Strengthening India’s own research, data, and policy capacity is key to shaping a development model rooted in national priorities

-  Ravi Pokharna and Kuntala Karkun

India's Viksit Bharat aspiration by 2047 transcends traditional capital investment. While tangible infrastructure remains critical, the primary constraint to sustained, high-quality growth is the knowledge ecosystem deficit. To successfully transition from a middle-income economy to a fully developed nation, India must aggressively cultivate a robust, home-grown intellectual infrastructure, one encompassing R&D, credible think tanks, advanced data infrastructure, and scalable domestic innovation capacity.

India’s R&D Gap: The Core Structural Weakness

India’s gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) remains persistently low at just 0.65 per cent of GDP, far below advanced economies such as the US and Germany (3 per cent), as well as emerging markets like China (2 per cent). This places India well under the global average of approximately 1.8 per cent, reflecting a structural underinvestment in innovation.

This structural weakness is compounded by a profound imbalance: only about 5 per cent of India's R&D spending comes from the private sector, compared to approximately 70 per cent in the US. While the 2025–26 Union Budget increased national R&D allocations to ?61,028 crore, representing only 1.28 per cent of the Central Budget, the scale is still insufficient to trigger the kind of innovation acceleration India needs. The government’s announcement of a ?1 lakh crore Research Development and........

© The Pioneer