India on 6th position in terms of scientific publications, says government

NEW DELHI: India has reached sixth position in terms of publishing scientific research papers, climbing four spots, the government today said.

According to Secretary, Department of Science and Technology Ashutosh Sharma, India was earlier on tenth position, but has now reached sixth in terms of publishing papers in different journals.

Speaking at a function organised by Research Council UK ( RCUK) to mark the progress between United Kingdom and India in the field of scientific research, Sharma lauded the efforts made by Indian scientists, but said more efforts were required to improve the ranking.

He said unlike China where the ratio is over 1000 scientists for a million people, India has only 160.

"We need to ramp up our quality and international collaborations will play a major role in it," he added.

James Bevan, British High Commissioner to India, said four years back, the scientific collaboration between India and UK was just few million pounds, but today it has risen to 150 million pounds.

India and UK are collaborating in various sectors in fields like nuclear energy, solar energy, monsoon and public health, rejuvenation of Ganga River and climate change.