Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the face of Indian science needs a big change.

Dr Singh called for public-private partnership and interaction between publicly owned Science and Technology institutions and industry.

Inaugurating the 99th Indian Science Congress at Bhubaneswar yesterday, the Prime Minister emphasised on the need to increase spending on scientific research in a big way.

He said the fraction of GDP spent on Research and Development has been too low and stagnant. He said the country must aim to increase the total Research and Development spending as a percentage of GDP to 2 per cent from the current level of about one per cent by the end of 12th plan period.

The Prime Minister also said, supply chain of the Indian science sector must be strengthened further and efforts must be made to make scientific output more relevant to our stage of development.

The Prime Minister called upon public sector undertakings, especially, the energy sector should play a major role in this expansion. He said we must not be satisfied with what has been achieved as neighbouring countries like China has overtaken India in the world of science