कोशिश गोल्ड - मुक्त

Can ANRF pull off the impossible for India?

Down To Earth

|

November 01, 2024

Anusandhan National Research Foundation is expected to reorient India's innovation goals but funding issues, old mindsets remain a drag

Can ANRF pull off the impossible for India?

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH and innovation is finally finding a place, or appears to figure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s list of priorities, after the first two terms of his Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) government were wasted in pandering to irrational beliefs and propagating religious myths that were even foisted on the prestigious Indian Science Congress. The Congress, an annual event held every year since 1914 that draws globally renowned scientists to its conclave, was scrapped this year by the government, which has done little to hide its disdain for scientists and their spirit of rational inquiry and discovery. It is with curiosity and hope, therefore, that the government’s attempts to restructure research goals since late last year have been watched by the community and by anyone with a keen interest in pushing the boundaries of scientific inquiry and innovation. As anyone with a passing interest in this field knows, research has become ossified in India’s vast network of public research laboratories and was desperately in need of a new direction to inject a sense dynamism into it.

In August 2023, the government notified its most ambitious attempt at reforming the scientific research framework by establishing the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (anrf) through an Act of Parliament. It repealed the Science and Engineering Research Board Act of 2008 and simultaneously dissolved the Science and Engineering Research Board that was set up under it. The idea was to recast the research landscape by outlining strategic directions and encouraging collaboration between industry, academia and government departments. It was a welcome move except for the big omissions; funding for one. anrf comes with a promise of generous support, but the bulk of the R50,000 crore budgeted for 2023-28, that is, R36,000 crore, has to be raised from private sources, primarily industry and philanthropists.

Down To Earth से और कहानियाँ

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

How to slash a drug price by 97 per cent

Rulings that bar patent extensions on flimsy grounds by drug giants are opening the gates to dramatically cheaper generic medicines

time to read

4 mins

November 01, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

Flushed and forgotten

Poor containment systems, weak monitoring and illegal dumping have turned Uttar Pradesh's faecal sludge handling into an environmental ticking bomb

time to read

4 mins

November 01, 2025

Down To Earth

To do or not to do

AS I write this, there is massive churning in the world—not the kind that makes headlines, but deeper undercurrents: collisions of powerful forces working against each other. What will emerge as the victor? At this point, the only certainty is uncertainty.

time to read

3 mins

November 01, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

FADING REEFS

Warm-water corals are the first major ecosystem to collapse in a rapidly warming planet. Scientists are racing to save them using cutting-edge technologies, from preserving spawn to breeding hardier varieties, but admit their efforts may fall short unless global temperature rises are limited to below 1.5°C.

time to read

5 mins

November 01, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

Emphasis on rebuilding Gaza post-truce

ON OCTOBER 10, Israel and Palestine declared a ceasefire after a two-year war that led to the deaths of thousands of people and led to mass displacement and a famine in the disputed Gaza strip.

time to read

1 min

November 01, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

Collective denial

A decade on from the Paris Agreement, countries are planning more fossil fuel production than before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk

time to read

4 mins

October 16, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

BUILT TO BINGE

Over the past few decades, food companies have exploited basic human instincts to peddle ultra-processed products. Engineered to hijack the brain's reward system, these foods are silently fuelling a new addiction epidemic, and driving rising rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Urgent policy action is needed to reclaim control over our food environment.

time to read

19 mins

October 16, 2025

Down To Earth

Another farmer quits

THIS DUSSEHRA, Pitabasha did not go for the customary sighting of the Indian Roller, or tiha, as it is called in Odia. The bird is believed to grant wishes, and every year thousands of people flock to farms, fields and forests hoping to glimpse it and make a wish. But the 30-year-old farmer from Matupali village in Odisha stayed back. From that day, he also stopped calling himself a farmer.

time to read

2 mins

October 16, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

What the H-1B visa angst reveals about India

It is odd that India strenuously promotes the exodus of its tech talent while failing to foster innovation at home

time to read

4 mins

October 16, 2025

Down To Earth

Down To Earth

REDUCED TO INSIGNIFICANCE

On October 12, the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 20 years. Activists who monitor the Act, and former information commissioners, say that amendments by successive governments have rendered the law toothless. As per Central Information Commission's latest annual report (2023-24), the number of RTI applications rejected in the year was over 67,615—the highest ever. BHAGIRATH curates a conversation on what went wrong with the law that was sought to bring transparency and accountability in governance.

time to read

14 mins

October 16, 2025

Listen

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size