More investment needed in scientific R

New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal has stressed the need for steep hike in investment for scientific research and development to become a world power.

In an interview to Doordarshan in the programme 'War and Peace', to be telecast tonight Mr Sibal said the figure should increase to least two per cent of the country's GDP.

''India has tremendous potential, we are very strong in chemistry, we have been world leaders in physics,'' he noted.

But however, regretted that the number of people doing research work per million population in India was only 120 compared to 7,800 in Finland.

''There is a big gap. We may have more engineers, scientists and medical people but if you look at the proportion per billion people, we are abysmally low,'' Mr Sibal said.

''Science and technology is the way forward and I believe that science and technology must impact every development project that takes place in the country. I do believe if we are to become a world power, investment in science and technology is a must,'' he asserted.

In reply to a question about the significance of India's vast human resources in the field of science, Mr Sibal said now there was a need to improve quality.

He said 'we have large number of BScs and large number of MScs', lot of people at the bottom of the pyramid, but as you go up you find very few high quality people there. ''So what you need is an inverted pyramid,'' he noted.

Mr Sibal said his ministry has a whole host of programmes to use science and technology for the common man.

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