Research gap in India: India's PhD science pursuits lag behind US and China; Only 10,000 doctoral candidates in a population of 1.4 billion

Even as India speaks of becoming a $3 trillion economy, only 10,000 people in the country are pursuing PhDs in science disciplines. In the US, the numbers are four times higher, with a population one-fourth that of India. The disparity in the number of research papers published is significant, with India publishing only 2.8 lakh papers compared to China’s 10 lakh and the US’s seven lakh, said Director of CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) Sunil Kumar Singh.

There is a substantial gap between knowledge creation and its conversion into technology in India, which needs to be bridged, he said, speaking at the opening ceremony of the 7th Manohar Parrikar Vidnyan Mahotsav on Thursday.


“Today, if we see in the country, more than four crore people are enrolled in higher education. Of that, at the PG degree level, 55 lakh people are there, and only eight lakh are doing post-graduation in science. Out of that, only 42,000 people are getting registered for PhD. At the end of the PhD, roughly 10,000 are getting PhD. A country with 1.4 billion people, the knowledge creation which happens at the PhD level... we have only 10,000 doing it,” said Singh.

If you compare this to the US, they have four times higher numbers with one-fourth the population, he said.

“So you can imagine how we are lagging behind. I am not saying we are doing badly; we are doing well if you see the number of publications, it is touching three lakh per year. We are ranked number three in the world after China and the US, but the disparity is big. China is publishing 10 lakh, the US is publishing seven lakh, and we are roughly 2.8 lakh. It’s not just about numbers; there is also a quality comparison, which is very difficult to do,” said Singh.

When we are talking about Vikasit Bharat or Atmanirbhar Bharat by 2047 and a $3 trillion economy, it will not be attained just by acquiring wealth, he said.

“We have to have knowledge creation, and knowledge creation can only happen when young minds are engaged in doing science, doing research. We need a knowledge-based economy; we need knowledge-based development,” said Singh.

He said India does see knowledge creation, but “when we talk about the conversion of this knowledge creation into technology, we are not doing well at all.”

“When we talk about Vikasit Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat, we need to have both knowledge creation and technology development. Our young minds have a big role to play,” he said.