At last the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh also agrees that the budget allocation for Reasearch & Development (R&D) in India is less. He assured the nation, while addressing the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), that the government will double the R&D spending within the next five years. At present, it is less than 1% of the GDP.

The Central Government has miserably failed in improving the R&D in the country. In fact, the government was completely ignoring this sector. Even the existing centres like C-DOT were completely ignored. Funds were not allotted. With other R&D institutes also, the case was similar. It gave a big opportunity to the foreign companies to sell their products at high price and that too without transferring the technology. The government had to pay many times the funds, that could have been used for R&D and profited.

The statement of the Prime Minister can be taken only with a pinch of salt. In the neo-liberal policies being pursued by the government, there is not much scope for the ingenious R&D, which will reduce the exploitation by the MNCs and corporates.  The budget proposals will show whether the Prime minister is sincere to implement his assurance.