India is ?lagging behind? developed and newly industrialized economies in the field of science and technology due to ?comparatively low? investment in research and development and inadequate R&D manpower, the Government said.
In India, R&D investments as percentage of GDP and R&D manpower per million population is comparatively low, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
As per an index of S&T indicators for developed and developing countries for 2004-06, India’s R&D expenditure was 0.88 per cent of the GDP, while the same was 4.53 per cent for Israel, 2.61 per cent for the US and 3.4 per cent for Japan.
The indicators, sourced from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Development Indicators and World Bank Research and Development Statistics, also showed that India had only 140 researchers per million population. The same was 6139 in Sweden, 5713 in Singapore, 5546 in Japan and 4651 in the United States.
Admitting that India is “lagging behind” developed and newly industrialised economies, Sibal said the Government has taken several initiatives to enhance public and private investments in R&D and to ensure availability of adequate R&D manpower.
