Figure Shows, Patent Filed By Foreign Resident Applicants In India, 2022-23

This year's interim union budget, represented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the period 2023-24, has been hailed by different sects of society, including scientific and research communities. With the announcement of a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore for research and development in India, the government has tried to trigger and support the potential of the Indian public, private, and academia sectors to build an innovative India.

India is as dynamic as we are, as seen in the slogans which have been changing to adapt to global trends and aspire to leadership. We started from "Jai Jawan Jai Kishan" by then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri to "Jai Jawan Jai Kishan Jai Vigyan" by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to "Jai Jawan Jai Kishan Jai Vigyan Jai Anushandhan" by PM Narendra Modi. While we are among the fastest-growing economies, we can't overstate the contribution of research and development in fueling the economy, advancing technology, and increasing the global competitiveness of India.

However, it can't be fully examined without analyzing the input (in terms of expenditure spent for R&D) and output (in terms of Patents, PhDs, and Publications). Let's see the real picture of the current research and scientific community of India.

If you look at the expenditure on Research & Development, we have come a long way from the last decade. While we spent around Rs.6,01,968 million in the period of 2010-11, in 2020-21 we spent around Rs 12,73,810 million which shows a significant increase in expenditure. If you compare this with respect to our GDP, you'll notice that it's merely 0.64% of it. While other leading economies are spending much more % of their GDP for research & development, we are still lagging behind them. For example; China spends 2.4%, Germany 3.1%, South Korea 4.8%, USA 3.5% of their respective GDPs.

Despite having low expenditure on R&D, Indian communities have always found a way to shine better when it comes to giving output. The Indian Patent Filing System has been seeing continuous growth in patent filing and granting. While in the period of 2021-22, India granted around 30k patents, in 2022-23, it granted around 35k patents, which shows growth. With that, India stands at 6 on the global stage behind the US, China, and others for granting patents.

Similar trends are being seen in terms of PhDs. We stand at rank 3 in terms of granting PhDs with an annual count of 40k PhDs degrees, which shows our commitment to fostering intellectual capital and contributing significantly to global research endeavors.

In terms of publications, we are again at rank 3 behind the US and China with a count of 3 lakhs publications in 2022, highlighting the nation's robust ecosystem of research and its commitment to advancing knowledge in diverse fields.

If you compare it all with global leaders, you'll find that we are still behind in achieving the full potential of the nation's diverse research and development communities with the help of Higher Education Institutions.

Breaking Down The Investments

Total Investment in the period of 2021-22 reached $17 billion, of which 54% was allocated to government research institutions, or we can say it went to public sector scientific institutions, which are necessary with respect to strategic implications. These 54% (around $9.4 billion) budget went to:

- DRDO: 30% (Defence Research and Development Organization, which recently achieved MIRVed technology: multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) technology under 'Mission Divyastra', putting into ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile system]).

- Department Of Space: 18%

- Indian Council for Agricultural Research: 12%

- Department of Atomic Energy: 8%

- And another significant amount to other government-funded institutes which have kept India at a global stage with continuous innovation and advancement of technology which holds strategic implications.

The other side of investment goes to the private sector, and it is lagging behind many economies with only 37% allocations or investment into it. While this scene is completely different in major economies where the private sector is contributing to 65% of investment in R&D, in a few other economies like the US & South Korea, it's even greater than 70%. While these are all funded by private entities driven by market forces and profit motives, the actual R&D activities are conducted in Higher Education Institutions.

India's R&D ecosystem has its advantages in terms of efficiency, low input with greater outputs. But this can be scaled to greater heights by the involvement of private entities with collaboration between Industry and academia institutions.

HEIs play a comparatively minor role in the overall R&D investment in India. It is important to notice that increasing industry contribution to R&D is a complex issue with no single solution. It has to be solved by chairs of many different stakeholders of it. India must implement policies incentivizing the private sector to invest in R&D.

Initiative to Bring Innovations.

India's potential of R&D lies in encouraging and exploring the private sector with building a robust academia research infrastructure. Initiatives such as the National Deep Tech Startup Policy [NDTSP] signal the commitment towards technological progress and innovations which also holds the potential to incentivize the private sector. We have another policy too: Anushandhan National Research Foundation Act underscores research and innovation as the main point for development.

This corpus of 1 Lakh has surely brought happiness to communities. This, combined with NDTSP and ANRFact, sends a strong message regarding India's commitment to incentivize private sector-led research and innovations.