From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had pledged Rs 50,000 crore over five years in her Union Budget last year for setting up a National Research Foundation (NRF) to promote India’s research competence, but that foundation still remains on paper.
It only demonstrates the Modi government’s penchant to make big announcements but with disproportionate follow-up. Human memory is short and so such announcements are forgotten, but not by the scientists who looked forward to get funds for their research.
The status of the NRF illustrates the government’s strategy to drumbeat the announcements and let they fade out from the public memory, says a physicist in a government institute while admitting that “NRF is a great concept that will flourish one day.”
Another scientist says many of the NRF’s objectives overlap with those of the existing agencies, but as long NRF budget is in addition to the budget of these exigencies, it is always welcome.
