existing structure is flexible, too. If it delivers on being able to spend ₹2,000 crore this year and gets 70% (₹36,000 crore external funding), then it’s a success,” this person said on condition of anonymity.

Only 36% of India’s research expenditure of roughly ₹1.2 lakh crore came from the private sector in 2019-20, when the latest such figures were published. This is one of the reasons why India’s expenditure on R&D hovers around 0.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), well below the 1-2% that is characteristic of countries with a stronger science and technology infrastructure, and the global average of 1.8%.

In China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S., the private sector contributed 70% of the research expenditure. About 70% of India’s research funds were taken up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Department of Space, the Department of Atomic Energy, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Indian Council of Medical Research garnered about 20%.