10 Billion Rupees Per Annum for New Independent Agency to Promote Basic Research in India. (December 11, 2008)

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh announced last week that his government intends to create an independent agency to promote basic research in science and engineering similar to the US' National Science Foundation, with an allocation of 10 billion rupees (A$314 million) per annum to be called the National Science and Engineering Research Board (NSERB).

This new funding is about 15% of last year's total funding for governmental support of Indian science.

Speaking on December 3 the Indian prime minister said: "It will provide unfettered financial assistance to researchers, academic institutions, research laboratories and industrial concerns."

C. N. R. Rao, chairman of the prime minister's scientific advisory council and a lobbyist for the NSERB since 2002 said: "I am happy that it has finally come through."

A nine-member board is planned which is to be chaired by an eminent scientist, to be named by the cabinet. The board is to have several advisory panels.

Currently the principal support for basic science is the Department of Science and Technology's Science & Engineering Research Council (SERC), set up in 1974. Last year, it distributed 3.6 billion rupees (A$113 million) for projects in all disciplines.

Seyed Hasnain, vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad and a member of the prime minister's scientific advisory council told Nature: "My only concern is it should not end up as another agency funding scientists in institutions already having a big budget. The bulk of the board's funding must go to university researchers, who are most neglected now."