With the fourth largest reservoir of scientific manpower in the world and a slew of R&D institutions, India is emerging as the preferred hub for knowledge-based industries. It is where scientist-entrepreneurs have carved out a niche market to exploit the brain gain on the back of a resurgent economy at home and as an outsourcing hub for the industrialized countries. Its skills in the knowledge economy are not restricted to information and communication technology alone but span agriculture, defense, novel drug discovery, biotechnology, nanotechnology, missile technology, space and other disciplines.
India’s efforts to become a superpower in knowledge economy were spearheaded by former President and missile scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself an Oxford and Cambridge-educated economist.
Microsoft, General Electric, Intel, IBM, Boeing and Google are just a few of the 100-odd global firms that have set up R&D centers in India, with many more actively considering similar facilities.
In fact, a study by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimates that India would emerge as a $17-billion hub for knowledge process outsourcing by 2010, growing at a staggering rate of 46 percent annually.
Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, information and communication technology, legal support, intellectual property research, and design and development for auto and aerospace are some of the areas where India’s strength lies, says the apex business lobby.
“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 during a recent visit, referring to the strict quality control of GE that is being mirrored at the India center. 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.
To sharpen India’s knowledge edge in the 21st century Manmohan has established a unique body, the Knowledge Commission, under Sam Pitroda, who led India’s telecom revolution in the mid-1980s. The commission’s mandate is to advise the prime minister on how India can meet the knowledge challenges in areas like education, scientific institutions, intellectual property and agriculture.
“This is a unique opportunity to leave behind the British legacy to invent a new India using knowledge,” Pitroda says, adding he would focus on how knowledge can be deployed to change the lives of the average citizen.
In fact, state-run research institutions and private sector companies in India have already started grabbing global attention with success in some leading edge areas of science and technology. The country has conducted a test flight of Saras, an indigenously developed civilian light-transport aircraft built by the state-run Center for Civil Aircraft Design and Development.
It is the only country from the developing world and sixth globally to fabricate and launch its own satellites in geostationary orbit, with even plans for 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 Bangalore-based National Center 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 home-grown pharma majors Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy’s, is attracting interest from companies in the US and Europe, which are seeking a strong platform for development skills.
India today has more than 250 universities and many more R&D units, professional colleges and institutions. On an average, more than 350,000 engineers and 5,000 Ph.D scholars graduate from Indian universities and colleges every year.
“With such a pool of qualified, English-speaking scientific and technological manpower, India must have the ambition to become a large base of research and development activity,” Manmohan told the Knowledge Commission recently.
