Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the number of research scientists per million people in India follows an increasing trend. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, he said, as per the latest R&D statistics, the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Researchers per million people has increased to 255 in 2017 from 218 in 2015 and 110 in 2000. The latest figure on total number of researchers in the country comes to 3.42 lakh.

The funds allocated for R&D in the field of science are being fully utilised. As per the data, utilization of funds allocated in respect of Departments under Ministry of Science and Technology viz., Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Bio-technology (DBT) and Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) during the last three years comes to nearly 98 to 99%. Details of the same are provided in the Annexure.

Fund allocation and utilization by the Departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology

  (Rs. crore)

Departments	Funds Allocated (RE)			Funds Utilized
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
DST	5114.79	5480.93	5000.00	4912.54 (96.0%)	5407.03 (98.6%)	4913.33 (98.3%)
DSIR including CSIR	4572.84	4883.24	4251.86	4548.78 (99.5%)	4871.63 (99.8%)	4244.88 (98.9%)
DBT	2411.53	2381.10	2300.00	2379.10 (98.7%)	2358.77 (99.1%)	2259.72 (98.2%)
Total	12099.16	12745.27	11551.86	11840.42 (97.9%)	12637.43 (99.1%)	11417.93 (98.8%)

 

Source: Demand for Grants of Central Government, Expenditure Budget, GoI (various Years)

Note: 1. DST- Department of Science and Technology

2. DSIR/CSIR- Department of Scientific & Industrial      

      Research/Council of Scientific Research

3. DBT- Department of Bio-Technology

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SNC/TM/RR

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