Editorials/Opinions Analysis For UPSC 24 February 2023

Contents:

1. India’s R&D estimates are an incomplete picture
2. Access and benefit-sharing- principles on use of indigenous medicine

India’s R&D Estimates Are An Incomplete Picture

Context:

As per the latest Research and Development Statistics, published by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in 2020, the R&D spending in 2017-18 by foreign MNCs in India is only 10% of what U.S. firms have reported to have spent in India on R&D.

Relevance:

GS II- Polity and Governance

GS III: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources; Government Budgeting; Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life

Dimensions of the Article:

1. India’s R&D Expenditure
2. India’s GERD data are an underestimate
3. Challenges in the current system
4. Factors that make the official R&D estimates grossly inadequate
5. Figures: R&D funding in India
6. Way Forward

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Access and Benefit-Sharing- Principles On Use of Indigenous Medicine

Context:

A group of practitioners, activists, scholars, lawyers and human rights defenders has come together and proposed a set of ethical guidelines that they say can guide Western psychedelic research and practice on traditional indigenous medicines.

Relevance:

GS II- Health

Dimensions of the Article:

1. Ethical principles to address indigenous concerns:
2. Use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes
3. What are the concerns
4. Frameworks that mention indigenous rights to the use and development of their traditional medicines and related practices
5. What is traditional medicine?
6. Way Forward

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