Flagging the limited participation of private industry in research funding and execution, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh has said that the private sector should accelerate its participation in Research & Development (R&D) activities. According to him, industry engagement is essential to strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem and the government support alone cannot sustain long-term innovation.

The Minister listed down various steps taken by the government towards this, including opening up sectors such as space and nuclear energy to private players and creating dedicated mechanisms like the Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) fund. He further noted that industry must now respond by investing more actively in R&D and partnering in the country’s scientific and technological advancement.

Singh said that strengthening India’s research ecosystem requires sustained, system-wide engagement beyond government, involving institutions, industry and society at large. Besides, he said ‘Science today is too serious a subject to be left to scientists alone’, calling for broader stakeholder participation to ensure that research translates into scalable technologies, products and solutions.