Eternal India Encyclopedia

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Eternal India encyclopedia

Expenditure in India on S&T activities

Central R&D

Expenditure 1990-91

As % of GNP

Agency

% Share

Year (March end)

S&T expenditure Rs. in crores

(Rs.in crores)

1950-51 1965-66 1970-71 1986-87

4.68

0.02 0.39 0.47 0.96

Defence Research & Development

85.06

Organisation (DRDO)

685

27.5

173.37

Dept, of Space (DOS)

386.22

15.5

2495.87

Indian Council of Agricultural Research ( ICAR)

1987-88

2936.94

1.00

327

13.1

1988-89

3471.81

1.00

Dept, of Atomic Energy (DAE)

281.17

11.3

-

1989-90

4003.79

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

250.0

10.0

Expenditure in India on R&D

Year

As % of GNP

Dept, of Environment (DOEN)

202.94

8.1

R&D expenditure Rs. in crores

Dept, of Science & Technology (DST)

181.13

7.3

Dept, of Biotechnology (DBT)

47.55

1.9

1950-51

4.68

-

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dept, of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (DNES)

1965-66

68.39

0.29

43.71

1.7

1970-71

139.64

0.35

1986-87

2435.40

0.95

32.26

1.3

1987-88

2853.07

0.98

Dept, of Ocean Development (DOD)

31.94

1.3

1988-89

3347.26

0.96

Dept, of Electronics (DOE)

24.16

1.0

1989-90

3725.74

0.94

Total Other Central Ministries

2493.09 835.03

1990-91

4186.43

0.89

India’s per capita R&D expenditure was a mere US 2.76 dollars whereas this was between US 100 dollars and US 600 dollars for most of the developed countries. R&D expenditure as percentage of GNP in 1990-91 has declined to 0.89% from a level of 0.94% in 1989-90,. 0.96% in 1988-89,0.98% in 1987-88 and 0.95% in 1986-87, although in absolute terms R&D expenditure has shown an increasing trend. The annual rate of growth of GNP at current prices for the period 1988-89 to 1990-91 was 15.8% whereas the growth rate of R&D expenditure at current prices was 11.8% for the same period. This indicates that GNP was increasing faster than R&D expenditure. GNP data was revised upwards for all the previous years up to 1990-91 by the Central Statistical Or- ganisation which was adopted by the Economic Survey 1991-92. Besides, the financial crunch the economy was experiencing might have affected the deployment of financial resources by different sectors to R&D activities. In India the major share of R&D expenditure is borne by the Central Government. The private sector bears only a small propor- tion of the burden. In developed countries such as the US, West Germany and Japan the Government share of R&D expenditure was 48%, 44% and 28%, respectively. The rest came from private industry.

Nearly a third of the R&D expenditure is accounted for by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) while a sum of Rs. 250 crores is spread over the 40-odd laboratories of the CSIR. The R&D expenditure of the Indian Institute of Science and the IITs is part of the expenditure which comes under "Other Central Ministries". For 1990-91 this was about Rs. 51 crores which is about 1/13th of the DRDO, l/8th of the DOS and l/6th of the DAE. The State Government sector spent Rs. 332.10 crores on R&D during 1990-91. About 90% of the R&D expenditure by this sector was on the development of agriculture and allied areas. Rs. 970.29 crs. (Rs. 444.07 crs. by public sector, both Central and State, and Rs. 526.22 crs by private sector) was spent on R&D by the indus- trial sector in 1990-91. The number of units involved was 1009 in the private sector and 155 in the public/joint sector. The share of industrial sector R&D (both public & private sector) in total na- tional R&D was 23% in 1990-91. The industrial sector spent 0.66% of sales turnover on R&D in 1990-91. For private and public sector separately this figure was 0.74% and 0.58% respectively.

National R&D expenditure by objectives 1990-91

Percentage Share in R&D Expenditure by Government & Industry

Development of agriculture, forestry

and fishing

19.3%

Year March end

Private Sector Share

Central Govt. Share (including Public Sector industry)

State Govt. Share

Defence

19.1% 16.5%

Promotion of Industrial Development

General advancement of knowledge

11.1%

1951

100.0

Nil

Nil

Space

9.3%

1971

84.3

7.3

8.4

Development of transport & communication Production, conservation & distribution of energy

5.7%

1981

75.8

9.3

14.9

1987

79.9

9.0

11.3

4.6%

1988

79.7

8.8

11.5

Development of Health services

4.5% 4.4%

Protection of the Environment

1991

79.5 (10.6)

7.9

12.6