India, Oct. 27 -- Last month, China's principal science funder selected 44 young researchers (all under 35) and committed to funding them for up to 15 years with no short-term performance reviews. India should adopt a version of this, taking the sensible bits and leaving out the rest.

China's process does have some checks. The funding comes in five-year chunks, and only a proportion of the researchers carry on at the end of the five- and ten-year marks. The amounts increase with each funding block; so, most of the funding comes in at the end.

The best data on long-term grants comes from the US where a private foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), funds scientists for many years. When you compare the output of HHMI research...