India’s R&D spending crosses 0.8% of GDP for first time since 2010

India’s spending on research and development (R&D) surged to 0.83% of GDP in 2021-22, the first time that the country crossed the 0.8% threshold — a level last seen in 2009-10, according to newly disclosed government data

The figures also reveal a structural shift in India’s innovation landscape: private industry accounted for 45.5% of national R&D spending in 2021-22, rising further to 51.8% in 2023-24, the first time businesses have contributed more to India’s research effort than all levels of government combined.

The figures were disclosed by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in response to a Lok Sabha question answered on Wednesday (July 29, 2026). They form part of the latest Research & Development Statistics 2025-26, although the full statistical report itself has not yet been publicly released.

The numbers are significant because India, despite possessing one of the world’s largest scientific workforces and ranking among the top countries in scientific publications, has long spent a much smaller share of its economy on research than major scientific powers. The share of R&D in GDP — long considered a bellwether of progress — has, in the case of India, steadily fallen every year till it reached its nadir of 0.64% in 2020-21.

That year China spent 2.4% of GDP, Japan 3.3%, South Korea 4.8%, United States 3.5% and around 5% in Israel. Successive governments have also repeatedly argued that India’s innovation ecosystem is constrained because industry contributes a much smaller share of national R&D spending than in advanced economies, where business routinely accounts for over 70% of research expenditure.

DST compiles India’s official R&D statistics through its National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), which has conducted national science surveys since 1973 using UNESCO and OECD definitions. The surveys gather expenditure data from central and state government agencies, universities, public sector enterprises and private industry. The 2022-23 edition explicitly stated that its coverage had been expanded to include multinational companies and enterprises outside the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research’s recognition scheme. There were 2,397 DSIR-recognised in-house R&D centres as of December 2022.

Until Wednesday’s parliamentary reply, the latest publicly available DST publication was the 2022-23 edition, released in 2023, which contained data only up to 2020-21. The parliamentary reply is therefore the first official disclosure of India’s R&D expenditure for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24, even though the corresponding statistical reports have yet to be published.

The fresh data point to an abrupt discontinuity. Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) fell from ₹1.33 lakh crore in 2019-20 to ₹1.27 lakh crore in 2020-21 (a COVID-year slump), before jumping 53% to ₹1.95 lakh crore in 2021-22. It subsequently rose to ₹2.13 lakh crore in 2022-23 and ₹2.45 lakh crore in 2023-24.

However, budget documents from the period do not suggest a commensurate surge in government science spending. Union allocations to the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, ISRO and other major science agencies rose only incrementally across these years, making it unlikely that the increase was driven solely by public expenditure.

The sharp rise in GERD coincided with a dramatic increase in the private sector industry’s contribution to India’s research spending. Private industry accounted for 38.5% of GERD in 2017-18, 37.7% in 2018-19, 33.8% in 2019-20 and 36.4% in 2020-21, before jumping to 45.5% in 2021-22, 48.0% in 2022-23 and 51.8% in 2023-24 — the first time private industry has contributed more than half of India’s total R&D expenditure. In absolute terms, Industry R&D spending increased from about ₹43,800 crore in 2017-18 and ₹46,700 crore in 2018-19 to ₹44,800 crore in 2019-20 and ₹46,400 crore in 2020-21, before almost doubling to ₹88,600 crore in 2021-22 and rising further to ₹126,800 crore in 2023-24.