E-Paper
Unlocking India’s scientific future
This article is authored by Sandeep Sancheti, VP, academic relations, Global Strategic Networks, Elsevier.
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India’s researchers are among the world’s most confident. In Elsevier’s latest global Confidence in Research study, 68% expect funding in their field to grow over the next two to three years (against 33% globally) and 81% say research must deliver real-world benefit (50% globally). They also see AI as central to that future: 75% expect it to be a major force driving new knowledge, well above the global average of 61%.
On the survey’s own measures, India looks well prepared, too. It reports the highest levels of research collaboration anywhere (75%) and appears ahead of its peers on the foundations of responsible AI, 41% say their institution has good AI governance (32% globally) and 40% feel adequately trained, the highest share of any country surveyed.
Yet these figures sit above a more cautious reality. Indian research leaders point consistently to the same gap: clear institutional frameworks for responsible AI use remain limited, and policy guidance is thin. Confidence in AI-assisted research, they argue, rests on exactly these foundations, governance, and training in ethical, responsible adoption. ‘Better than most’ is not yet ‘enough’; without governance, trust cannot follow, however capable the tools.
On paper, India leads its peers on AI governance and training. On the ground, researchers tell a more cautious story, and closing that gap is the real work ahead.
Two gaps follow from this, both opportunities rather than failings. The first is adoption: 40% of Indian researchers use AI tools at work, against 58% globally. That is eminently closable, and the appetite is clearly there. The second is more consequential. Indian researchers trust AI more than most — 31% consider today’s tools trustworthy and ethically developed, above global averages, yet are the least likely in the world to ask those tools to prove themselves.
Only 39% expect AI to cite its sources (59% globally) and 33% to draw on current scholarly literature (55% globally). Researchers trace this not to indifference but to those missing frameworks: without guidance that sets the expectation, the instinct to interrogate AI output has had little chance to form. Trust that runs ahead of verification is exactly how unreliable, AI-generated content slips into the scientific record.
Optimism about AI is a strength, but no researcher, anywhere, should trust it blindly. Trust has to be earned by the tool and verified by the person using it.
The fix is not less AI, but better-grounded AI: Tools built on verified, peer-reviewed sources that cite them transparently, so researchers can check the work rather than take it on faith. Pairing India’s openness with that habit of verification is what will make its adoption both rapid and durable.
The stakes are real; 82% of Indian researchers report rising pressure to publish (68% globally), and 52%, the highest share anywhere, would consider moving abroad. Giving them tools and environments they can fully rely on is one practical way to honour that ambition and keep their talent at home.
None of this means starting from scratch. Three steps matter most: turn self-reported confidence into genuine institutional frameworks, with AI literacy built into researcher development; help researchers expect more of their tools, treating citation, provenance and transparency as basics, not luxuries; and give them environments purpose-built for science rather than general-purpose tools adapted to it.
Such environments are beginning to emerge, research spaces grounded in peer-reviewed literature, built to cite their sources and surface uncertainty. Purpose-built platforms such as LeapSpace point to what this can look like, and institutions, funders, publishers and technology providers can work together to make them the norm.
India has what it needs to lead: the optimism, the ambition and the talent. The task now is to match that confidence with the governance, training and tools worthy of it, and turn one of the world’s most hopeful research communities into one of its most trusted.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Sandeep Sancheti, VP, academic relations, Global Strategic Networks, Elsevier.
