India seeks to develop its economy at a faster pace. To achieve this, India must focus on R&D and innovation. R&D and innovation lie at the heart of the new global economy.

IIT-Bombay research paper has shown that there is a decline in PhD applications across the engineering stream and across all IITs since 2021.

All IITs have now full faculty strengths. And there is enough funding for core research areas. Besides the demand for cutting-edge research is pretty high. And still there is disinterest in pursuing PhD.

Maybe, attractive employment opportunities to graduates abroad could be the reason. Within the country itself, there are opportunities both in the public sector and private sector to students quite early on in their academic career. As it is students enrolling for Masters programmes are less in number, and Masters students are those who apply for PhD. In addition, PhD makes one a specialist in a niche area. It is a cause for concern.

In certain sectors, employment opportunities progressively decrease as the specialisation increases. Indian organisations too are not much interested in increasing their R&D expenditure. All this has to change.

There are less centres in India to incubate research and commercialize it. It makes research unattractive for students.

PhD programmes must be improved both qualitatively and quantitatively.