NITI Aayog suggests reduced ‘core’ grant support for State S&T bodies

The NITI Aayog has recommended that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) cut its ‘core grant support’ for State Science and Technology Councils and pare them down to ‘project-based support’. The recommendations are part of a report, ‘Roadmap for Strengthening State Science and Technology Councils’, made public on Thursday (July 10, 2025).

The State S&T Councils are a vital source of funding for scientific research, science popularisation, patent applications and scientific policy-support activities in states. Since the 1970s, such councils have acted to ‘decentralise’ scientific governance such that States can execute science and research in tune with their specific socioeconomic conditions. Funds from the Central government, primarily the DST, are already a minuscule source of revenue. For instance, of the ₹300 crore annual budget in Gujarat’s State Science and Technology Council, only ₹1.07 crore came from the Centre. In the case of Kerala’s ₹150 crore, the Centre’s (DST) contribution was zero.

From 2016-2022, the DST notes, 28 States and 3 Union Territories have been supported this way.

However, the bulk of India’s scientific output and productivity was coming from Centrally funded institutions, with the NITI Aayog, in its report, saying that in recent decades, the State S&T Councils have been facing an “uphill task” of keeping up with rapid changes in the research and development (R&D) landscape. “As evident from some recent reports, a significant part of India’s S&T research outcomes come from Central government institutions, and the State-administered institutions are yet to make a meaningful contribution. India’s advances in S&T can be significantly accelerated through collective effort of all the institutions in the country, both Central and State institutions. The State S&T Councils may play a major role here,” the report notes.

The report, which was a result of a two-month consultation with representatives from State Councils, has several findings and makes many recommendations. The comparative budget analysis of State Science & Technology (S&T) Councils for 2023-24 and 2024-25, it says, revealed a 17.65% increase in total funding, reflecting growing investment in scientific research and innovation at the State level.

However, the disparity in allocations “raised concerns” about regional imbalances in S&T development. Kerala (₹173.34 crore), Haryana (₹130 crore), and Uttar Pradesh (₹140 crore) utilised higher budgets. While Maharashtra’s budget surged by 130%, States like Sikkim (-16.16%), Tamil Nadu (-4%), and Uttarakhand (-5%) saw budget cuts, potentially hindering ongoing projects and indicating a stark neglect of S&T infrastructure in some regions, the report noted.

While some States received “better” partial Central assistance, the overall allocation from the Central government (mainly from DST) was quite “small”, and State S&T Councils were unable to tap the various other funding support structures at the Centre. “Over-reliance on core grants and inadequate efforts to attract project-based grants from various ministries, departments and agencies of the Central government have been a major weakness of most of the State S&T Councils,” the report notes.

The report recommends that governance structures in these councils improve, have a greater connection with industrial units and public sector enterprises located within a State and as far as possible, direct resources to State-funded universities rather than to Centrally funded research institutes.