New Delhi

A $500 million annual increase for the next five years in funding for Indian science and technology, promised by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, will be used to boost basic research, modernize laboratories, and launch new technology missions, according to officials in the science ministry.

Valangiman Ramamurti, secretary for the Department of Science and Technology, says the news “has come at a time when funding for even routine basic research was steeply on the decline and several good proposals from universities had to be turned down”.

Earlier this month, Vajpayee said that his government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, would provide funding worth 1 per cent of the gross domestic product for research and development in the financial year beginning 1 April 2000, increasing to 2 per cent in 2004 (see Nature 403, 126; 2000).

Ramamurti says that the heads of scientific agencies who met with finance minister Yashwant Sinha were given the impression that the increases would be reflected in the fiscal year 2000 budget.

According to Ramamurti, the additional resources would be spread across various scientific agencies under different ministries. At least 30 per cent would be used to boost basic research, with 20–30 per cent to go on “infrastructure creation”.