Context:

• A recent government move to re-examine guidelines for doctoral degrees seeks to align PhD research topics with “emerging needs and national priorities.”
• While relevance and accountability of public spending on research are important, overemphasis on immediate applicability risks undermining India’s long-term STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) potential.
• The debate is crucial for India’s ambition of becoming a knowledge economy and innovation hub. 

Core Argument:

• India cannot fulfil its STEM potential by narrowly focusing on short-term, application-oriented research.
• Instead, it must support basic research, ensure humane research conditions, and strengthen the foundations of higher education and research.

Analysing the Argument:

• Applied vs basic research - A false dichotomy:
  • Basic research often precedes applied breakthroughs by decades.
  • Example: Nobel Prize in Physics (2023) recognised work from the 1980s that enabled quantum computing, an application unimaginable at the time.
  • Bell Laboratories’ (American industrial research company) success illustrates how curiosity-driven basic research, backed by institutional freedom, leads to transformative technologies (transistor, laser, optical fibre).
• Limits of targeted and mission-mode research:
  • India already supports applied areas like renewable energy, battery technology, sustainable agriculture, and healthcare through national missions.
  • Over-directing funds only to “currently obvious” areas can be short-sighted and superficial.
  • True innovation requires supporting indirect, interdisciplinary and exploratory research, even without immediate outputs.
  • Hence, measuring relevance only by short-term impact is flawed.
• Structural problems in India’s PhD ecosystem:
  • Irregular and delayed fellowships (by DST, UGC, etc.) — scholars are often unpaid for months.
  • Transfer of fellowship payments directly to bank accounts helped curb corruption but did not solve disbursement delays.
  • Many non-NET PhD scholars receive stipends (~₹8,000/month), below minimum wage, unchanged since 2012.
  • Scholars are forced into excessive teaching or temporary jobs, reducing research productivity.
• Weak industry–academia linkages:
  • Industry-funded PhDs are rare in India, especially outside elite institutions like IITs.
  • Historical disconnect and limited institutional capacity reduce collaborative research and technology transfer.
  • Without improving administrative efficiency and advisory capacity, such collaborations cannot scale.
• Neglect of humanities and social sciences:
  • Policy focus on “emerging needs” risks sidelining philosophy, history, sociology, political science.
  • Unbiased inquiry in humanities is essential for democracy, ethics, and social understanding.
  • Valuing only STEM applications impoverishes the broader knowledge ecosystem.

Major Challenges Identified and Way Forward:

• Over-instrumental view of research relevance: Encourage curiosity-driven research alongside mission-mode projects. Evaluate impact over longer time horizons.
• Chronic delays in scholarships and salaries: Ensure timely and automatic disbursement of fellowships. Update stipends to reflect inflation and minimum wage norms.
• Inadequate PhD stipends and poor working conditions: Treat payment delays as a serious governance failure, not a minor administrative lapse. Build supportive institutional cultures that motivate scholars.
• Weak industry–academia collaboration: Incentivise industry-funded PhDs and joint research. Build administrative and mentoring capacity in universities.
• Marginalisation of non-STEM disciplines: Recognise humanities and social sciences as integral to national development. Avoid political or utilitarian interference in academic inquiry.
• Treat systemic issues (funding, academic freedom, etc) rather than symptoms (new priorities).

Conclusion:

• India’s STEM ambitions cannot be realised through narrowly defined relevance or short-term priorities.
• The real crisis lies not in a lack of “emerging topics” but in the neglect of foundational issues — humane basic research, respect for all domains of knowledge, etc.
• Getting the basics right is the prerequisite for innovation. Without fixing these roots, India risks stunting the very scientific and intellectual capacity it seeks to harness.