The increasing confidence of India with takeovers and mergers in all sectors of business is paving way for increasing participation of India in the research sector. But there is a long way to go before Indian footprints start to show up in the research sector.

 

Indian researchers accounted for 2.16% of world's publication of research in science and technology while China accounted for 2.62% between 1993 and 2004 as per a statement released by Ministry of Human Resources Development, in Rajya Sabha during question hour this week

The report is titled as “Measures of Progress of Science in India” which was based on Web of Science Database. Mrs Purandeshwari the HRD Minister said North America had been the largest contributor to the scientific publications output in the world but Europe has overtaken it.1.84 lakh research papers were written in the last ten years by Indians contributing to 1.91% of world share taking the country to the 13th position.

In terms of citations, India was ranked 19th with only 5.83 lakh citations and contributing 2.66%. China, on the other hand, was at 9th position in terms of research papers. Here 2.53 lakh papers were written. When it comes to citations, China is a rank above India with 24 lakh citations and contributing 2.66% to the world share.

The Asian share of publications in the world output was 16.9% (10.4% citations share), of which the largest share (10.5% papers and 7.55% citations) was from Far East Asia, followed by South Asia (2.06% papers and 0.71% citations), Middle East (1.48% papers and 1.15% citations), and South East Asia (2.96% and 0.99% citations). The Oceania region contributed only 2.77% share in world publications and 2.52% citations. In contrast, the smallest share (1.2% papers and 0.58% citations) to world output was from Africa.

Figures from a ministry of science and technology report showed that in certain areas Indian researchers have done well. For instance, between 1994 and 2003, India contributed 7.4% papers in agricultural science, 2.21% in mathematics, 1.99% in chemical sciences, 1.97% in earth sciences, and 1.83% in physical sciences.

At the end of the session in Rajya Sabha in New Delhi all the members unanimously agreed that there is a lot more to be done in this area and the Indian government should take more initiative in funding and providing support to the research projects in all areas of human resource development.