PIB Delhi – Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD), in absolute terms, has been consistently increasing over the years and has increased 3 times during the last 10 years. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said the government has been making consistent efforts to increase the GERD. Some of the key efforts made by Government include the successive increase in plan allocations for Scientific Departments, incentivizing investment by private sector to increase their share in GERD, improving the ease of doing business in the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) activities; introducing flexible tools for public procurement; creating avenues for collaborative STI funding through portfolio-based funding mechanisms such as Public-Private-Partnerships and other innovative hybrid funding mechanisms.
The Minister also informed that the Government has allowed corporate sector to make R&D investments under the provision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Corporates can invest in technology business incubators or contribute in research efforts carried out by institutions and national research laboratories as a part of their CSR. Dr Jitendra Singh said that as part of the new draft Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy, several provisions have been included with the focus to increase GERD. Some of the key provisions include; greater participation of central, state, local governments and public sector enterprises; fiscal incentives to attract private sector; fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to attract Foreign Direct Investment; Micro-financing through crowdfunding and philanthropic sources; linking public procurement with domestic industries; Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and industry led mission oriented joint initiatives; etc.
