India's research base cannot expand without a stronger role for States. Discuss the challenges facing State S&T Councils and State universities and suggest measures.

India spends only about 0.7% of GDP on R&D (Gross Expenditure on R&D, GERD), and State governments pay for just 6.4% of it [1]. NITI Aayog launched the India S&T Scoreboard (Nov 2026) in the name of cooperative and competitive federalism. It signals that the next phase of research expansion must be led by States [2].

Why States are central

• 495 State Public Universities and their 46,000+ affiliated institutions enrol about 81% of students [3]. They are where most of India's future researchers will come from.
• India has only 262 researchers per million people, against China's 1,585 [4]. Central institutes alone cannot widen this base.

Challenges: State S&T Councils

• Funding: too little, irregular and drawn from too few sources [5].
• Manpower: staff are largely non-regular, with no performance-linked incentives [5].
• Autonomy: limited decision-making power makes multi-year research planning hard [5].
• No common model: Councils vary widely in how they are run, funded and staffed, and in their mandates [5].

Challenges: State universities

• Fiscal squeeze: States' spending on education is falling as a share of GSDP. The quality of spending is also weak [3].
• Affiliation burden: a large affiliating load pulls attention away from research.
• Regional concentration: eight States account for over 60% of R&D spending [1], so the gap between leading and lagging States keeps widening.
• Low private funding: public money dominates R&D, and fiscal incentives for private research funding are weak [4].

Measures

• Reform the Councils: give them steady funding from many sources, regular posts and real autonomy. Set up a Key Coordination Group to set priorities and track progress [5].
• Bring in industry: promote industry co-financing of State projects [5], backed by central tax incentives. NITI targets half of GERD from the private sector [4].
• Upgrade universities: act on NITI's ~80 recommendations, including a research policy, fee autonomy, Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs) and dedicated infrastructure financing [3].
• Use the Scoreboard to act: its three-sector data (academia, government labs, industry) [2] should become targets for each State's Council. Rankings should compare peer groups of similar States and reward the rate of improvement, so States that start behind are not penalised.

Strong State S&T Councils and universities can turn federal competition into real research capacity. With predictable funding, autonomy and industry partnerships, States can become co-drivers of India's science, not just recipients of central grants. That is the spirit of cooperative federalism and the route to Viksit Bharat@2047 [2].