Thursday, June 4, 2009

EvalueServe Study on R&D Ecosystem in India

EvalueServe Study on R&D Ecosystem in India: A Report commissioned by the British High Commission and the Canadian High Commission, New Delhi. October 2008.

The S&T/Trade Divisions of the Canadian and UK High Commissions contracted Evalueserve last Spring to produce such a study with a view to providing a snapshot of the Indian R&D ecosystem to the many stakeholders that are interested in pursuing collaboration with India. The result was a 145-page document entitled "Study on R&D Ecosystem in India."

Following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

  • Driven by rural outputs and low-income, India is the fourth largest economy in the world. The Formal sectors employ 11 percent of the total workforce, with the rest being occupied in the informal sector, and the bulk of self-employment existing in low-productivity subsistence agriculture and services sectors. Since average enterprise productivity in formal sectors is 23 times higher than in agriculture, India can leverage the potential in more productive industry segments by strengthening and expanding the support system for technology at the cluster level.
  • India’s strength lies in its dynamic population, more than half of which is under 25 years of age. Although only 17 percent of people in their mid-20s and older have a secondary education, more aggressive education campaigns can help solve this problem.
  • The growth in R&D, in India, has been led by the increasing demand for low-cost products supported by rising income levels. This has been limited to a small segment of the economy, though there have been innovations in both the formal and informal sectors. In the 11th Five Year Plan, the government of India has envisaged to increase the country’s R&D spends from less than 1 percent to 2 percent by 2012. This move will put India in league with the developed countries that spend 2.5 percent of their GDP on R&D on an average.

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