NEW DELHI — Seeking to cement the country's status as a global hub of "deep science," the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) announced Tuesday that researchers must now formally disclose if their papers have been retracted, offering a bold new strategy for a nation that currently ranks second globally in academic fraud.

The mandatory disclosure rule aligns with "Viksit Bharat" development goals by aiming to clean up a documented record of 5,412 retracted papers between 1996 and 2024, ostensibly without altering the institutional structures that demand an impossible volume of publications from faculty members.

"By forcing individual researchers to tick a box acknowledging their plagiarism and data manipulation, we are fostering a culture of high-impact fundamental research," said an agency official, confirming that grants of up to Rs 5 crore remain available for anyone who can guarantee a groundbreaking discovery before the end of the fiscal quarter.

The disclosure mandate operates alongside the National Institutional Ranking Framework's new 2025 policy to implement negative marking for retracted papers. Officials confidently predict this coordinated effort will successfully encourage universities to simply leave fraudulent data published forever rather than risk a negative mark on their annual institutional review.