India
India’s science funding has marginally increased as per the nation’s 2019–20 Union Budget, released earlier this month. The country’s Ministry of Science and Technology houses three departments—the Departments of Science and Technology, Biotechnology, and Scientific and Industrial Research. The Ministry’s overall budget expanded to total of INR 12,797.24 crore ($1.9 billion), to be shared among the three departments.
For the Department of Science and Technology, INR 5,321.01 crore ($799.82 million) was allotted, a 4.0% rise. The budget for the Innovation, Technology Development and Deployment program jumped 10.4% to INR 862.4 crore ($129.6 million), while funding for other scientific research within the Department grew 3.6% to INR 5,142.56 ($773.0 million). However, the general R&D budget for the Department decreased 2.5% to INR 481.0 crore ($72.3 million). The Department of Biotechnology’s budget increased 7.0% to INR 2580.34 ($387.9 million), with R&D for biotech totaling INR 1,475.0 crore ($221.7 million), growing 9.3%. Funding for the Industrial and Entrepreneurship Development project rose 9.8% to INR 1,755.2 crore ($263.8 million), and the budget for other scientific research in the Department of Biotechnology increased 7.0%, reaching INR 2,411.5 ($387.9 million).
Growing 7.1%, the 2019–20 budget for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research totaled INR 4,895.9 ($735.9 million). Funding for industrial R&D surged 40% to INR 28.0 crore ($4.2 million), and the budget for the autonomous Council of Scientific and Industrial Research grew 6.9% to INR 4,831.6 crore ($726.3 million), with INR 4,531.6 crore ($681.2 million) allotted to national laboratories, growing 6.1%. The budget for other scientific research within the Department also expanded to INR 4,873.6 crore ($732.6 million), a 7.0% jump.
