Target R&D expenditure of 2% of GDP: EAC-PM

New Delhi: The growth in R&D expenditure should be commensurate with the economy's growth and should be targeted to reach at least 2 per cent of the GDP by 2022, according to the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

In a report titled 'R&D Expenditure Ecosystem', the EAC-PM said that the line ministries at the Centre could be mandated to allocate certain percentage of their budget for research and innovation for developing and deploying technologies as per the priorities of the respective ministries. "The growth in R&D expenditure should be commensurate with the growth of GDP and should be targeted to reach at least 2 per cent of GDP by 2022," the report said.

It pointed out that India's public investment in R&D as a fraction of GDP has remained stagnant over the last two decades. It has remained constant at around 0.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent of GDP and this is well below the major countries such as the US (2.8 per cent), China (2.1%), Israel (4.3%) and Korea (4.2%), the report said.

"To ensure that India leaps into a leadership role in innovation and industrial R&D by stimulating private sector's investment in R&D from current 0.35 per cent of GDP, it is suggested that a minimum percentage of turn-over of the company may be invested in R&D by medium and large enterprises registered in India," the report stressed.