A newly independent India raised spending on scientific, industrial, and technological R&D (Gross domestic Expenditure on R&D) from a mere 0.1% of GNP in 1947 to 0.25% in the 1960s, 0.5% in the 1970s, and 0.8% in the 1980s, dropping to 0.7% in the early 1990s.
In 1999, it was a paltry 0.6%. In 2018 (the latest available figures with the WB), it improved slightly to 0.65% (₹1,23,847 crore).
By contrast, the following are the corresponding figures for some sample geographies:
1. Sub-Saharan Africa (Average): 0.47% (includes Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, etc.)
2. KSA: 0.82% (yes, that is Saudi Arabia)
3. PRC: 2.14% (the nation that cannot be named)
4. EU: 2.19%
5. USA: 2.83%
6. Israel: 4.94% (the nation we idolise, for everything other than what is good in them)
7. Pakistan: 0.24% (yay, for the ‘patriots’!)
We are rather distant from being a Vishwaguru in anything at the moment, unless we raise this to at least the developed world’s 2.57% (OECD average) if not Israel’s impressive ~5%. Our per capita spend (43) in US$ (PPP) is less than that of Morrocco (48), Mongolia (74), Lithuania (245), and even Qatar (699).
To contrast, the annual budget in 2021-22 for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is ₹39,038.83 crore, which is about a third of our entire R&D allocation!
Just thinking about it gives me acidity.
