Science and technology in India
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India (office: 15 August 1947 - 27 May 1964), initiated reforms to promote higher education, science and technology in India. The Indian Institutes of Technology - conceived by a committee of 22 members of academics and entrepreneurs to promote technical education - was inaugurated on 18 August 1951 in Kharagpur in West Bengal by Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad More IITs soon opened in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi as well in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in the 1960s, close ties with the Soviet Union allowed the Space Research Organization Of India to rapidly develop the Indian space program and advance in nuclear energy in India even after the first nuclear explosion of India on May 18, 1974 in Pokhran.
India accounts for approximately 10% of all R & D expenditure in Asia and the number of scientific publications grew by 45% over the five years to 2007. However, according to India's Minister of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, India lags in science and technology compared to developed countries. India has only 140 researchers per 1,000,000 population, compared with 4,651 in the United States. India invested $ 3.7 billion in science and technology in 2002-2003. By way of comparison, China invested about four times more than India, while the United States invested about 75 times more than India in science and technology. The highest ranked Indian university for engineering and technology in 2014 was the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay at Number 16, the lowest ranks of natural science. One study argued that Indian science was not suffering from lack of funds, but from unethical practices, the desire to make illegal money, the immense abuse of power, frivolous publications and patents, faulty promotion policies, victimization by Speak against mistaken or corrupt practices in management, suffocation and brain drain.