US investment in science holds lessons for India’s economic growth | Hindustan Times
What does last week’s election victory of the Democrats have to do with India’s long-term economic development? More than we may realise. I am not referring to potential changes on tariffs on Indian goods or a more favorable immigration policy. These are short-term changes that depend on the political mood of the moment. The more consequential change may be the restoration of American investment in science, on which India’s future productivity growth depends in ways we rarely appreciate.
The future of scientific discovery may well be written in India in the future. But, realising that possibility will require far greater financial support for research, a deeper pool of scientific talent, and a culture of research excellence that extends beyond a handful of leading institutions. (HT Archive)Every time we open a mapping application to find our location, use a cell phone, or access the internet, we benefit from decades of US government investment in science. Many of these technologies began as ideas funded by the US government, well before their commercial applications could have been predicted. The internet grew out of ARPANET, a research network funded by the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency in the 1960s, and was subsequently expanded through investments by the National Science Foundation. GPS began as a military navigation program, and continues to depend on maintenance from the US military to this day. The touchscreen technologies that made smartphones possible were based on publicly funded research. The search algorithm that was the foundation of Google’s business emerged from research supported by the National Science Foundation. Major advances in disease treatment and diagnostics had their foundation in the Human Genome Project, the first effort to map the genome, and was primarily publicly funded though the National Institutes of Health.
Sustained US government investment in basic science, along with support from European countries, has helped propel the greatest transformation in human technological capability since the agricultural revolution, creating discoveries and technologies that have raised productivity, and improved lives far beyond the borders of the countries that funded them. There are few other alternatives globally to these sources of support, because they entail risks few private companies would take on given their shorter investment horizons and need for commercial returns. US government funding primarily went to universities and public laboratories and the discoveries were then built on by entrepreneurs, who turned many of them into products and industries. Many marvel at the incredible output from Silicon Valley, but few realise that behind this is a scientific foundation built over decades with public money. Long-term productivity, which is the main driver of economic growth, has increased worldwide as a consequence, including in India.
In recent years, that scientific enterprise has come under extraordinary threat from the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding, and attacks on US universities. The administration has sought to reduce federal research and development spending by about 6%, with severe cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose research budget was slated to fall by 41%, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which faced a proposed reduction of 55%. The Department of Energy’s research investments were targeted for a 16% reduction, while Nasa’s research spending faced a proposed cut of 34%.
Although many of these cuts were rejected by the US Congress, the loss of trust in government as a reliable engine of science is unmistakable. Thousands of research grants have been terminated, scientific personnel have left federal agencies, and universities have faced considerable uncertainty over the future of their research programs.
Trump’s war on science has also raised questions about the stability of US scientific institutions, and the willingness of young researchers to commit their careers to them. A 2026 study of 916 young biomedical scientists in the US found that, following the disruption of federal science funding, the share intending to remain in the US fell from 93 to 72% in just six months, while satisfaction with having pursued a PhD in science declined by 16 percentage points. And, visa restrictions have reduced the ability of young Indians to be exposed to the best of global science.
The Democrats’ victory in Congress creates an opportunity to push back against these policies, but restoring funding alone will not be sufficient. The damage extends to the confidence of a generation of young people around the world in the value of pursuing science. There is a reason so many from around the world have flocked to the US for higher education and have stayed on to create world-class companies. The sheer number and quality of US research institutions, and the freedom of intellectual inquiry are unparalleled and remain difficult to replicate elsewhere.
The future of scientific discovery may well be written in India in the future. But, realising that possibility will require far greater financial support for research, a deeper pool of scientific talent, and a culture of research excellence that extends beyond a handful of leading institutions. For example, in 2022, the US spent approximately $923 billion on research and development, measured in purchasing-power-adjusted dollars, equivalent to 3.59% of its GDP. India, by comparison, spent about $58 billion in purchasing-power-adjusted terms in 2020–21, or just 0.64% of GDP. India has set a goal of tripling its research expenditure to 2% of GDP, but achieving that would require a substantial increase in both public and private investment in science. Until then, Indian researchers and businesses will continue to depend heavily on fundamental discoveries made elsewhere.
The whole world has a considerable stake in the health of the US system. While India’s development may increasingly depend on what it can discover for itself, for the foreseeable future, it will also depend on whether the US continues to invest in discoveries that benefit us all.
Ramanan Laxminarayan is the author of Bacteria to Buddha: How Cooperation Shaped Consciousness — and Makes Us Human. The views expressed are personal
