Dr. Saurabh Mahajan, Head, CoE Life Sciences at Atria University, was featured in a Deccan Chronicle report examining NITI Aayog's two recent studies on the ease of doing research and development in India.
The reports set out to make India's research ecosystem more efficient. But the researchers, academics, and CoE heads interviewed for the story, including Dr. Saurabh, point to a more specific problem: it isn't how much funding exists, it's how unpredictably that funding actually reaches the people doing the work.
Dr. Saurabh's view: "There is scope for improvement with respect to greater predictability around the disbursement of committed funds and clearer communication on timelines." He added that grant processes themselves need more consistency across institutions.
He also pointed to the administrative load researchers carry, describing forms so granular they ask for exact chemical quantities on multi-crore applications, paperwork that eats into time that should go toward the actual research. Greater use of technology, he argues, could simplify a lot of this.
The broader feature covers ground beyond funding delays: the cost of running a lab, the odds of a grant proposal succeeding, and the pressures facing early-career researchers and PhD scholars in India. It's a useful read for anyone thinking about what "ease of doing research" actually requires on the ground.
Read the full feature on Deccan Chronicle: Empty Grants to Exhausted Scholars: The Real Challenges of Doing Research in India