An analysis of the database of Earth Science projects sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, government of India

Abstract

Earth Science research in India evolved over the years in tune with the trends in the global scenario from studying the geologic attributes and assessing the natural resources to addressing issues related to fundamental processes involving, for example, crustal evolution, geodynamics and other aspects of contemporary Earth Science problems. Apart from various Earth Science institutions the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, through the SERC (now SERB) has been sponsoring Earth Science research projects in the country, and thus playing a catalytic role by providing extra-mural funding. Although the DST started funding Earth Science projects since 1985, the extent of such support increased in the 1990s and thereafter with sponsoring of a number of specialized thematic Earth Science programmes. As a result of these initiatives a prodigious amount of data has been generated that are contained in the Project Completion Reports (PCR). An analysis of the database prepared from 440 PCRs for the period 1993-2015 indicated that the projects dealing mainly with 17 themes increased almost steadily in number from 1993 to 2012 with a slight decreasing trend till 2015. A similar trend is exhibited by the yearly total project funding and the average cost per project. These aspects and the relation between the number of projects under different themes, papers published, PhDs produced and scientific and technical personnel trained are discussed here.