India Rising

At the Indian Science Congress last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to hike R&D expenditures from around $3 billion last year to $8 billion in 2017. The windfall is meant to turbocharge initiatives to create elite research institutions, bring expatriate Indian scientists home, enrich science education, and equip smart new laboratories.

Included in this push is South Asia's first biosafety level–4 lab for handling the most dangerous pathogens, slated to be up and running this spring. Over the next 5 years, an estimated $1.2 billion in public funds will be funneled to a new National Science and Engineering Research Board...