Q.Though India now has a large base in science and technology, which is fast expanding, it is still a long way from realising its potential of becoming a world leader in science. Name some important factors, which in your view have hindered the advancement of science in India.

Several interlinked factors have slowed India's progress toward becoming a world leader in science, despite a genuinely large scientific manpower base:

• Low and inconsistent R&D spending: India's gross expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP has historically been well below that of leading scientific nations, and much of it is government-funded rather than driven by private industry, unlike in the US, China, Japan or South Korea.
• Weak industry–academia linkage: research done in universities and national labs often does not translate into indigenous technology or products, because industry rarely partners with or funds academic research the way it does elsewhere.
• Brain drain: many of India's best-trained scientists and engineers move abroad for better funding, infrastructure, and career opportunities, and a fraction return.
• Rote-learning-oriented education: much of school and even undergraduate science education emphasises memorisation and examination performance over hands-on experimentation, questioning, and original problem-solving — the very habits research requires.
• Inadequate research infrastructure outside a few elite institutes (IITs, IISc, TIFR, etc.) — instrumentation, laboratory facilities, and sustained long-term funding for basic research are unevenly distributed.
• Social and cultural factors: persistence of superstition and unscientific attitudes even among the educated, and under-representation of women and disadvantaged groups in scientific careers, narrow the talent pool actually pursuing science. …

This is an opinion/analysis question — list distinct, defensible factors (funding, education, industry linkage, brain drain, social attitudes) e …

• Giving only one factor (e.g., 'lack of money') when the question expects several distinct causes.
• Making unsupported sweeping claims without any reasoning. …