National Research Fund to be released soon: AICTE
Kolkata: The National Research Fund (NRF) will be released soon to promote science and technological research projects in the country.
"It (NRF) is in the final stage. The parliamentary committee has already looked into it. The Government of India will release it soon," said Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), on the sidelines of Leadership for Academics Program (LEAP) 2020, a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) initiative hosted by Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research Kolkata held at Science City on Saturday.
According to the organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), more than 60 per cent of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industries, and 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively by universities and government. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research director-general Dr Shekhar C Mande, also shared his opinion on the topic — Balancing blue and applied research — the role of leadership.
"LEAP is a platform to develop academic leadership. It empowers faculty on how the country is promoting Science and Technology in general," pointed out Mande.
In March 2019, the expenditure on education had gone up from 3.8 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in 2014 it was up to 4.6 per cent. This apart, the Centre had also ensured to prioritise the educational infrastructure in the coming years and to spend six per cent of the total GDP to improve educational facilities in India.
Research funding comes from two major sources, corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily carried out through universities and specialised government agencies; often known as research councils). "The main objective of LEAP is to develop leadership qualities in senior professors who are likely to become future directors of different institutions. We have been conducting LEAP for the last two years," said Anindita Bhadra, coordinator of LEAP.
