India still lagging behind in cross-border researches

Scientific research papers co-authored by researchers from different countries increased globally from 17% (2008) to 23% in 2018
India has been one of the largest producers of scientific research papers over the years, yet it continues to lag behind when it comes to cross border researches. In 2018, India produced 1.35 lakh publications which elevated its position from five to three globally.
As per the Science and Engineering Indicators 2020 by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), international collaborations have increased since 2018 with more than one out of five research papers co-authored by researchers from multiple countries.
Globally, the researchers are joining hands as the percentage of articles produced by authors from universities and research institutions of at least two countries has risen from 17% to 23% between 2008 and 2018. The countries having the highest number of cross-border researches include the UK (62%), Australia (60%), France (59%) and Canada (56%).
India, on the other hand, has not fully utilised the potential of foreign collaborations as only 26,000 (18%) research papers were produced through cross-country collaborations. The percentage is far lower than the average collaboration rate of 41% for the 15 largest producers.
"The average quality of Indian research as measured by the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) remains low and international collaborations can be extremely helpful in improving the quality of research papers. Besides, when Indian researchers collaborate internationally on co-authored articles, the citation impact of those articles can potentially increase by more than 400% as compared to research articles produced by only a single Indian author," Gino Ussi, executive vice president, Elsevier told the Education Times.
Rajiv Prakash, dean (Research & Development), IIT Kanpur, says that Indian universities must focus on bringing more foreign professors to teach and interact with the students, which will result in strong inter-university connections. "Government initiatives including GIAN and SPARC provide opportunities to Indian students and teachers to visit foreign universities and invite foreign faculty to India for short spans, but the opportunities are limited."
He adds that Indian institutes must start with national collaborations and graduate to international tie-ups to improve the overall research ecosystem.