India wants to become a global innovation and technology leader. Its policy priorities increasingly emphasise research, advanced technologies and closer links between universities and industry. But a central question remains: can the country’s higher education institutions move beyond producing research papers and patents to building a sustained pipeline of knowledge, technologies and solutions?The latest government figures underline both the progress and the distance still to be covered. India’s gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) rose to ₹2.45 lakh crore in 2023–24, from ₹1.33 lakh crore in 2019–20. Yet R&D spending accounted for just 0.84% of GDP in 2023–24. The private sector contributed 51.8% of total expenditure, while higher education institutions accounted for 12.6% of national R&D spending.The figures point to a research ecosystem that is expanding, but in which universities are not yet the principal drivers of national research investment. The challenge, therefore, is not simply to spend more. It is to build institutions capable of sustaining research teams, attracting talent, working with industry and taking ideas from laboratories into wider use.Research cannot end with a PhD or a funded project Dr Amit Banerjee, Chancellor of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, believes one of the structural weaknesses lies in how research is understood and supported within the academic system.He told ETEducation that research in India is often treated as a requirement for obtaining a PhD or securing a faculty position, rather than as a continuous process of knowledge creation. Researchers may spend two or three years completing doctoral work, obtain the degree and then move away from research, he argued. For India to strengthen its position globally, research must become a sustained institutional activity rather than an isolated academic milestone.Banerjee’s concern also extends to the way research funding is structured. He does not believe government agencies necessarily discriminate against private institutions when allocating research grants. Based on his experience, he said, government support is available to private organisations as well. The problem, in his view, is the project-to-project nature of funding.When a project ends, the research often loses momentum. He suggested a system in which funding continues through year-on-year monitoring: institutions would demonstrate progress, receive an assessment and, where work merits further support, continue the research. Such an approach, he argued, could help build continuity while ensuring accountability.His argument raises a larger question about how research capacity is created. Laboratories, equipment and individual grants matter, but so do the people and systems that keep research going: skilled technical staff, doctoral researchers, experienced faculty, long-term institutional priorities and the ability to retain talent. A university cannot build a research culture if its teams have to start from scratch every time a project closes.Banerjee also underlined the importance of interdisciplinary research. As challenges increasingly cut across technology, science, health and society, universities will need to create more opportunities for researchers from different disciplines to work together. This requires not only institutional encouragement but also funding structures that recognise the value of collaborative work.The government’s ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme is among the major policy interventions intended to address the financing gap in high-impact research and technology development. Its structure, however, is important: it is designed to catalyse private-sector investment through financing routed via designated fund managers to eligible technology entities. It is not a direct university-grant programme.That distinction makes university-industry partnerships particularly important. Universities may generate knowledge, talent and early-stage research, but they need stronger institutional mechanisms to connect with companies, start-ups and research organisations that can take ideas further.The private university funding dilemmaFor private universities, building research capacity presents a particular financial challenge. Pradeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman of Sharda Group and Chancellor of Sharda University, pointed to the cost of research infrastructure, laboratories, equipment and qualified faculty. Institutions must invest in these capabilities while also keeping education affordable for students, he told ETEducation.This is a difficult balance. Research-intensive institutions need sustained investment, but private universities often depend heavily on student fees to finance their operations. They must also compete for experienced faculty with industry, overseas institutions and publicly funded universities.Gupta argued that private institutions do not receive a proportionate share of research support. His assessment reflects the funding concerns of private university leaders, though the distribution of research funding across institutional categories needs to be evaluated through official data rather than treated as an established national statistic.The broader issue is whether India’s research ambitions can be met without addressing the different financial conditions under which public and private institutions operate. Asking universities to invest more in research is not enough if they lack access to stable funding, specialised infrastructure and the academic talent required to sustain it.Dr. Hanumathu Purushotham, Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh’s Science, Technology and Innovation Department, also argued that India’s research investment needs to increase if the country is to compete with advanced economies. He stressed the need for universities to work more closely with industry and align research and academic priorities with changing technological requirements.His perspective brings the policy challenge into focus. India needs greater investment, but it also needs a system in which public agencies, private industry and universities have clearer and more effective roles. More funding will not automatically translate into stronger research outcomes unless institutions have the capacity to use it well.From research papers to intellectual property and public valueDr Sandhya Pentareddy, Executive Director of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), offered a longer view of how private higher education has evolved. Looking back at roughly four decades, she described an initial phase focused on improving educational quality and expanding access. The subsequent period placed greater emphasis on research and knowledge creation. In the more recent phase, she said, institutions have increasingly focused on intellectual property and translating research into business capabilities.That progression points to a more demanding model of institutional success. Universities are increasingly expected to contribute not only graduates and academic publications, but also new knowledge, intellectual property, technology transfer and solutions that can be applied by industry and society.Pentareddy’s observation is important because it places commercialisation within a longer institutional journey. Building research capability comes before translating discoveries into products or business applications. Universities need the freedom and resources to pursue both stages, while recognising that not every valuable research outcome will have an immediate commercial use.Commercialisation, therefore, should not become the only measure of research quality. Fundamental research, public-interest science and work whose benefits may take years to emerge are equally important to a mature research ecosystem. The task is to create room for long-term inquiry while building pathways through which promising research can reach industry and society.India’s policy direction increasingly reflects this wider ambition. The National Education Policy 2020 places research, multidisciplinary learning and institutional collaboration among the priorities for higher education. The RDI Scheme seeks to mobilise private investment in strategic technologies, while the growing role of industry in research creates new opportunities for universities.The next test is whether these initiatives produce stronger links between research institutions, companies, start-ups and public agencies. That will require more than funding announcements. It will require continuity, institutional capacity, incentives for researchers and mechanisms that allow promising work to move from the laboratory into wider use.India’s research ambitions will ultimately be judged not by the number of schemes or research centres announced, but by whether its universities can sustain original research, develop talent and turn knowledge into solutions. The country is spending more on research than it did five years ago. The harder task is making that investment count.
