India, July 15 -- India has long grappled with an uncomfortable truth: Our research and development spending, despite being the world's fifth-largest economy and a global talent hub, remains among the lowest in the world. At under 0.7% of GDP, our national research and development spend pales not only in comparison with countries like the US (3.5%) or China (2.7%), but also with smaller economies such as South Korea (5%) and Brazil (1.2%). This has had a compounding effect. It has limited our scientific ambition, discouraged patient capital from entering deep-tech, and left India too often a consumer rather than a creator of advanced technology.

Against this backdrop, the government's announcement of a Rs.1 lakh crore Research, Developme...