Acceleration of Innovation - Hindu BusinessLine

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Innovation is the key to economic growth. The modern world was created through a process of “creative destruction” represented by continuous cycles of innovation, where each new cycle is better than the previous one. Time and time again, innovation has helped humanity overcome some of its toughest challenges, the most recent example being Covid.

In the world of innovation, India has emerged as one of the top performers in the last decade. In the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2022 report, India has been ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index (GII), an improvement of six places from 2021 and a massive jump from 81st in 2015. WIPO China and India are emerging as global innovation powerhouses.

The latest GII report also noted that 19 economies have outperformed expectations in terms of their level of development, with India being one of them for the 12th year in a row since 2011. India has one of the largest positive indicators in the relationship between GII scores. and GDP per capita (PPP$), a much higher innovation score than peers with the same level of development.

Only China, ranked 11th among the BRICS countries, performed better than India; Russia is 47th, Brazil 54th, South Africa 61st. India leads the world in terms of exports of ICT services (1st place), value of venture capital recipients (6th place), financing of start-ups and scale-up companies (8th place), science and engineering graduates (11th), labor productivity growth (12th), diversification of domestic industry (12th).

India’s continuous improvement is not just a fluke. This is the result of the strengthening of policies aimed at “innovation and entrepreneurship”. Recently, many programs have been launched to boost innovation directly or indirectly, including Atal Innovation Mission, Innovations Development and Harnessing National Initiative, PRAYAS, Digital India, Startup India, Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs 2.0, LEAP Fund, etc.

With these initiatives, an ecosystem has been created not only for innovation, but also for the commercialization of new ideas.

Along with this, India has taken steps towards reforming the biggest driver of innovation – Intellectual Property Rights by adopting the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy 2016 aimed at implementing global best practices.

These reforms led to an increase in the number of patent applications from 45,444 in 2016-17 to 66,440 in 2021-22 and were accompanied by an increase in the share of residents in applications from around 30% in 2016-17. Up to 44.5 percent in 2021-22. Trademark filings have increased from about 2.8 million in 2016-17 to 4.5 million in 2021-22.

There is still a way to go

Although India is rapidly climbing the ladder, it still lags behind the US, China, Singapore and various European countries. A recent EAC-PM working paper noted that patent applications in India were only 4 percent of China’s 15 lakh applications in 2020 and 9.5 percent of the US’s 6 lakh applications. The paper notes that India needs a much larger patent office, along with some processes. simplification and technological improvement.

India also lags behind in R&D spending, with total R&D spending at 0.7 percent of GDP, compared to Brazil’s 1.16 percent, Russia’s 0.98 percent, South Africa’s 0.83 percent, China’s 2.14 percent, the US and Germany’s is %. . Compared to other countries, where the private sector also plays an important role, the public sector accounts for the bulk of R&D spending.

Bridging the gaps will further improve India’s position and make it a global innovation powerhouse.

Arora is the Deputy Director of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and Dwivedi is an Assistant Professor (Economics) at the National Law University, Delhi. Views are private