The claims of scientific research and development of science in India have been limited to the speeches of the Modi government, while the ground reality, on the contrary, reflects a state of misery and financial crisis.
Al Jazeera’s report has revealed that the government’s specific scheme for scientific research and development, “Vigyan Dhara”, is just a political drama.
Researchers under the Indian government’s INSPIRE scheme have been deprived of scholarships for the last 9 months, due to which many researchers have been forced to take loans or quit research.
According to Al Jazeera, 70 percent of the budget for research was distributed to private institutions in the form of interest-free loans, while 22 percent of the budget was cut on research projects like INSPIRE. The real cuts were hidden from the public under the guise of Vigyan Dhara.
The new scheme Vigyan Dhara has plunged the payment of scholarships into a quagmire of crisis and disorganization, and due to non-payment of government funds, researchers are unable to buy even laptops and their savings have also been wiped out.
According to the report, researchers at Indian IITs and IISERs are suffering from bureaucratic indifference, vague responses and government neglect, and researchers are forced to go without any scholarship for three to nine months.
The report said that the budget of Vigyan Dhara has been cut by 67.5%, which has reduced from Rs 43.89 billion in 2016-17 to just Rs 14.25 billion in 2025-26.
In interviews with Al Jazeera, Indian researchers complained that they “couldn’t attend the annual conference for fear of not getting a stipend.”
A faculty fellow said that they had not received payments since September 2024, which was affecting their professional activities. “We have made repeated calls and emails, but most of the time there was no response or only vague and sometimes rude replies,” said a PhD scholar.
“Government apathy has made the lives of scientists unbearable, no one listens,” said another scholar.
This situation is casting a serious question mark over the future of science, research and young researchers in India, and the Modi government’s claims of Aatmanirbhar and Vigyan Dhara are proving to be completely different from the ground realities.
