Niti Aayog Vice -Chairman Suman Bery with VK Saraswat and Minister of the Union State Jitendra Singh during the release of the “Roadmap to strengthen the State Council S&T” July 10, 2025 | Photo Credit: PTI
The Niti Aayog recommended that the Ministry of Science and Technology (DST) reduce its “basic grant support” for state science and technology councils and parked them on “project support”. Recommendations are part of the report “Roadmap for strengthening state sciences and technology councils”, published on Thursday (July 10, 2025).
S&T State Councils are a vital source of financing of scientific research, popularization of science, patent applications and activities to support scientific policy in countries. Since the 1970s, these councils have acted to “decentralize” the scientific administration, so that states can conduct science and research in accordance with their specific socio -economic conditions. Funds from the central government, especially DST, are already a slight source of income. For example, from the annual crore budget at 300 GBP in the State Council for Science and Technology in Gujarat, only 1.07 GBP came from the center. In the case of Keraly Crore 150 GBP, the post (DST) was zero.
In 2016–2022, DST, 28 countries and 3 Union territories were supported in this way.
However, most of the scientific production and productivity of India came from centrally financed institutions with Aayog Niti in their report and said that in recent decades the State Councils have been facing a “uphill” to keep up with rapid research and development changes (R&D). “As can be seen from some recent reports, a significant part of Indian S&T research results from the institutions of the Central Government and the state institutions that are managed must still be a meaningful contribution. Indian advances in S&T can be significantly accelerated through the collective efforts of all institutions in the country.
The report, which was the result of a two -month consultation with representatives of state councils, has several findings and issues many recommendations. The comparative budget analysis of the State Science and Technology Council (S&T) for 2023-24 and 2024-25, states, revealed a 17.65% increase in total financing, reflecting growing investments in scientific research and innovation at state level.
However, the difference in allocations was “concerned” about regional imbalance in the development of S&T. Kerala (173.34 Crore), Haryana (130 Crore) and Uttar Pradesh (140 crore) used higher budgets. While the Maharashtra budget increased by 130%, states like Sikkim (-16.16%), Tamil Nadu (-4%) and Uttarakhand (-5%) recorded budget cuts, potentially prevents ongoing projects and indicates significant S&T infrastructure infrastructure in some regions.
While some states received “better” partial central assistance, the overall allocation from the Central Government (mainly from DST) was quite “small” and the State Council S&T could not use various other support structures on Wednesday. “Excessive communities on key grants and insufficient efforts to attract grants based on projects from various ministries, departments and agencies of the Central Government were the main weakness of most state councils S&T,” the report said.
The report recommends that the structures of the administration improve in these councils, have greater connections with industrial units and public sector businesses based in the state, and, if possible, rather direct resources to the state -funded universities rather than centrally funded research institutes.
Published – 10 July 2025 22:14
