Farmers scream 'vendetta'

While top leaders of both countries cheer, the reality on the ground is very different Mumbai : Top leaders in the US and India hailed the latest trade deal between the two leading democracies as at least 32 farmers ended their life in Maharashtra in January, officials said. Farmers' leaders like All India Kisan Sabha President Dr. Ashok Dhawale and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti Chairman Kishore Tiwari promptly slammed the NDA Government of 'vendetta' and 'victimising' the Indian...

min read

While top leaders of both countries cheer, the reality on the ground is very different Mumbai : Top leaders in the US and India hailed the latest trade deal between the two leading democracies as at least 32 farmers ended their life in Maharashtra in January, officials said. Farmers' leaders like All India Kisan Sabha President Dr. Ashok Dhawale and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti Chairman Kishore Tiwari promptly slammed the NDA Government of 'vendetta' and 'victimising' the Indian agriculturists. "On one hand the Union Budget has nothing spectacular for the farming community and on the other the government has virtually opened the doors for American agriculture corporations to enter India. This will further ruin our farmers," Tiwari told The Perfect Voice. "The US-India trade deal is a clear vendetta against the farmers for their long and successful struggles against the BJP government in the past over seven years. Even the earlier agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union and now the latest (USA) have been on the same lines," fumed Dr. Dhawale. "There was no anticipated relief in the Budget 2026-2027, and there's a spate of suicides being reported from Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh mainly from the cotton and soybean regions. On the contrary our farmers are being punished for taking a stand against the government," Dr. Dhawale told The Perfect Voice. Attacking the government, Tiwari said that PM Narendra Modi only talks of Atmanirbhar and Swadeshi but his actions are exactly contradictory. Referring to the US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hailing the US-India trade deal, both Tiwari and Dr. Dhawale fear that doom looms over the Indian farming community. Rollins said on X today: "New US-India deal will export more American farm products to India's massive market, lifting prices, and pumping cash into rural America. In 2024, America’s agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion. India’s growing population is an important market for American agricultural products and today’s deal will go a long way to reducing this deficit." Dr. Dhawale said that the three big recently concluded free international trade agreements may be disastrous not only for the cotton-soybean farmers but the entire Indian agro-economy. Tiwari feels the distress in the farmlands is bound to worsen with such questionable FTAs as all the aid packages of successive Indian government's in the past 20 years have failed as they did not address the core issues affecting the farmers. "Instead, of MIGA, we seem to be obsessed with MAGA. The BJP must first make our own farmers prosperous before looking at the world," said Tiwari in a swipe at the government. Core farm issues ignored The AIKS and VJAS have stressed the need to issue the primary issues like input costs reduction, providing irrigation in dryland regions, monitoring and restoring soil health, effective reforms in the MSP, village base storage and processing facilities. The two organisations also seek long-term credit policy to replace the existing political doles or loans waivers, attractive incentives for diversification from cash crops to food crops, millets, or pulses. India–US trade deal has NOT been signed yet: Goyal Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the India–US trade deal has NOT been signed yet. He said it will be inked soon. He said core interests are protected: India’s priorities, farmers, MSMEs, dairy, and agriculture, remain non-negotiable. "India is negotiating, from a position of interest, not impulse," asserted Goyal.

Science at the Centre of India’s Growth Story

Dr. Kishore Paknikar
9 hours ago
5 min read

The Union Budget for 2026–27 signals a shift from funding science as a sector to building it as an integrated engine of economic strength, strategic autonomy and human capital.

The Union Budget 2026–27 marks an important moment for Indian science and technology policy. For perhaps the first time in recent years, science, technology, education, start-ups, and national missions are not presented as isolated sectors, but as parts of a single national capability framework. The Finance Minister repeatedly emphasized that India’s growth in the coming decades will be shaped by technology, innovation, and skilled human capital. This framing deserves close attention, because it signals how public investment in science is expected to translate into economic strength and strategic autonomy.

Historically, India’s approach to science policy has oscillated between grand institutional ambition and fragmented execution. The early post-Independence decades saw the creation of national laboratories, atomic energy and space programmes under a strong central vision, but their linkages with industry and universities remained uneven. Subsequent liberalisation prioritised market efficiency over state-led research capacity, leaving many public laboratories underfunded and disconnected from production systems. The present Budget implicitly attempts to reconcile these phases by reviving the idea of the developmental state while adapting it to a competitive, technology-driven global economy.

By treating laboratories, universities, industry and start-ups as parts of a shared national system, it gestures towards a more mature model of state-led capability building.

Fundamental Shift

At the core of the Budget is a clear shift that science is no longer viewed only as an academic pursuit, but as a capacity that must feed manufacturing, healthcare, energy, agriculture, and national security. The Department of Science and Technology has a Budget Estimate of about Rs. 28,000 crore, with a large capital component. The Department of Biotechnology is allocated around Rs. 3,400 crore, while the space programme continues with a strong allocation exceeding Rs. 13,700 crore. These numbers indicate continuity rather than a dramatic expansion, but the composition of spending points to mission-mode programmes and infrastructure-led growth.

The important question is not how much is allocated, but how effectively this money strengthens research ecosystems, laboratories, and human resources across the country, especially in universities and publicly funded institutions.

One of the most explicit science-linked announcements in the Budget is the Biopharma SHAKTI initiative. It is designed as a multi-year effort to strengthen India’s capabilities in biologics, biosimilars, vaccines, and advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The emphasis is not only on research, but also on clinical trials, regulatory science, and quality systems.

This is a significant signal. India has long been strong in generic pharmaceuticals, but the future of healthcare lies in complex biologics, cell and gene therapies, and precision medicine. These areas require deep scientific expertise, long-term funding, and close coordination between laboratories, hospitals, regulators, and industry. If Biopharma SHAKTI is implemented with transparency and scientific rigour, it can help Indian universities and research institutes move closer to real-world health impact.

However, success will depend on whether the programme strengthens shared facilities, supports doctoral and post-doctoral training, and builds regulatory science capacity, not merely manufacturing plants.

Critical Foundation

Although chemicals do not always receive headline attention, the Budget’s broader manufacturing and innovation thrust has clear implications for the chemical sciences. Advanced chemicals underpin pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, energy storage, defence systems, and clean technologies. India’s ambition to scale up electronics, batteries, and green technologies cannot be realised without strong capabilities in chemical synthesis, catalysis, materials science, and process engineering.

Budget provisions supporting domestic manufacturing, electronics components, and advanced materials indirectly create demand for high-quality chemical research. Universities and national laboratories must respond by strengthening programmes in materials chemistry, green chemistry, and industrial chemistry, while ensuring safety and environmental compliance. The Budget thus places a quiet but real responsibility on academic institutions to supply both knowledge and skilled manpower.

A notable aspect of the Budget narrative is its recognition of critical minerals. As India expands its footprint in electric mobility, renewable energy, electronics, and defence technologies, access to minerals such as lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and strategic metals becomes a scientific and geopolitical issue.

While mining is often seen as a traditional sector, the Budget implicitly positions it as a technology-intensive domain. Exploration today relies on geoscience, remote sensing, data analytics, and advanced processing technologies. Sustainable mining also demands environmental science, water management, and rehabilitation strategies.

For research institutions, this opens a new interdisciplinary space where geology, materials science, environmental engineering, and data science must work together. Universities that engage with mining and critical minerals research will be contributing not only to industry, but to national strategic resilience.

The Budget continues to prioritize digital technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and semiconductors. The IndiaAI Mission receives dedicated funding, and semiconductor and electronics manufacturing programmes remain central to the government’s industrial strategy.

Importantly, the Finance Minister emphasised that these efforts are not just about factories, but about building ecosystems like skills, research, testing facilities, and intellectual property. This matters because deep-tech leadership cannot be imported; it must be cultivated through sustained research and education.

For universities, this is a call to move beyond teaching basic courses and towards building research clusters that integrate computation, hardware, algorithms, and applications. Access to shared infrastructure and national facilities will be crucial if smaller institutions are not to be left behind.

Higher education receives a large allocation, but the more interesting signals lie in targeted interventions. The proposal to develop university townships through a competitive challenge route reflects an understanding that research thrives in dense, well-connected ecosystems. If executed properly, such townships can reduce fragmentation and encourage collaboration across disciplines.

Similarly, the announcement of girls’ hostels in every district, particularly with a focus on STEM institutions, addresses a practical but often ignored barrier to women’s participation in science. These measures may appear social in nature, but they directly influence the availability and diversity of scientific talent.

The Budget also supports advanced scientific infrastructure such as large telescopes, reminding us that frontier science still has a place in India’s national priorities. Such projects are vital for inspiring young researchers and maintaining India’s presence in global science.

The Budget’s support for start-ups appears in multiple small but meaningful ways. Simplification of export procedures for small consignments, encouragement of start-ups in agriculture and fisheries, and continued emphasis on innovation-driven entrepreneurship all help bridge the gap between research and markets.

For deep-tech start-ups emerging from universities, these measures reduce friction in early stages. Yet, the real test will be whether intellectual property policies, procurement rules, and public funding mechanisms become more startup-friendly in practice.

Taken together, the Union Budget 2026–27 presents a coherent vision: science and technology as engines of economic growth, strategic autonomy, and social progress. It recognizes biopharma, chemicals, mining, and critical minerals as essential scientific domains, not peripheral sectors. It links education, research, and start-ups into a single narrative of capability building.

At the same time, the Budget places a heavy burden on implementation. Without efficient execution, transparent selection, and sustained support for universities and young researchers, the promise of this approach may remain unrealized.

India’s aspiration to become a knowledge-driven economy by mid-century will depend not on announcements alone, but on how faithfully these provisions are translated into functioning laboratories, skilled scientists, and technologies that serve society. This Budget provides a framework. The next step is to make it work on the ground.

(The author is an ANRF Prime Minister Professor at COEP Technological University, Pune; former Director of the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune; and former Visiting Professor at IIT Bombay. Views personal).