R&D India

 

 

Newsletter 
Oct. 2006

 

 

 

 

Project Sponsored by 
DSIR, New Delhi

 
Early Signs of Indian Technology Invasion   
How Do We Fare in Comparison?
FDI in R&D 
S&T Infrastructure  
Top 10 MNCs with R&D in India

 

No. 2  Oct. 2006
Titan on the Way to Make Wristwatch Intelligent 
IITs to do R&D for Major Car Makers in the Country 
Government Plans Five New Pharma R&D Institutes 
Bangalore to have R&D SEZ 
‘Top Indian Cos. Ahead of MNCs’ 
IICT Licenses Cancer Patents to US Co. 
India seeks Technology Transfers on Coal Projects
India has become Key R&D Centre for Dell
Offshore Product Developement Growing Faster
FIEM's R&D Centre in Japan
India emerges as hub for VAS 
Domestic Pharma bullish on Reseach spend
Defence: Government to Partner Industry 
Fiscal Sops for Automobile COS 
Government may earmark Rs3,000 CR for R&D Facilities
Anyone for hen that lays 300 eggs?
Govt. to set up Rs7.5 Crore Cachew R&D unit in Kerala
Israel keen to set up mutual R & D fund with India
Global Manufactures to set up R&D activity in India 
Auto Component Majors enter design outsourcing turf
NPIL to invest in Ayurveda R & D
Branded Alleppey Coir in the offing 
Satyam sets up Global R&D hub in Singapore 
Xilinx sets up R & D center for developing IP cores
Wanted: Patent Agents

 
End Notes

 

  Early Signs of Indian Technology Invasion  

A decade after India launched an innovate-and-patent campaign, there are early signs of an Indian technology invasion are evident. MIT’s Technology Review cites two examples: a U.S. Company has purchased the patent or Indian-designed software that eliminates noise from complex digital data, and fruit growers in California and Turkey have bought a pomegranate deseeder invented by an Indian college dropout. 

The patent portfolio of CSIR laboratories has increased from fewer than 31 U.S. patents in 1995 to more than 720 in July 2006, and those patents are beginning to translate into licenses outside India. This growth reflects a dramatic transformation in India’s research culture. Till now CSIR has licensed 133 patents out of 1,915 granted to the organization. 

It is another story with Uddhab Bharali, whose invention of improved pomegranate deseeder. This invention was brought to light by National Innovation Foundation, an agency trying to promote grassroots inventions. 

Technology Review, Sept. 2006   

How Do We Fare in Comparison?

Has our innovative capabilities in S&T harnessed appropriately, despite the investments in S&T by union government and the industrial houses? Are we conscious of importance of patenting in the competitive environments? An insight into these issues could be got through the patenting data obtained from the USPTO database.  The table above shows the USPTO data regarding the patents obtained as assignee country and inventor country.   

US Patents granted to inventions of various countries

 

INDIA

CHINA

ISRAEL

KOREA

TAIWAN

 

Country Institutions

MNC

Country Institutions

MNC

Country Institutions

MNC

Country Institutions

MNC

Country Institutions

MNC

1990

9

26

30

27

162

179

213

82

161

711

1991

9

24

28

37

165

191

374

81

212

900

1992

6

38

24

34

190

202

509

92

300

972

1993

11

30

36

36

206

190

725

132

450

1082

1994

12

29

30

41

212

227

923

112

548

1299

1995

16

48

30

61

259

230

1159

106

730

1412

1996

18

44

28

50

314

277

1471

132

932

1545

1997

31

42

33

70

346

307

1896

131

1100

1578

1998

54

76

49

84

493

427

3251

176

1771

2140

1999

73

83

61

111

472

453

3558

183

2427

2037

2000

86

98

95

179

546

404

3285

275

3516

2460

2001

121

113

186

286

678

488

3539

310

4090

2595

2002

200

142

283

343

706

525

3744

356

4195

2688

2003

237

207

282

442

761

630

3875

371

4343

2503

2004

227

233

310

641

724

517

4492

277

5263

2172

2005

239

280

380

583

621

460

4416

280

4513

1659

Patenting particularly with the USPTO has turned out to be measure of innovation capability of a country, and is widely used in inter-country comparisons on R&D productivity. 

There has been a spurt of patenting in the recent years by countries like India, China, etc. The spurt in patenting is as much a function of WTO regime as the FDI in R&D, particularly in the new industrialized countries like Korea, Taiwan, China and India. There are currently as many as 200 MNCs which have their R&D facility in our country alone. And these MNCs also seem to have harnessed the innovative capability of the local scientists better than the local S&T institutions. The statistics presented in the Table show that patents taken with one or more of Indian(s) as inventor has now out numbered the US Patents with an Indian organization as an assignee. This trend is different in the context of Korea, Taiwan and even Israel, where the local S&T organizations seem to fare better in innovativeness than the overseas investment in R&D. 

Though comparative investment figures are not readily available, it could be assumed that the investment by the local institutions would be collectively a lot more than the MNC R&D facilities in a given country. This also holds good for the manpower employed in these two sets of organizations.   

S&T Infrastructure 

India has risen to 29th position in IMD’s World Competitive Ranking from the 34th it occupied in the previous year. It is another story though, on the scientific and technological infrastructure. Relevant extracts of data relating to India, China, USA and Japan reveal our relative position in the competitive world. The data are taken from World Development Indicators, Unesco Web and OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators 2005. It is to be expected that figures for India would not favourably compare with other countries. Yet, it shows our relative distance from others we have ‘marked up’. High tech exports as a part of manufacturing exports from China is second only to that of USA with 29.81 per cent and the relative value for India is only 4.88 per cent. The value of high tech exports from the country is about 1/60th of China and we rank 54th in 60 countries list. Our total R&D expenditure are low and so is that of China, a pittance compared to that of USA. But his lacuna is made up by China in business expenditure on R&D [15876] on which they rank 6th in the world. Comparative figures for India are $851 millions. 

What stands out is our failure on the R&D front, both in total and per capita expenditure.

 Select Technological and Scientific Infrastructures 

 

INDIA

CHINA

BRAZIL

USA

JAPAN

GERMANY

Technological  Infrastructure  

High Tech reports

2840
(39)
161603
(2)
5929
(33)
216016
(1)
124045
(4)
131838
(3)

High Tech Exports (% of manufacturing exports)

4.88
(54)
29.81
(11)
11.59
(37)
32.29
(8)
23.68
(15)
17.22
(24)

Scientific Infrastructure   

Total Expenditure on R & D per Capita US $ per capita  

3.6
(58)
18.3
(50)
30.8
(44)
1064.3
(6)
1060.3
(7)
828.4
(12)

Business Expenditure on R&D US million $  

851
(34)
15876
(6)
2234
(25)
219226
(1)
101458
(2)
48199
(3)

Business Expenditure on R&D (per capita US $

1.94
(47)
8.22
(27)
3.70
(40)
18.68
(9)
23.97
(4)
17.51
(11)