Increase R&D spending to 4 per cent of GDP: Suresh Prabhu

BELAGAVI: If India is to expand business and innovate, the spending on Research and Development (R&D) should be raised to four per cent from existing one per cent of the GDP, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

Speaking at the 14th annual convocation of Visvesvaraya Technological University, he said, "We are on the threshold of expanding of our economy and business with India should grow to the tune of 20 trillion USD in next 20 years to become the largest economic growth country."

The railway minister also hit out at the opposition and said it was not enough just to criticise without joining hands for economic development of the country.

Asserting that different countries have adopted different models of economic growth, Prabhu stressed on India's need for an independent model of economic growth and said, "traditional knowledge was to be married with modern ideas (here)."

United States has one type of economic model while China has another. Japan and Israel with meagre resources have migrated from manufacturing to innovative society growing with a different model, he said.