NITI Aayog: Launches S&T scoreboard for 36 states and UTs

NITI Aayog has launched the India Science and Technology (S&T) Scoreboard in New Delhi to assess scientific and technological performance across 36 states and Union Territories, News on AIR reported. Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri launched the platform, which brings together indicators including research expenditure, scientific publications, citations and patent applications.

The scoreboard is intended to help states identify strengths and gaps, rather than serve only as a ranking exercise, Lahiri said at the launch, according to News on AIR. The initiative aims to support evidence-based policymaking and encourage collaboration between state universities and centrally funded research institutions.

ThePrint reported that the interactive platform was developed by NITI Aayog’s Science and Technology Division to address gaps in robust, comparable state-level data. It provides a national overview alongside state profiles and allows users to compare any two states or Union Territories.

What the scoreboard brings together

According to ThePrint, the platform will bring information on research institutions, publications, patents, startups, research funding and state policies into one place. Its coverage extends to central, state and private higher education institutions, research and development laboratories, deep-tech startups and Atal Tinkering Labs.

The distinction between research resources and research results is central to the platform’s scope. News on AIR listed research and development expenditure among its indicators, alongside publications, citations and patent applications. These cover both money committed to research and some of the outputs associated with that activity.

ThePrint reported that the scoreboard will cover 11 priority research areas, including clean energy, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, critical minerals and agriculture. Users will be able to examine research output and compare performance across these sectors, rather than rely solely on an overall state-level picture.

For patents, the platform will provide information on applications, patent strength, research areas and collaboration between states, according to ThePrint. It will also document state science and technology, startup and innovation policies, as well as practices that other states can examine.

The funding coverage will include central, state and private sources, ThePrint reported. This places institutional activity, financing and policy information within the same platform, although they remain distinct measures.

Reading publication and citation comparisons

NITI Aayog’s scoreboard interface offers detailed views of citation topics, citation impact, international collaboration and open access. Citations are references to research in other publications; open access concerns the availability of research for readers to access freely.

The interface includes several qualifications that matter when interpreting comparisons. It identifies a world-average normalised citation-impact benchmark of 1.00 and explains that the dashed reference line represents that benchmark, not another observation in the dataset.

The scoreboard also warns that sector and research-area counts may overlap. A publication appearing in more than one category therefore cannot necessarily be treated as a separate piece of research each time it appears. The interface further cautions that small samples may produce unstable citation indicators.

International collaboration figures carry a similar qualification. According to the scoreboard, partner-country counts can overlap, and rankings reflect only the countries included in the source tables. Those rankings should consequently be read within the coverage specified by the platform.

For open-access research, the interface explicitly warns against adding route counts or shares to calculate a total because the routes can overlap. It also states that the publication-count filter applies only to the Top 10 chart, not to the detailed table. These distinctions affect how chart results and tabulated data can be compared.

From research output to industrial use

At the launch, Lahiri called for states to take greater responsibility for strengthening science and technology rather than leave the task to the Centre, ThePrint reported. His emphasis extended beyond producing research to ensuring that it reaches practical applications.

“Fundamental research must also translate into innovation. And it must get transmitted to the factory floor,” Lahiri said, according to ThePrint.

That is the research-translation objective described in the launch coverage: turning research findings into usable innovations and industrial applications. News on AIR reported that Lahiri urged states to align development priorities with science, technology and innovation.

ThePrint also reported that Department of Science and Technology Secretary Umesh V Waghmare said the scoreboard would help policymakers identify strengths and weaknesses and prioritise interventions. He said it could improve coordination among states, ministries and industry and support planning within the department.

The wider state research agenda

NITI Aayog’s Science and Technology Division describes strengthening state science and technology councils and promoting university-industry-academia collaboration as areas of its policy work. Its responsibilities also include examining and appraising programmes of central scientific departments and agencies.

On its institutional page, NITI Aayog describes work on a university-industry-government collaboration roadmap intended to support innovation, technology transfer and research commercialisation. It also describes developing an Institutional Research Translation Score with the Foundation for Advancing Science & Technology, India, focused on institutional capabilities such as industry collaboration, research outcomes and leadership.

The scoreboard’s launch therefore sits alongside documented work on both measuring research activity and strengthening links between institutions and industry. Those initiatives have different stated functions: the scoreboard compares science and technology indicators across states, while the research-translation framework concerns institutions’ ability to turn research into wider outcomes.

NITI Aayog said the next steps for the scoreboard would include periodic data updates, greater engagement with states and expansion into a comprehensive source of science and technology data with global comparisons, ThePrint reported.