India is now the fourth biggest producer of scientific research in the world

29 October 2020: India is now the fourth biggest producer of scientific research in the world, behind China, the US and the UK, while Germany is fifth. As quoted by www.timeshighereducation.com, The World University Ranking portal, figures from Elsevier’s SciVal database show that India published 187,000 academic papers in 2019, an increase of 5 per cent since the previous year, while Germany’s volume dipped slightly, to 182,000. India is also closing the gap with the UK; the publication volume difference between the two countries reduced from 39,000 in 2018 to 26,000 in 2019. In 2018, China overtook the US to become the world’s largest producer of scientific research papers.

Eldho Mathews, Deputy Adviser, the Unit for International Cooperation at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, was quoted of saying that the University Grant Commission’s (UGC) requirement that scholars publish in research journals to improve on academic performance indicators, and thus become eligible for recruitment and promotion, was a major contributing factor in the rise. He has reportedly said that PhD admissions in Indian universities more than doubled from 78,000 in 2010-11 to 161,000 in 2017-18.

Craig Jeffrey, director of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne, said that India’s research productivity may increase further in the next few years following the launch of the new National Education Policy and the establishment of a National Research Foundation.

www.timeshighereducation.com