by Dr Muzafar Jan
The research gap is most evident in places like Jammu and Kashmir. Despite having a pool of trained scientists, experienced faculty, and some infrastructure, the region generates very little rigorous, data-driven research.
A Conversation in the Heat
It was the hottest summer afternoon recorded since 1953 in the capital city of Kashmir when I walked into the staff room of a college set between ageing concrete walls and surrounding green gardens. The campus was bustling with students preparing for their semester examinations. A professor invited me for tea and conversation. What began as a routine academic visit soon became a quiet revelation about how research, the very foundation of national development, is misunderstood, underfunded, and, at times, quietly discouraged within many higher education institutions.
The professor, who requested anonymity, leaned forward and said, with equal parts resignation and resolve, that they do not even want to sign our research grant proposals. According to him, research is treated as a private interest, a leisure activity. The significance of that statement lingered. While India is climbing the global research index, in many of its peripheral colleges and universities, research remains viewed as an indulgence rather than a necessity. This perception stems from entrenched academic conventions and must change at a systemic level if the country is to emerge as a genuine knowledge economy.
A New National Commitment
That same week in Delhi, an important shift was underway. The Parliament had approved the formation of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), India’s most ambitious research funding institution to date, with a projected outlay of ₹1,00,000 crore over the next five years. This was not a mere budgetary detail. It was a public affirmation that India is now investing in its intellectual capital. The ANRF introduces a fundamental reimagining of research, positioning it not as the domain of elite institutions but as a national mission that includes the sciences, humanities, technology, and social innovation.
Notably, more than 70 per cent of ANRF’s funding is expected to come from private sources, marking the beginning of a new phase of industry-academia collaboration. This development is not an isolated reform but part of a broader educational overhaul shaped by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NEP redefines Indian universities not as centres of rote learning but as engines of critical thinking and original inquiry. It proposes the creation of Research and Innovation Development Cells in every higher education institution, supports undergraduate research, and calls for the establishment of multidisciplinary institutions that can compete globally in both pedagogy and innovation.
A key aspect of the policy is the structural realignment of faculty responsibilities, recommending that 40 per cent of faculty time be dedicated to research and 60 per cent to teaching. While accepted in policy, this shift has yet to be fully implemented. Many administrators remain either unaware or unwilling to make these changes, confining faculty to traditional roles and limiting the impact of their work.
The Unseen Struggles in Kashmir
The research gap is most evident in places like Jammu and Kashmir. Despite having a pool of trained scientists, experienced faculty, and some infrastructure, the region generates very little rigorous, data-driven research. The issue is not simply a matter of resources, but of systemic apathy and institutional resistance. There is no standalone research institute in the entire Kashmir Valley, despite the urgency of addressing public health, environmental damage, agricultural distress, and mental health challenges through localised inquiry.
Where resources do exist, they remain underutilised or inaccessible due to bureaucratic inertia. In many colleges, research is quietly obstructed. Proposals are stalled, laboratory access is denied, and junior faculty are dissuaded from pursuing meaningful work by senior administrators who continue to treat research as a distraction from teaching. One researcher noted that they have the people and the tools, but lack the will and the systems needed to make use of them. The region is filled with capacity, yet the culture of research has yet to take root.
Still, amid this atmosphere, the persistence of young scholars stands out. Their quiet determination to continue working despite the lack of support is a testament to the enduring need for discovery, even in the most difficult circumstances.
A Misconception That Must Be Broken
There remains a persistent and damaging belief that research is the privilege of central universities, elite institutes, and exclusive policy centres. In truth, research is essential to the well-being of students, the progress of communities, and the strength of democracy.
When faculty members undertake research, students gain access to current knowledge and develop critical skills. Institutions benefit from increased autonomy, improved funding prospects, and broader recognition. More importantly, communities receive locally grounded solutions in areas such as public health, climate adaptation, and sustainable development. A college that neglects research responsibilities does more than a disservice to its staff; it undermines its future.
This is a moment of reckoning. College principals, university leaders, and education officials across India must understand that supporting research is not a bureaucratic task. It is a national imperative. Policies laid out by the University Grants Commission, such as the official allocation of faculty time for research, must be implemented. Research Development Cells should be made functional. Administrators require training to engage with emerging schemes like the ANRF. Institutions must create an atmosphere where faculty are encouraged, not hindered, in their pursuit of scholarly work. Even limited infrastructure, digital access, and modest internal grants can foster research cultures in remote colleges and help unlock innovation from the ground up.
India is moving with pace, from launching satellites and building vaccine platforms to developing artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and green hydrogen systems. The path to Viksit Bharat 2047 cannot be paved by infrastructure alone. It must be built through knowledge, original thinking, and resolve. For this, every institution, however remote, must become a centre of national development.
The Brain Drain Challenge
India has, for decades, struggled with the outflow of its most talented scientists and researchers to institutions and companies abroad. Indian-origin scientists have played key roles in global innovation, but their departure has left significant gaps in India’s research environment. This trend was never the result of inadequate talent, but of inadequate institutional support at home.
In response, India is now taking steps to reverse this pattern. Schemes such as VAJRA, GIAN, and the expanding reach of ANRF are not limited to organising visits or talks. They are structured to bring scientists back for sustained collaboration, mentorship, and laboratory development. Other initiatives, including the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship and Faculty Recharge Programmes, focus on retaining top talent by providing world-class research opportunities and financial backing. The strategy is no longer to wait for the return of Indian researchers. It is to build a system strong and credible enough to draw them back by its merit.
The Return
I had returned from New York University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, equipped with new methods, refined skills, and a clear intent to apply international knowledge to domestic challenges. I had expected to contribute, to extend my training into practice. Instead, I found myself asking permission to submit research proposals to individuals unfamiliar with the very idea of a research protocol.
It would be comic if it were not so dispiriting. Those rejecting these proposals often speak with quiet authority, though many have never drafted a grant, attended a professional conference, or opened the UGC’s research policy documents. Some remain convinced that “research” involves reproducing textbook content and binding it neatly. Mention the ANRF or India’s standing in global science, and one is met with looks of polite confusion, as though speaking a language they never expected to hear in their corridors.
Returning with international credentials, only to explain the purpose of research to those who see academic publishing as a recreational activity, is a peculiar experience. Yet perhaps this is part of the task, to construct not just laboratories, but an institutional consciousness, step by step, conversation by conversation.
These gatekeepers, without academic qualifications in research, appear to believe that loyalty to defunct hierarchies will shield them, even from the evolving priorities of a changing nation. In their framework, scientific work is treated with suspicion, official paperwork is equated with authority, and adherence to long-standing corruption is mistaken for competence. It is a curious phenomenon to witness deliberate irrelevance amid national investments in quantum science and space exploration.
(The author is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory at the Division of Biological Sciences, Sri Pratap College, Cluster University Srinagar. Ideas are personal.)
