At the annual Indian Science Congress this week, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised his country's researchers more funding for their work, says ScienceInsider's Pallava Bagla. "Singh said he will seek to boost R&D expenditures to at least 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2017, up from the current 0.9 percent," Bagla reports. "According to his target, over the next five years R&D spending would rise to about $8 billion per year, up from $3 billion spent in 2011. He also unveiled plans for a $1 billion supercomputing center at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and a $270 million underground Indian Neutrino Observatory in Theni."
Singh told conference attendees that while he is glad to see the number of scientific publications from Indian researchers steadily rising, he still thinks India isn't keeping up with other nations. "Singh signaled that much of the new government spending will go to engineering and applied sciences," Bagla adds.