1. Manthan Topic- Brain Gain:Promoting Research & Innovation
Research and Innovation
A clarion call for a Utopian Future
Team Shirodharya
 Shubham Agicha
 Shikhar Singh
 Abhishek Saxena
 Shivam Baranwal
 Prashant Singh
Team Members

2. Dearth of investment and manpower in
Research Sector
Foremost Causes:
 Absence of research at Intermediate and
Graduate level.
 Apathy of Government towards Research.
 Redundant bureaucracy is being impediment
towards healthy and productive research.
 Central government failed to achieve targeted
investment of 2% of GDP in research as declared
by government in 10th five year plan.
 The first one’s to bear the brunt of recession are
the employees in R & D Sector.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1990-91 2007-08
Government Sector
Private Firms
% showing investments in R & D sector

3. Proposed Solutions:
 Developing a penchant for clear-cut innovative thinking
at high school level.
 Central Government should maintain an e-portal that
documents and keeps record of research projects being
carried out at national and regional levels.
 Creating an Ministry in central government whose sole
purpose would be to look after research opportunities in
the country.
A
B
C

4. Implementation Plan
 Introducing questions in general examinations from 5th standard in
every educational institution that would bifurcate original thinking of
students from rote learning .
 Then conducting an Aptitude-based examination to provide a
platform from initial level for research and innovation
PLAN OF ACTION:
 Creation of an Autonomous Body like CBSE and NCERT that would
work under the proposed Ministry of R & I to propose the questions of
the general examinations.
 Portion of Budget would have to be allocated to specialize training
of teachers in educational institutions.
 The Aptitude-based examination will be handled by the proposed
Ministry of R & I.
A

5.  Creating an e-portal for synchronizing the researches
and innovations with R & D of private firms.
 E-portal should be confidential and would only be
available on pay to companies showing interest.
 Advertisements of this website should be done by
research and innovation ministry.
 With advertisements, innovations of both literate and
illiterate would come forward.
 With this initiative each including common man,
government as well as firms would be benefitted.
Designing an E-portal website for monitoring
research and innovation
B

6. Salary
10%
Website
Creation &
Maintenanc
e
3%
Infrastructure
37%
Private
Sector
Investment
48%
Other
Expenditure
2%
Investment Plan:
Salary
• Researchers
• Bureaucrats
• Other employees
200 crores INR p.a
Website Creation,
development &
advertisement
60 crores INR p.a
Infrastructure 800 crores INR p.a
Private Sector Investment 1000 crores INR p.a

7. Impacts of Proposed Plan:
There is a gap of almost 20 years in our and
developed nation’s society which would reduce
in coming years.
Huge amount of money that government is
spending on transfer of technology would
reduce gradually in coming years.
Many social problems that are existing in the
society can be solved through innovations e.g.
traffic congestion, water purification.

8. Challenges to the proposed plan:
It is quite difficult job for the created autonomous
body to reach each and every school of the nation.
It is a cumbersome task to maintain the
confidentiality of the researches on the e-portal
website with professional hackers prevailing in the
country.
With corruption expanding in the country , it
becomes really tough to fight with the corrupted
elements prevailing in the government
departments.

9. References:
Boosting research in India, published by: THE
HINDU editorial on Jan 9,2012
How to improve India's higher education and
research quality? Published by:
Naturenetwork.com
India 2020: by APJ Abdul Kalam
Science Magazine Article dated 9th Oct,2012.