India's latest annual budget, the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third term, promotes renewable and nuclear energy as well as additional money to support the state's emerging space industry. The government announced plans to work with the private sector to set up small core reactors and to develop nuclear technologies to secure energy.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who presented the budget for 2024–25 on July 23 in the Indian parliament, said that nuclear energy would be "a very important part of the energy mix" for the development of India. The government also plans to advance research on small modular reactors, the parts of which can be assembled in a factory and transported to the installation location. The exact funds for the plans for nuclear energy were not specified.

The budget contracts for science largely corresponded to the expectations of many researchers, with financing commitments for areas of national pride and applied science.

The space department of India will receive 10 billion rupees ($ 120 million) to set up a risk capital fund to support projects that will expand the country's space industry for five times over the next 10 years. In total, the department will receive $ 156 million, an increase of 4% compared to the budget 2023–24.

SITHARAMAN also announced that the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (Anrf) will be operated. The aim of the foundation, which was first announced in 2019, is to strengthen the financing for university research and to expand the scope of this research. The Anrf hopes to attract private financing and to distribute large grants from a considerable pool of around $ 11 billion.

The combined assignments for key ministries and departments involved in research -science and technology; Agricultural research; Atomic energy; Earth sciences; Health research; New and renewable energy; And space travel-amount to $ 7.1 billion, an increase of 20% compared to the budget 2023–24. However, the funds will largely flow into the Ministry of New and Renewable Energies, the assignment of which for 2024–25 with $ 2.28 billion is almost doubled as in 2023–2024.

Welcome support

The heads of the most important science departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology welcomed the operational admission of the Anrf as well as the new risk capital fund for the room department and research on climate -resistant agriculture. "Research and development efforts in India are primarily academy-centered, and the innovations that arise at the laboratory level do not get to commercialization," says Rajesh Gokhale, secretary of the biotechnology department of the Ministry of Science and Technology in New Delhi. The financing of the ARB for basic research and prototype development will pave the way for research and innovation-driven research in the private sector.

geneticist Tapasya Srivastava at the University of Delhi South Campus expects Sitharaman's focus on buying workplace and the internship program, a highlight of the budget, science students will help to find work in private companies. In the long term, this will contribute to the fact that "students are encouraged to choose science as a career, with more options beyond the academic world".

real money

However, others were less impressed. "Important is not the money promised in the budget, but the volume that is actually released over the course of the year, which is usually lower than the promised," says geneticist Subhash Lakhotia at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. "The amount actually available for individual researchers is relatively low, due to inflation, increased salaries and the growing number of researchers who compete for limited money."

India invested 0.64% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in research and development during 2020-2021. In comparison, the average expenditure in research and development in the 38 wealthy countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2022 and China was 2.4% in 2021.

lakhotia doubted that the research funds would increase India in research as a percentage of GDP this year.

c. P. Rajendran, a geologist at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru. "Household assignment for science in India remains modest with only minimal increases," he says. "There is not much reason for excitement."