Context

• India stands at a defining juncture in its economic and technological journey; with a large population, expanding economy, and global aspirations, it appears poised for leadership.
• Yet, this promise is constrained by a chronic and structural deficit in research and development.
• Without correcting this weakness, the vision of a Viksit Bharat risks remaining rhetorical rather than real. 

The Scale of the Deficit: A Stark Numerical Reality

• India is home to roughly 17.5% of the world’s population but contributes only about 3% of global research output.
• This mismatch highlights the inability to convert demographic strength into knowledge leadership.
• Patent data reinforces the concern. Although India ranked sixth globally in patent filings in 2023, its share of worldwide applications remained below 2%.
• When adjusted for population, India’s ranking drops sharply, revealing limited diffusion of innovation across society.
• The most revealing indicator is R&D expenditure. India’s Gross Expenditure on R&D has stagnated around 0.6–0.7% of GDP and is declining proportionally as the economy grows.
• This contrasts sharply with China, the United States, and Israel, which treat R&D as a strategic national priority.
• The comparison with Huawei is particularly stark: the company’s R&D spending alone exceeds India’s total public and private R&D expenditure.
• This illustrates how concentrated, mission-driven investment drives technological leadership, a scale India has yet to achieve.

Structural Weaknesses in the Innovation Ecosystem

• Weak Role of the Private Sector
  • The numerical gap reflects deeper systemic problems. One of the most critical is the weak role of the private sector. In mature innovation economies, industry leads R&D spending.
  • In India, the government remains the dominant funder, while private industry contributes barely over a third.
  • Corporate investment is shaped by risk aversion, a preference for incremental improvements, and reliance on imported technologies rather than indigenous development.
• Disconnect Between Academia and Industry
  • Universities produce millions of graduates, but research often remains theoretical and detached from market needs.
  • Technology transfer mechanisms, commercialisation pathways, and collaborative projects are underdeveloped.
  • Unlike the United States, where firms routinely fund university research to create market-ready innovations, Indian companies rarely engage academia in this manner.
  • As a result, promising ideas fail to cross the valley of death between laboratory and marketplace.
• Brain Drain
  • While India trains large numbers of scientists and engineers, many of the most capable seek opportunities abroad due to better funding, infrastructure, and career prospects.
  • Domestically, researchers face bureaucratic delays, unpredictable funding flows, and limited access to world-class facilities.
  • Slow approval processes and staggered fund releases undermine ambitious, long-term research programmes.

The Path Forward

• Reimagining India’s R&D Strategy
  • Correcting these failures requires a fundamental shift in national priorities. The most urgent step is to raise R&D spending to at least 2% of GDP within the next five to seven years.
  • This must be backed by significant public investment and strong incentives to raise private sector participation to at least half of total R&D spending.
  • The recently announced Research, Development and Innovation Fund is a positive step, provided it is deployed efficiently and focused on frontier technologies.
  • India must also abandon fragmented research efforts in favour of national missions.
  • Strategic domains such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced materials, and green energy demand sustained funding, clear objectives, and alignment with national security and economic sovereignty.
  • These areas will determine long-term competitiveness rather than short-term gains.
• Universities and Research
  • Universities must evolve from teaching-centric institutions into research-driven centres of excellence.
  • This requires expanded funding for doctoral programmes, competitive research faculty positions, and modern infrastructure.
  • Structured industry-academia collaboration, through sponsored research chairs, joint laboratories, and incubation centres, must become the norm rather than the exception.
  • Alongside this, India must foster a stronger intellectual property culture. Simplified patent procedures, stronger enforcement, and financial incentives for commercially successful patents would encourage innovation across academia and industry.
  • Innovation must be rewarded, protected, and commercialised at scale to generate economic value.

Conclusion

• India possesses the intellectual capacity and ambition to emerge as a global innovation leader. However, ambition without sustained R&D investment is strategically hollow.
• The contrast with global innovation leaders and even single multinational corporations exposes a systemic failure to prioritise knowledge creation.
• The coming decade is decisive. With political will, structural reform, and cultural change, India can convert its demographic advantage into technological power.
• Without it, the goal of a developed and sovereign nation may drift far beyond 2047.