New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday urged his scientific advisory council to focus on the "challenge" of increasing private investments in research and development (R&D) to convert knowledge into value and wealth.

"Increasing private sector investments into R&D and making possible conversion of knowledge into value and wealth remains a challenge that I would like the council to look into," he said at the release here of a book "Science in India (2004-13): Decade of achievements and rising aspirations", compiled by the council, an official statement said.

Noting that adequate funding is critical for science, he asserted that his government has accorded high priority to it.

"Unfortunately, private sector investment into R&D has not grown fast enough for us to double the overall national investments into R&D from the current level of 1 percent of GDP to 2 percent," said the prime minister.

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