Public funding of university research infrastructure can yield frontier science. Examine with reference to the DST-FIST scheme.

Most state universities cannot afford the costly instruments that frontier science needs. The Department of Science & Technology (DST) launched the Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) in 2000 to strengthen R&D infrastructure in higher education [1]. FIST shows that targeted public funding can close this gap. Turning equipment into lasting research output, however, needs more than capital grants.

How FIST yields frontier science

• Recent case: At the University of Kerala's Geology Department, a laser Raman spectrometer funded under DST-FIST identified two water-bearing sulphate minerals: melanterite at Neyveli, and gypsum in the Tiruchirappalli Badlands and Chile's Atacama Desert. The team proposed these places as Martian analogue sites, and the work was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets [2].
• Scale: About 2,900 FIST projects worth nearly ₹2,950 crore were sanctioned between 2000 and 2019 [1].
• Tiered, competitive support: Funding comes at Levels A–D, with ceilings of up to ₹10 crore, across six subject areas and PG colleges [3].
• Shared access: The restructured FIST, aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat, opens facilities to start-ups, MSMEs and industry. Facilities must list their available slots on the I-STEM portal [4].
• Fits the national space effort: These mineral analogues complement ISRO's habitat analogue, HOPE, in Ladakh [2][5].

Limitations

• Equipment is not output: Capital grants pay for instruments. Without trained technicians, maintenance and running costs, those instruments may sit underused.
• Uneven sharing: Wider benefit depends on facilities actually being listed and booked through I-STEM [4].
• Weak link to missions: India's only Mars mission, Mangalyaan, is an orbiter [6]. Ground-truth data like this helps landers and rovers most, so foreign missions benefit first.

Way forward

• Open the Kerala facility and an Indian reference library of mineral spectra to all researchers through I-STEM [4].
• Link university analogue research with ISRO's HOPE and any future Indian lander [5].
• Fund technical staff and operating costs alongside equipment.

DST-FIST shows that steady, competitive public funding can let a state university produce internationally published planetary science. If shared access, staff support and links to ISRO missions are added, such one-off results can become a national capability. That would advance SDG 9 and the goal of a self-reliant, research-led India.