From Lab Delays to National Gaps: A Researcher’s Reflection

In one of my previous research labs, we placed several orders with Indian vendors for specialized scientific systems. The delivery was promised within a few months. It has now been years, and some systems are still not fully functional, while others have not been delivered at all. The issue wasn’t just technical. It was poor project management, weak communication, unclear responsibility, and a lack of people who truly understood how critical timelines and reliability are in real research.

This poor experience made me reflect on a bigger problem.

India has the talent to be a global scientific powerhouse, yet when it comes to building the high-end instruments that modern science depends on, we still rely heavily on imports. The global scientific instruments market is $50–60B today, heading toward $80–100B by 2030. India alone is a $3–5B annual market. But for tools like #XRD, #EQE, #IQE, #SEM/#TEM, #Raman, #MBE, and many more advanced analytical systems, over 90% are imported from companies like #ThermoFisher, #Bruker, #JEOL, and #Zeiss.

We do well in plasticware, glassware, consumables, and basic equipment. Indian brands already have 40–60% market share there.

But the core machines that define cutting-edge research? Still mostly foreign.

This isn’t a talent problem. It’s a system problem, limited long-term funding, weak industry–academia links, risk-averse procurement, and low trust in new Indian high-end systems.

If India captured even 25% of its own high-end instruments market, that’s a $1B+ industry before exports.

We have the brains. We have the market.

 

#India currently spends ~0.65% of GDP on R&D, compared to 2.6% in China, 3.5% in the USA, and 5–6% in South Korea and Israel. There is strong hope that upcoming #budgets will increase this share, especially to support deep-tech, scientific manufacturing, and high-end research infrastructure.

The foundations are in place; what we build next will decide whether India consumes scientific progress or creates it.

#ScientificManufacturing #DeepTech #MakeInIndia #AtmanirbharBharat