Thread by @maheshperi

The Prime Minister talked of Govt. supported vaccine research. There is also a rush and self congratulatory messages on IISc topping the QS charts. It is important to know how we supported our scientific community. Here is a report card:

1. The PM lied. In an affidavit in SC, the govt. said "It is submitted that no governmental aid, assistance or grant is made for research or development of either Covaxin or Covishield". This, despite Rs.900 Crores being allotted for vaccine research.

2. On IISc, a false narrative is being created with even the PM joining in. IISc topped on one parameter - Citation per Faculty. It just shows that we are squeezing more from our faculty. As a research institution, IISc is ranked 186.

3. While we claim credit for IISc ranking, the research scholars that make the scientific research institution haven't been paid their fellowships for months by CSIR.

4. An IISc researcher wrote to CSIR, "What I have is a debt of more than a lakh towards academic fees and mess bills. I have 10 months of Pending Fellowship. My father in his 60s working hard as a daily laborer to meet our family's basic needs".

5. In 2019, after a protest by the 1.25 lakh research scholars for a hike in fellowship (last hike in 2014), the government increased fellowship by 24% (inflation index of 27% in the same period). The real income for our researchers DECREASED in last 6 years.

6. In Sep 2019, The IITs hiked the fees of MTech programmes by nearly 900% thus throttling the funnel that leads to being researchers. Our M.Tech enrolments fell from 2.57 Lac in 2015 to 1.70 lac in 2020.

7. In 2O20, China spent $378 billion while India spent just $17 Billion. In 1995, China was spending 0.56% of GDP on research while India was spending 0.63%. In 2020, it is 2.4% for China and 0.65% for India.

8. Only 26 Indian companies are in the list of the top 2,500 global R&D spenders in the world. Compared, 301 Chinese companies are in the list.

9. The Nature Index Top 100 rising institutions has its Top 75 by Chinese Universities. Only IIT Madras figures in the list.

10. Almost all of our R&D spent is by GOI. None from states. Negligible by private sector. And these days, our public sector like ONGC donate more for statues, Kumbh Melas and PM Cares than to research institutions.

11. With a very narrow view, tax incentives to promote research have been reduced. The Income Tax Act allowed for weighted deduction @150% of the spend for all R&D activities, which have now been reduced to 100%.

12. The academic freedom index puts India's score at 0.352, equivalent to the scores of Saudi Arabia and Libya. The index has a maximum value of 1. Pakistan, Brazil, Ukraine and Malaysia ranked higher than India.

India's only chance at getting out of misery is good investments in Science & Research. Our govt. have a very short term vision and see research as an expense. This has hurt India having a good shot at becoming a prosperous Nation.

END.