Scientists in our national laboratories are a worried lot these days. Their research projects are slowing down as they face acute shortage of funds. The situation is quite serious in the largest research conglomerate — Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In many of its laboratories, junior research fellows who work with senior scientists on research projects have not been paid fellowship money for the past three months. Bills for execution of various works done during the last financial year are pending.

As a result, work on building new infrastructure and supplies of inputs necessary for research work have been hampered. The fund crunch is a result of a conscious decision taken by CSIR and the government in June 2015 when all labs agreed to make efforts to become self-financing in two years. The government wanted laboratories to develop a revenue model with clear input-output cost analysis.

Laboratories were also asked to take up projects in mission mode to fulfill objectives of five national schemes — Swachh Bharat, Swasth Bharat, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India and Namami Gange. All this was a part of what came to be known as "Dehradun Declaration". This meant a double burden on labs — reorienting themselves to earn money from external sources and investing more to develop technologies and processes for national missions.

Becoming financially self-sufficient in two years was a tall order. A major exercise to reform CSIR labs was initiated in the late 1980s when the government established a committee under the chairmanship of senior bureaucrat Abid Hussain. This panel recommended that all CSIR labs must earn a third of their budget from external sources like sponsored projects. This was supposed to be a gradual process and labs could achieve this target.

In the 1990s, CSIR director general RA Mashelkar mandated labs to generate intellectual property and file patents. This exercise yielded good results though only some patents were marketed and monetised.

Our national labs — that of CSIR and other research councils like ICMR and ICAR — are the backbone of national research and innovation system, and have contributed a lot to the economy through knowledge development and useful technologies. Some of them are engaged in cutting-edge areas of basic science and produce world-class research.

The infrastructure of most labs is geared for scientific, not commercial research. If they have to take up research for industrial applications, they need money to invest in creating appropriate facilities. Our labs don’t have the technology marketing skills nor acumen for commercial negotiations. In the absence of this, abruptly enforcing self-financing model could be counter-productive and erode India’s scientific prowess built over decades.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

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