Date: 13/10/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.

Key Phrases: Global Innovation Index, Global Innovation Powerhouses, Creative Destruction, Continuous Cycles Of Innovation, Domestic Industry Diversification, National Intellectual Property Right Policy 2016

Why in News?

• In the 2022 report of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), India has been ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) which is an improvement of six spots from that in 2021 and a massive jump from 81st rank in 2015.
• WIPO has highlighted that China and India are emerging as global innovation powerhouses.

Key Highlights:

• Innovation is key to economic growth and the modern world was created by the process of ‘creative destruction’ represented by continuous cycles of innovation, where every new cycle was an improvement over the previous cycle.
• Time and again, innovation has helped humanity overcome its gravest challenges, with Covid being the most recent example.

India's performance on the scale of innovation:

• As per the latest report on GII, 19 economies have performed above expectations relative to their level of development, and India was one of them for the 12th year in a row since 2011.
• India is one of the largest positive outliers in the relationship between GII score and GDP per capita (PPP$), with a much higher innovation score compared to peers with the same development levels.
• Among BRICS nations, only China, ranked 11th, performed better than India; Russia ranks 47th, Brazil 54th, and South Africa 61st.
• India continues to lead the world in the ICT services export indicator (1st) with high ranks in other indicators like venture capital recipients’ value (6th), finance for start-ups and scale-ups (8th), graduates in science and engineering (11th), labour productivity growth (12th), and domestic industry diversification (12th).

Factors for the improvement in the innovation ecosystem in India:

1. Increased policy focus on innovation and entrepreneurship:
   • Many programs have recently been initiated to directly or indirectly boost innovation, including Atal Innovation Mission, National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations, PRAYAS, Digital India, Startup India, Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs 2.0, LEAP Fund, etc.
   • With the help of these initiatives, an ecosystem has been created not just for innovation but for putting new ideas to commercial use too.
2. National Intellectual Property Right Policy 2016:
   • India has also taken steps towards reforming Intellectual Property Rights by adopting the National Intellectual Property Right Policy 2016, which aims to adopt global best practices.
   • These reforms have resulted in the number of patent applications going up from 45,444 in 2016-17 to 66,440 in 2021-22, and this has been accompanied by an increase in the share of residents in the applications from around 30 percent in 2016-17 to 44.5 percent in 2021-22.
   • Filing of trademark applications increased from about 2.8 lakh in 2016-17 to 4.5 lakh in 2021-22.

Challenges still faced by India:

• Although India’s ranking has improved, however, it still lags behind the US, China, Singapore and various European countries.
• Patent applications in India were merely 4 percent of China’s 15 lakh and 9.5 percent of the US’s 6 lakh applications in 2020.
• India needs a much larger patent office along with some process simplifications and technological improvements.
• India lags in terms of R&D expenditure too, with gross expenditure on R&D at 0.7 percent of GDP as compared with Brazil’s 1.16 percent, Russia’s 0.98 percent, South Africa’s 0.83 percent, China’s 2.14 percent, US and Germany’s 3 percent.
• The bulk of the R&D expenditure is done by the public sector, unlike other countries where the private sector also plays an important role.

Initiatives of the Government of India to boost innovation:

1. Vaishvik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit: Numerous overseas Indian-origin academicians and Indians participated to form ideas on innovative solutions to several challenges.
2. Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) 2020 summit: It grants a course to efficiently use AI for social empowerment, inclusion, and transformation in key sectors such as health care, agriculture, finance, education and smart mobility.
3. Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scholarships: Attract youth talent to the study of science at an early age and thus build the required critical human resource pool for the Science & Technology system.
4. Ramanujan Fellowship: It is meant for brilliant Indian scientists from outside India to take up scientific research positions in India.
5. Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN) scheme: Providing avenues to women scientists and technologists for capacity building.
6. Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) and Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IMPRESS): Common objective is to boost India-specific research in social and pure sciences.

Suggestions:

• The R&D in the public sector or government labs is governed by standard rules even though, at best, only 5 per cent of the attempted innovations results in success.
• Hence, to imbibe a culture of innovation, the rigid rules need to be amended and failures need to be taken in their stride. The gains from one blue-sky innovation would be enough to compensate for the losses in all other cases.
• Learn from industrialized countries, including Korea and Taiwan, which adopted a strategic plan based on Technological Forecasting exercises to direct their R&D expenditure for long term success.
• Increase in R&D spending: Government should frame a policy with the aim of increasing total GERD (Gross domestic expenditure on R&D) to 2% of India’s GDP.
• Global partnerships in innovation: Global innovation partnerships need to be strengthened by enhancing public-private partnership mechanisms and increased public funds should be earmarked for joint industrial R&D projects.

Conclusion:

• Addressing the gaps will further improve India’s position and make it an innovation powerhouse globally.
• In order to achieve leadership in technology, Innovation and research, while India has a lot of ground to cover, it has the human capital to do so.
• Leveraging global collaborations with strong industry, academia and government partnerships, like the one with Singapore, will be of immense importance.
• This will encourage, develop, and facilitate collaborative projects in fields of mutual interest. Overall, the leadership in technology, innovation and research is critical to catapult India into sustainable growth, thereby creating genuine wealth for the country.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. India has been ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) which is an improvement of six spots from 2021. In this context discuss the factors responsible for the improvement of the innovation ecosystem in India. Also, suggest measures to overcome the challenges faced by the innovation ecosystem in India. (250 words).