Science & Technology Quiz: Science Policy and Research Funding in India

The correct answer is B, the Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958. It was the first policy statement on science adopted by independent India, placed before Parliament during the prime ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru and shaped in large part by Homi Bhabha. It declared that the state would foster, sustain and cultivate science and scientific research in all its aspects, and it tied national development to a scientific temper. Option A, the Technology Policy Statement, came twenty-five years later in 1983 and dealt with technological self-reliance and indigenous technology rather than with science as a whole. Option C, the Science and Technology Policy of 2003, was the first to join the two words in one document and set the target of two per cent of GDP for research spending, but it was the third such document. Option D, the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2013, added innovation as a third element and came last of the four.

The correct answer is C, the Prime Minister of India. CSIR was set up in 1942 and is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, and by its rules the Prime Minister holds the office of President of the society by virtue of the post. Option A is wrong because the President of India is not part of the CSIR structure; the office is ceremonial in a different sphere and does not extend to a registered society of this kind. Option B is wrong but is the common trap: the Union Minister of Science and Technology is the Vice-President of CSIR, one step below. Option D is wrong because the Principal Scientific Adviser, an office created only in 1999, advises the government and chairs the Executive Council of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, but has no presiding role in CSIR. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar was the first Director General of CSIR.

The correct answer is C, 2023. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act was passed by Parliament in 2023 to create a single apex body for funding research across the sciences, including in state universities and colleges, which earlier received very little central research money. The same Act dissolved the Science and Engineering Research Board and transferred its work to the new foundation. Option A, 2018, is the year the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council was constituted and the year the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship began, not the year of the foundation. Option B, 2020, is the year in which a fifth science, technology and innovation policy was drafted and put out for consultation, which is why it is an attractive wrong choice. Option D, 2024, is the year the government gathered its science awards into the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, not the year of this Act.

The correct answer is A, 2008. The Science and Engineering Research Board Act was passed in 2008 and the board was constituted as a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology to fund basic research in the sciences and engineering through competitive grants to individual scientists. Its functions passed to the Anusandhan National Research Foundation under the Act of 2023. Option B, 2010, is wrong; it is the first year of the Decade of Innovation declared for 2010 to 2020. Option C, 2013, is wrong but tempting because that is the year of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, a policy document and not a statute creating a funding body. Option D, 2016, is wrong; that is the year the Atal Innovation Mission was set up under NITI Aayog to run Atal Tinkering Labs and support start-ups, a separate initiative altogether.

The correct answer is D, 1971. The Department of Science and Technology was created in 1971 as the nodal department for the promotion of new areas of science and technology and for the coordination of scientific work across ministries; it now runs the INSPIRE programme, the fellowships and the Vigyan Dhara scheme. Option A, 1958, is wrong, though it is the trap year: that is the year of the Scientific Policy Resolution and also the year the Defence Research and Development Organisation was formed and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize instituted. Option B, 1962, and option C, 1966, are wrong; no scientific department was created in either year, and they are offered only as near misses. Remember the sequence of the three departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology: science and technology in 1971, scientific and industrial research in 1985 and biotechnology in 1986.

The correct answer is C, the Department of Space. The Department of Space, created in 1972, and the Department of Atomic Energy, created in 1954, are not placed under the Ministry of Science and Technology; both report directly to the Prime Minister, which is why ISRO and the atomic energy establishment are described as working under the Prime Minister's charge. Option A is wrong as an answer because the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, created in 1985, is indeed one of the three departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology and oversees CSIR and the National Research Development Corporation. Option B is wrong because the Department of Biotechnology, created in 1986, is the third department of the same ministry and runs BIRAC. Option D is wrong because the Department of Science and Technology of 1971 is the first and best known of the three.

The correct answer is B, the Indian Research Fund Association. The body was founded in 1911 as the Indian Research Fund Association to sponsor and coordinate medical research in the country, and it was renamed the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1949 after independence. It works under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with its headquarters in New Delhi. Option A is the classic trap, because the Indian Council of Agricultural Research really did begin in 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research; the medical body carried a different name. Option C is an invented name and belongs to no Indian institution. Option D is wrong because the All India Institute of Medical Sciences is a teaching hospital and institute of national importance created by an Act of 1956, not the research council in question.

The correct answer is A, the Department of Science and Technology. INSPIRE stands for Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research and was launched by the Department of Science and Technology in 2008 to draw young people to science. Its parts run from the INSPIRE Award-MANAK for school children, through the Scholarship for Higher Education for toppers who choose science at the undergraduate level, to doctoral and faculty fellowships. Option B is wrong but plausible, because the Ministry of Education runs other student schemes, including the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship begun in 2018. Option C is wrong because the Department of Biotechnology runs its own fellowships, such as the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, and not INSPIRE. Option D is wrong because CSIR awards research fellowships through its own examination and runs laboratories, but INSPIRE is not its programme.

The correct answer is D, the Technology Development Board Act, 1995. The board was constituted in 1996 as a statutory body under that Act and works under the Department of Science and Technology, providing loans and equity to Indian companies that take home-grown technology to the market. Option A is wrong because the Patents Act of 1970 governs the grant of patents and fixes a twenty-year term; it creates no funding body. Option B is wrong but is a real trap, because CSIR is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, so the Act does appear in this topic, only elsewhere. Option C is wrong as the creating statute, though the Research and Development Cess Act of 1986 is connected: the cess it levied was a source of the fund the board draws upon. The question asks which Act constituted the board.

The correct answer is B, 11 May. National Technology Day marks 11 May 1998, the day of the first of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests, on which day India also test-flew the Trishul missile and completed the first flight of the indigenous Hansa-3 aircraft. Option A, 28 February, is National Science Day, which marks the day in 1928 on which C. V. Raman announced the discovery of the effect that carries his name and for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1930. Option C, 23 August, is National Space Day, declared to mark the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the lunar south pole in 2023. Option D, 5 June, is World Environment Day and has nothing to do with technology. Candidates lose marks by swapping the science day and the technology day, so fix the pair firmly.

The correct answer is C, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India was created in 1999 and Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was its first holder, before he became President of India in 2002. The office advises the Cabinet on matters of science and technology and now chairs the Executive Council of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation. Option A is wrong because Homi Bhabha, who shaped the Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958, headed the atomic energy programme and died in 1966, long before the office existed. Option B is wrong because Vikram Sarabhai founded the Indian space programme and chaired the Atomic Energy Commission, but held no such post. Option D is wrong because C. N. R. Rao, a chemist and Bharat Ratna, chaired the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, which is a different body.

The correct answer is B, two per cent. The Science and Technology Policy of 2003 set the goal of raising gross expenditure on research and development to two per cent of gross domestic product, and the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2013 repeated the same figure. In practice India's research spending has stayed below one per cent of GDP, and the government rather than business has been both the largest funder and the largest performer of research, which is the reverse of the pattern in advanced economies. Option A, one per cent, is wrong as the target, although it is close to the level actually reached, which is why it is offered. Option C, three per cent, and option D, five per cent, are higher than any Indian policy has set; three per cent is nearer the level of a few research-intensive economies and no Indian document commits to five.