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%.

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh in Parliament on February 06, 2024.

The Centre on Monday said that provisions of the newly constituted research board, Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), had come into effect and announced the appointment of Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), as interim CEO of the body on Tuesday.

The ANRF aims to be a research funding organisation that will have a corpus of ₹50,000 crore at the outset with nearly ₹36,000 crore projected to come from the private sector. The aim of this new funding body is to “…provide high level strategic direction for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of natural sciences including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture, and scientific and technological interfaces of humanities and social sciences…”

The DST in a press statement on Tuesday said that “…provisions of the ANRF Act had been brought into force on February 5, 2024”.  Earlier this week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman provisioned ₹2,000 crore towards the ANRF for the financial year 2024-25.

The ANRF Act was passed by both Houses of Parliament in 2023. However, the ‘rules’ accompanying the text of the Act are yet to be made public. Mr. Karandikar told The Hindu that the rules had been “notified” and would be done “30 days after public notification”.

“The ANRF act coming into force is a heartening piece of news for scientists, researchers, innovators and startups. For the first time after Independence, under the leadership of the Honourable PM Shri Narendra Modi, India now has a National Research Foundation called Anusandhan”, said, Mr. Jitendra Singh, Science Minister, posted on X on Tuesday.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) would be the administrative department of NRF and led by a Governing Board consisting of eminent researchers and professionals across disciplines. The Prime Minister will be the ex-officio President of the Board and the Union Minister of Science & Technology & Union Minister of Education will be the ex-officio Vice-Presidents. NRF’s functioning will be governed by an Executive Council chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

The ANRF subsumes the existing Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), established in 2008, and in many respects identical to the ANRF. The rationale is that the ANRF had an “…expanded mandate and covers activities over and above the activities of SERB,” the press statement added.