SparX by Mukesh Bansal R&D Scientist : India is 25 years Behind China! We should wake up | SparX
Aug 30, 2025
Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, is on a mission to transform India’s research landscape. He discusses the urgent need for India to innovate rather than merely adopt foreign technologies. With plans to unlock substantial funding for R&D, he emphasizes collaboration across sectors. The conversation spans critical areas like AI, quantum tech, and energy, while Kalyanaraman shares insights from his own journey as an inventor with over 75 patents. A wake-up call for India's innovation future!
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Consistency Enables Compound Scientific Gains
- Consistent, long-term public funding is critical to compound research outcomes over decades.
- ANRF aims to avoid stop-start cycles and emulate long-horizon institutions like NSF or DARPA.
Raise Intensity And Productivity, Not Just Spend
- India's R&D intensity is low in percentage terms but absolute spending is growing rapidly.
- Closing the gap requires more private R&D, better capital productivity, and stronger collaboration.
Join Grants As Honorary PI To Access Research
- Industry should partner as honorary PIs on academic grants to engage early with research.
- Use collaborative grant budgets to fund joint projects and lower the bar to industry–academia work.