Science and technology in the Republic of India

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India (office: 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964), initiated reforms to promote higher education, science, and technology in India. The Indian Institutes of Technology – conceived by a 22-member committee of scholars and entrepreneurs in order to promote technical education – was inaugurated on 18 August 1951 at Kharagpur in West Bengal by the minister of education Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. More IITs were soon opened in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi as well in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in the 1960s, close ties with the Soviet Union enabled the Indian Space Research Organisation to rapidly develop the Indian space program and advance nuclear power in India even after the first nuclear test explosion by India on 18 May 1974 at Pokhran.

India accounts for about 10% of all expenditure on research and development in Asia and the number of scientific publications grew by 45% over the five years to 2007. However, according to former Indian science and technology minister, Kapil Sibal, India is lagging in science and technology compared to developed countries. India has only 140 researchers per 1,000,000 population, compared to 4,651 in the United States. India invested US$3.7 billion in science and technology in 2002–2003. For comparison, China invested about four times more than India, while the United States invested approximately 75 times more than India on science and technology. The highest-ranked Indian university for engineering and technology in 2014 was the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay at number 16; natural science ranks lower. One study argued that Indian science did not suffer from lack of funds but from unethical practices, the urge to make illegal money, immense misuse of power, frivolous publications and patents, faulty promotion policies, victimisation for speaking against wrong or corrupt practices in the management, sycophancy, and brain drain.

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