Academic Research

India’s ₹5,000-cr plan opens applications to fund pharma and medtech R&D, helping firms move beyond low-cost generics toward new drugs, complex therapies, and global innovation.

India’s patent filings have soared but rising numbers mask a troubling reality: most patents show little innovation, with limited market impact. Many seem like marketing stunts. Worthy inventions take a lot more than ticking legal boxes to qualify for intellectual property protection.

The knowledge ecosystem has shaped society in profound ways but its authority is often taken for granted. To make it useful, we must stop giving it a free pass, question its claims and approach its prescriptions with humility. In social sciences, many of these are perspectives, not universal truths.

The government should step in forcefully with its visible hand—as not just a funder but also a procurer—to generate demand that the market’s invisible hand can’t. Public funding and procurement can take cues from the US DARPA model.

Cash-rich Harvard’s legal challenge to Trump’s pressure may set a historic precedent on the autonomy of universities that receive state funding. The outcome of this case will determine the trajectory of US academia.

The university is holding out against White House attempts to curb academic freedom. The issue spotlights both what’s impressive and perplexing about the US.

Genomic testing involves analysing or sequencing a person’s DNA, to identify genetic changes that can help diagnose or screen for various cancers, rare diseases, genetic conditions and neurological disorders, among other things.

India’s ₹5,000-cr plan opens applications to fund pharma and medtech R&D, helping firms move beyond low-cost generics toward new drugs, complex therapies, and global innovation.