Indian Varsities Have Lesser Research Output than Cambridge, Stanford: Study

According to a study, all the central universities in India lag in terms of research output than the world’s top universities Cambridge and Stanford. The study clearly reveals the dismal picture of the condition of scientific research in the country. Researchers were of the opinion that lack of research infrastructure, lesser incentives for research and inappropriate funding are some of the reasons behind the poor performance.

Scientists conducted research performance evaluation of 39 central universities across the country based on various parameters. The following are the parameters taken by scientists in evaluating the performance of Indian universities in terms of research output: -

• Number of publications with international collaborators
• Total citations
• Total publications

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The scientists evaluated the Indian universities based on these parameters and compared them with two top ranking global universities, i.e., Cambridge and Stanford.

Mr. Vivek Kumar of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) revealed that the research performance of the Indian varsities would improve soon. For this purpose, the HRD Ministry has initiated the plan to set up 20 world class institutes or universities. He pointed that older universities like the University of Delhi and BHU have performed exceptionally well in terms of research output. Among the newer universities, University of Hyderabad has impressed with its research performance, he added.

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Mr. Vivek expressed his concern on combined research output of all the central universities. The research output of all the central universities in India is comparatively less than the Cambridge and Stanford universities.

Among all the universities, the University of Delhi bagged top rank in six out of seven indicators that have been used in this study. Delhi University contributed 21% research output of all central universities during 2014-14.

According to researchers, highest research papers are published in the field of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For the past two decades, there has not been any change in this trend. However, for the past few years, the research activity has been increasing which is a good sign.