Tharoor calls for increasing research output

Emphasising on the need for increasing the output of research in the country, Union minister Shashi Tharoor today said that Indian institutions did not do well in international rating surveys as research is an important yardsticks.
"These international rankings give a huge amount of weightage to research and also citations and published works which also come from research.
"If we want to have global recognition for the quality of our universities....The IITs and the IIMs, why can't they do more significant cutting edge research," Tharoor said while speaking at an event here.
He said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had committed the nation to doubling the percentage of GDP that is spent on research from one percent to two.

Ministry of Human Resource Development is pumping more money into institutions which are prepared to come up with research proposals, he added.
Tharoor also said that a Bill was pending in Parliament to create fourteen new universities of innovation and research.
He said that India which has the world's 17 per cent population could contribute immensely to research.
Tharoor's remarks come at a time when President Pranab Mukherjee has in many of his speeches in the past raised the issue of Indian institutions not making it to top rankings in international surveys.