(General Studies II – Governance Section – Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-judicial Bodies. Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.)
- The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023 is an Act of the Parliament of India.
- It seeks to seed, grow and facilitate research in India, especially in India’s universities and colleges.
- The ANRF would provide a bureaucratic free space for researchers, providing a Funding boost and Academia industry collaborations.
Composition of ANRF –
- Prime Minister of India as a chairperson/ president
- Union Minister of Science and Technology and Union Minister of Education as Vice Presidents
- Secretaries to the Departments of Science and Technology, Biotechnology, and Scientific and Industrial Research.
- Member of the NITI Aayog dealing with science and technology.
Functions of ANRF –
- Democratisation of science funding: NRF will prioritize funding for projects in outlying, rural, and semi-urban areas, which are underserved and rarely receive funding for science projects.
- Widen the area of research: The NRF would support research in areas other than natural sciences and engineering, such as social sciences, arts, and humanities.
- Provides an efficient and integrated management system: For the implementation of missions such as the supercomputer mission or the quantum mission.
- Enhance collaboration: The NRF will establish collaborations between business, academia, government agencies, and research institutions.
Limitations of ANRF –
- In a 15-member Governing Board and 16-member Executive Council, lacks representation from organisations which ANRF envisioned during it’s inception.
- In India 95% students attend State Universities and ANRF do not have a single representative from a central or state Universities.
- The council do not have a single member who understands the bottlenecks and ground realities in the education system. It is heavily consisting of Advisors.
- It lacks industry representation, ironically ANRF plans to raise 70% of its funding from non-government sources.
- R&D under funding India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) stagnated at about 0.7 percent of GDP, which is less as compared to the 2% of the global benchmark.
Way Forward –
- Boards must Include Educational experts, Indian Entrepreneurs and private researchers, representatives from Indian universities.
- Increasing R&D Budget upto 2% of GDP and gradually to 4% in next 10 years up from current 0.7%.
- Developing a robust grant management system and timely disbursal of Grants.
- Having an internal standard peer review system with an incentive for reviewers.
- Flexibility of spending grant money with less bureaucratic hurdles.
The ANRF should have diverse representation of practical natural and social scientist from university system, Indian Entrepreneurs in it’s committees. The future Chief Executive Officer of ANRF must be someone who have experience in education and industry and well aware of global innovation ecosystem. Under any circumstances it must not become any other government department.
