In news- The UNESCO Science Report, 2021 has been published.
Highlights of the report-
- During the period from 2014 to 2018, spending on science worldwide increased by nearly 20 per cent.
- The number of scientists rose some 13.7 per cent, a trend that was further boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Just two countries – the United States and China, accounted for nearly two-thirds of this increase, or roughly 63 per cent.
- Four out of five countries fall far behind, investing less than one per cent of their GDP in scientific research.
- The fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have been particularly dynamic.
- Research has surged in lower middle-income countries, rising from just under 13 per cent in 2015, to more than 25 percent in 2019.
- Critical areas such as carbon capture and storage, have received less investment.
- Open access to research remains a challenge as more than 70 per cent of publications remain largely inaccessible to the majority of researchers.
- Only a third of researchers are women and account for only 22 percent of the workforce in AI.
Statistics on India-
Research spending as a share of India’s GDP in 2019 — 0.70%
Start-ups in India in 2019 — 17,390
Publications on AI and robotic in 2019 — 26,779
Engineering and technology students as a share of all Indian students in higher education in 2018 — 11.4%
About UNESCO Science report-
- The UNESCO Science Report is a global monitoring report published regularly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
- It was launched in 1993 under the name of World Science Report.
- It is published every five years in the month of November and since 1993, six reports have been published.
- The series monitors the evolution of the support system for science, technology and innovation worldwide over time.
- The recent report was due for release in November 2020 but got postponed due to COVID pandemic.
Source: The Hindu
