RIYADH, 25 January 2005 — India has emerged as a major global hub for research and development by spending just 0.8 percent of its national income on research and development (R&D). The country has also become a favorable destination for scientific outsourcing, thanks to its vast and talented manpower, which ranks the fourth largest in the world. General Electric, Intel, IBM, Boeing, Google and Mobil are just a handful of the 100-odd global firms that have set up R&D centers in the country, with many more actively considering similar facilities.
What is more, R&D in India not only covers traditional areas of agriculture and defense, but also spans frontier sectors of biotech, novel drug discovery, stem cell research, nano-technology, missile technology and space. “I have immense faith in the intellectual capital of India and the amount it can contribute to GE’s success,” says Scott R. Bayman, president of GE India, which has a John F. Welch Technology Center in India, the largest outside the US.
“India is rich with bright, young talent. Indian engineers are quick to grasp Six Sigma and make it their way of working,” Bayman said, while referring to the strict quality standards of GE that is being mirrored at the India centre. GE’s state-of-the-art lab in Bangalore does R&D in areas such as engineering, electronic systems, ceramics, metallurgy, catalysis, advanced chemistry, new synthetic materials, polymers, process modeling, simulation and IT.
In a recent study, global consultancy Frost and Sullivan said India had taken a lead over China in the global movement to outsource R&D, while a McKinsey survey said large corporations find India a more attractive hub for R&D than China. “All this is happening because of the rich and vast talent pool of technical manpower in India,” says S.R. Rao, scientific advisor in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
“The R&D spend in India is indeed low — just 0.81 percent of our gross domestic product, compared with seven-eight percent in developed countries,” says the Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, a lawyer-politician. “But we realize that if India has to continue its economic expansion and achieve the targeted growth of eight percent per annum, our R&D spend must increase. We will step up our R&D spend to at least two percent of by 2007,” Sibal has been reported as saying. Yet, the low R&D spend has not prevented state-run institutions and private companies alike to grab global attention with success in some leading edge areas of science and technology.
In August, for example, India conducted its inaugural test flight for Saras, the country’s first indigenous civilian light-transport aircraft, developed by the state-run Center for Civil Aircraft Design and Development.
Some 165 institutions in the country are engaged in genetic engineering research in the country, comprising 55 in transgenic work, 25 in therapeutics and 85 in basic research, according to the Department of Biotechnology. The country has already started commercial cultivation of genetically modified cotton in the Western state of Gujarat and some southern states, with several other crops in various stages of getting approvals for commercial plantation.
India claims to be the only developing country and sixth worldwide to fabricate and launch its own satellites in geo-stationary orbit and even plans a moon mission in 2010. In stem cell research, the US Department of Health wants to fund two Indian institutions — Reliance Life Sciences, backed by the country’s largest private sector group, and the state-run National Centre for Biological Sciences.
Even in the field of collaborative research, some new trends are emerging. India’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services, for example, has collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon University to investigate emerging trends in economics, management and technology for the software industry.
The Bangalore-based biotech company Biocon, like other homegrown pharmaceutical majors Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, is attracting interest from companies in the US and Europe, which are seeking a strong platform for development skills.
The developments in R&D are also beginning to show some tangible results. According to the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization, India last year recorded the highest increase in international patent applications. Experts maintain that if India addresses some inherent flaws in its R&D structure, notably the lack of linkage between academia and industry to commercialize R&D, the gains for the country can jump manifold.
“India needs to breakaway from imitative to more inventive R&D to realize the potential of its innovative skill base. This is where Silicon Valley scores, where the biotech sector was built by scientist-entrepreneurs,” says Shaw. “But it is heartening to note that Bangalore and Hyderabad are seeing the emergence of scientist-entrepreneurs. We need to see many more.”
