Higher science needs more funds, not less

Budget cuts in CSIR labs will make it tougher for researchers to work in India

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is among the country’s largest research and development organisations. This year a letter from the director general has informed all of its 38 that they will have to generate their own funds to keep the labs running. This has been the trend since 2015, when as part of the Dehradun Declaration, the CSIR decided that about 50% of its budget would have to be raised from external sources. This, coupled with the 7th pay commission requirements, has left the CSIR with only ₹360 crore instead of the usual ₹1,400 crore annual budget for research labs this year. All indications are that this fund crunch is expected to continue in the years to come.

Higher science in India is already a very under nourished area. In many colleges and universities, even basic equipment and materials are hard to come by. The state of labs in premier universities for masters and doctoral scholars leaves much to be desired. The cuts put additional pressure on CSIR labs to raise funding from the industry. The pressure to conduct research in only those areas which are profitable and can be sold to the industry will make it harder for scientists to focus on areas of fundamental research in core sciences that may or may not have profitable applications.

In attempting to make academic research more industryfriendly, the government and CSIR must not lose track of the ultimate aim of research which is to push the boundaries of human understanding and scientific knowledge. Fund cuts to higher education, be it in the sciences or in the humanities, will only make it harder for researchers to continue to work in the country. Many scholars will look to other countries with better funding to migrate to. In order to prevent such a brain drain, there needs to be more investment in research, not less. India must strive to provide a conducive environment for higher research.