India has less research scholars than China: Irani

New Delhi, August 7: Only 0.02 percent of India's people are researchers, much less compared to China, parliament was told Wednesday.

"The percentage of research scholars in China is 0.08 percent of the total population, whereas that in India is 0.02 percent of the total population," Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

She said a reason for less number of research scholars in India was that "investment on research and development (R&D) as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lower in India as compared to China".

"In 2011, the investment on R&D was 0.81 percent of the GDP in India, while that for China was 1.84 percent," she said. The minister said the government has taken various measures to encourage scientific research in India, including successive increase in plan allocation for scientific departments, induction of attractive fellowships and creation of centres of excellence.

IANS