Journey towards super power suffers as India lags behind emerging world in research and development

Dr. Syed Arshad Hussain *

According to an index of 158 countries in United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) Technology and Innovation Report 2021, India ranked 65, which is far behind several of its Asian counterparts. United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are the best prepared for frontier technologies.

Most of the best-prepared countries are from Europe, except the Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore and the United States. Some transition economies, such as Russia, also perform well on the index.

The report provides a "country readiness index" that assesses the progress of each country in using frontier technologies, considering their national capacities related to physical investment, human capital and technological effort. Frontier technologies are those that take advantage of digitalization and connectivity. They include artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things, big data, block chain, 5G, 3D printing, robotics, drones, gene therapy, nanotechnology and solar photovoltaic etc. According to experts "frontier technologies" are expected to redefine our world, especially our post-pandemic future.

Although if we recall the long and chequered history of education and training in pure and applied sciences dating back to over 2,600 years, India has had flourishing tradition of scientific research and technological development. Taxila (6th century BC) one of the earliest universities in the world, attracted students from across the globe.

Major fields of studies at Taxila included philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, surgery and metallurgy. Unfortunately, most of the knowledge was lost at the later stages. The glorious tradition of original thinking, adventure of ideas and creative innovations was completely snapped.

It is well known that development of science and technology is vital for the progress of any country. It is a major vehicle for enhancing the quality of human life. The developments in science and technology, particularly in information technology and computer science are occurring so fast that it is difficult to portray the world at present.

The emergence of globalization and the intellectual property rights regime have made 'knowledge' a big resource and it is believed that in near future only those countries would excel which possess a wealth of knowledge. In this respect a strong science base in our country, particularly within the young generation is very important. Development of applied science and technology of a country is directly linked with basic science as the later is the base of various applied science as well as research & developments leading to various technologies.

Analysis reveals that India has 366 R&D personnel per million population, compared with 1,366 in Brazil, 2,358 in China and 6995 in Germany, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report. With 10,073, Iceland has the highest number of R&D personnel per million populations.

Well, according to Science & Technology Indicators (STI 2019-20), based on the data compiled by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, about 5.1 lakh patent applications were filed in India between 2005-06 and 2017-18. Out of that, a whopping 76% were filed by 'foreigners resident abroad' (as the government classifies them) and only 24% came from Indian citizens.

Definitely a troubling sign, this pattern needs to be reversed as soon as possible. The silver lining here is that the equation does seem to be changing, at a slow pace. Between the time period 2006 and 2010, only 18% of patents were filed by Indians. However, in the following five years the figure jumped to 24%. Another significant jump was observed in the next three years, between 2015 -16 to 2018-19 wherein the share of patent applications filed by Indians increased to 30%.

India definitely doesn't lack talent. India is one of the major supplier of human resource across the globe who are excelling in their respective field. Then where is the problem? In an attempt to analyze the present scenario revealed that research and development (R&D) sector is the key area India must focus with respect to the emerging world.

If we look into the UNCTAD's report most of the top ranked countries are spending higher percentage of their GDP on R&D. The top overall performers are typically associated with high innovation and GDP. When it comes to investing in science and innovation, India lags behind not only the West, but also Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore and so on.

According to Nobel Laureate Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, Cambridge, UK, "No country can be successful in the 21st century without being a technologically advanced, knowledge based society. This requires significant investment in science and innovation, an area where India is lagging even its Asian counterparts".

India is way behind other powerful nations when it comes to policy vision, execution, and expenditure in R&D sector. Towards research activities, India spends 0.65% of its GDP, whereas, global spending averages around 1.8%. While the United States spends around 3.1% of GDP on R&D, Germany 3.2%, Taiwan 3.5%, Israel 4.9%, Japan 3.2% and China spends 2.2% (Wikipedia).

Average salary of an Indian researcher is 22% lower than the average minimum salary paid by well known IT and engineering firms to fresh graduates across the world (McKinsey). They also pointed out about the lack of proper policy and work environment as well as dismal condition of academic administration.

Out of a total global R&D expenditure of $1143 billion, the percentage claimed by the US is 33.6, Europe 24.5, and Japan and China 12.6 each, while India's share is a meager 2.1. In India, Government sources pick up 75-80 per cent of the R&D expenditure, and only 20-25 per cent spent by private sector and a mere three per cent by universities. Whereas the break-up of percentages for OECD countries is 69 by private enterprises, 18 by universities, 10 by government agencies and three by non-profit bodies.

All economic players, including the Government, therefore, need to take note of some interesting trends and warning signs already brought out in studies by reputed consultancy firms such as World Bank, Deloitte and McKinsey etc. As stated by the World Bank, 69% of all jobs in India are under threat due to automation. A study by EY and Nasscom predicts that by 2022, around 46% of the workforce will be engaged in entirely new jobs that do not exist today or will be deployed in jobs that have radically changed skill requirement.

Learning from the US and China, India, therefore, needs to focus its energy to boost funding and research initiatives so that the country's ambition to become a superpower is not damaged. Science, technology and innovation (STI) policies should be linked with industrial policies, so that new technologies can re-invigorate traditional production sectors and speed up industrialization and economic structural transformation.

All states, industry and labour unions should work together to optimize the potential of these technologies for faster productivity. Niti Aayog has to meticulously lay the roadmap for research and development towards frontier areas of science in India as well as a legal regulatory framework so as to ensure a sustainable development.

Government can also set up a high-powered Commission to recommend measures to accelerate R&D in India to touch the required level in near future not only in terms of budget but also to create a healthy balanced ecosystem where researchers can work with full devotion and concentration.