Clinical research in India declined due to inadequate grants

Clinical research in India has declined over the years due to inadequate grants, the government said today.
"It is a fact that the clinical research has decreased due to inadequate grant available. The number of clinical research projects financially supported by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decreased," Health Minister J P Nadda said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
In 2015-16, only 26 clinical research projects were supported by ICMR while in 2014-15, there were 71 projects, he said.
In 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, ICMR had supported 196, 186 and 120 projects of clinical research, Nadda said.

Earlier this year, ICMR had said that a large number of biomedical research projects being undertaken by 32 scientific organisations across the country have been stuck due to resource crunch.
ICMR Director General Soumya Swaminathan had recently said that there have been budget cuts across the board in ICMR and institutions were suffering due to lack of funds for upgrading infrastructure, maintaining equipment, buying consumables and conducting field studies.
Later, Nadda had assured ICMR of providing full funding for research projects, saying that no work will be stopped or hampered for the lack of funds as research will be fully encouraged.