What do you understand by the term "Research Governance"? Discuss the steps taken by the government in recent years to boost the same in the country.

Research governance can be defined as the broad range of regulations, principles and standards of good practice that ensure high quality research to support the administration and enhance the quality of service.
As the complexity of the administration is increasing it has become necessary to adopt specialised knowledge for enhancing the quality of service delivery. Research governance aims to assist the administration in this direction.
Steps taken to promote research governance:

• Replacing of planning commission with Niti Ayog to provide a think tank to guide government on policies and programmes needed to assist India in accomplishment of its objectives.
• Increased collaboration with multilateral institutions. Ex: In collaboration with World Bank the department of Industrial policy and promotion has initiated measures to develop ease of doing business rankings and framework to assist states.
• Collaboration with Institutes of excellence to address various structural issues of governance. Ex: Karnataka government has undertaken a collaborative project in association with IISc to aid in management of traffic in Bengaluru.
• The Bureaucrats are encouraged to undertake specialised courses in the area of administration and governance for the effective integration new models for the interest of the society.
• Bringing the corporate expertise in to aid in governance. Ex: TCS has aided the government in revamping the passport delivery process with its expertise in the arena of ICT.
• Creation of Specialised services: Specialised services like Indian skill development service to encourage expertise in the field and to create a focused approach.

India is a land of diversity there cannot be a one size fits all approach. Research governance can aid India in catering to the diversity of the country for effectively addressing various lacunas of governance.