A discussion about why India's large investment into alternative energy will have little research outcome led to this post. The culture in India is not conducive to research, and it will never lead to good outcomes unless fundamental changes are made.
The culture needed for research is like that of how the Lords Shiva and Buddha are commonly portrayed.
If we carefully observe the photos, we will see that the two are meditating on something, and there is absolutely no expression of any emotions. Their bodies express no emotions at all. They are not in pain or pleasure. They are not speaking. They are in a totally neutral position, but they are not asleep. The only part of their bodies that is actually expressing something are their minds, which one can only know by meditating as they do. They are, in modern parlance, conducting research on something, i.e. they are using only their minds to interact with the object of their research.
Indian culture at present is very emotional, without any awareness that it is so. In order to conduct any research worth speaking about, teachers and professors would have to understand and teach how to conduct research: that it must be done as Shiva and Buddha are sitting—i.e., in an emotionless way, unbiased towards results, unperturbed by expectations, listening only to Nature. Until this is taught in schools and colleges, I don't see why pouring any amount of money would lead to proportionate outcomes. In fact it would only attest my point, that Indians, even the leadership, are making emotional decisions.
Investing money in these areas without any change in culture would be imprudent, because the money would not be spent on research. It would be spent on activities with an emotional component. And even a small amount of emotional component would lead to cognitive biases—either created within the researchers or used by them to manipulate the research reviewers.