With over half a dozen mega scientific organisations namely CSIR, ICMR, ICAR among others conducting research, it's quantity and quality should have been phenomenal. CSIR alone has 40 organisations under it with around 21,000 workers working in them. Despite having a large scientific and technical pool, inverse relation seems to exist between the quality and the quantity of the research.
It remains a matter of great concern that while countries like China and South Korea have leapfrogged into the areas of core research related to basic science stream, India remains awfully behind. This idea crunch can be estimated from the fact that ever since the inauguration of New Idea Fund by the CSIR since 1994, only 12 scientists could get approval for their project till 2005. That means an average of about 1.5 persons per year from a group of about 5,000 scientists.
As for the reasons, the most important one relates to the perceived 'lack of opportunity' and thus, least participation in the field of basic sciences. In the era of vocationalisation, career into research has ceased to be lucrative. That becomes a matter of concern given the tremendous roadblocks it can create in depleting the future research and development base of the country. Proper initiatives then become exceedingly a necessity.