new delhi

Funding for Indian science is to be increased next year to US$2.44 billion — 3.6 per cent of the total national budget — under proposals submitted by the Bharatiya Janata Party government to parliament last week.

The government also announced three new schemes: a national fund for promoting innovation, a technology mission on vaccines, and the creation of a national bioresources board to conserve and manage India's genetic resources.

The science budget does not include $399 million allocated for nuclear-power construction projects, including the development of a prototype fast-breeder reactor. “There is an increase in funding, though not substantial, and scientists are happy, ” says Valangiman Ramamurthi, secretary to the Department of Science and Technology.

As in the past, the three ‘strategic’ departments of defence, atomic energy and space get the lion's share (51 per cent) of the money (see Table 1). The Space Department, which is developing a large cryogenic rocket engine, a second launch pad, and a high-power direct broadcasting satellite, gets an increase of 16 per cent. All increases are calculated over the final 1998-99 figures, rather than the significantly higher budget figures initially proposed.

Table 1 Proposed Indian science budget for 1999-2000 (in US$ million)

The 32 per cent increase in the atomic-energy budget includes funds for advanced plasma devices and a new national centre for applied mathematics and radio astrophysics, to be set up at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai (Bombay).

The electronics sector is slated for a 33 per cent increase in research funding, reflecting government emphasis on information technology. Crop research will see its budget grow by 26 per cent.

One of the three new schemes is a national foundation, with an initial fund of $5 million, to compile a national register of innovators and to help convert their work into business opportunities.

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha announced the launch of a technology mission to focus on “new vaccines that will revolutionize the medical and health systems”.

The proposed national bioresources board, to be headed by the minister for science, will coordinate “policies, research, documentation and legal protection” of the country's genetic wealth.