Budget 2026 must aim to fix the weak link in India's R&D ecosystem

Innovative activity is widely recognized as a key driver of competitiveness and economic growth. Its importance has only increased in the context of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution and the compulsions of net-zero. Hence, India’s underperformance in gross research & development (R&D) expenditure (GERD) as a proportion of gross domestic product — stagnating at around 0.7 per cent, much lower than the global average of 1.93 per cent — has attracted much debate.  Other countries like China spend a far higher proportion on R&D, at about 2.6 per cent. 

The output indicators of innovative activity — for example, India’s

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