India ranks 10th globally for scientific research

The government has said India ranked 10th globally in terms of quality of scientific research, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, in a written reply, quoting the Scopus International database said India held 10th rank in 2006. The country's position was 12th in 2001.

The same study quoted that the growth rate of research papers published during the period 1996 to 2006 is seven per cent, which is higher than the world average of 4.1 per cent.

The Minister also quoted data from the ISI Web of Knowledge database that states citation for every research papers of Indian publications had improved from 3.95 per cent (during 1996 to 2006) to 4.40 per cent (during 1998-2008).

Relying to another question on government's measures to improve scientific research, the Minister said the government has enhanced allocation for Scientific Departments in the XIth plan period from Rs 25,301 crore to Rs 75,304 crore.