Rama Krishna Sangem
India aspires to be a developed country in next 21 years, by 2047. But, it is way behind in key metrics of innovation and R&D (research and development) which are essential for industrial and technological growth of the country. India improved its position on innovation from 81st rank in 2015 to 38th in 2025, but it is still way far away from other developed nations like the US, China, EU and Japan, as per EU Industrial R&D investment scoreboard 2025 report.
Whatever the small funds invested in innovation and R&D sectors is only from the government side,while private corporates contribute very tiny portions. Only 17 Indian companies figured in the list of 2,000 R&D investors prepared by the report. We can understand our position by seeing the US accounting for 674 companies and China 525, followed by 318 from the EU and 192 from Japanese companies. Even among these 17 Indian companies, most are from automobiles and pharmaceutical sectors.
This shows India still a services nation. We mostly export raw material or unprocessed commodities to the world and import highly processed or finished goods and machinery. Over the years, we added little value to the supply chain. Amit Kapoor, chair, Institute of Competitiveness, expressed concern in a column wrote for The Economic Times. While much of funds spent by the government are subject to misuse, waste and inefficient handling, private sector is tightfisted on innovation and R&D, as if it is not their job.
Lack of growth
This is the reason why India couldn’t produce a credible global brand over the last three decades, since liberalization of our economy in 1991. Millions of our youth are well educated here but prefer to go abroad, mostly to the US, seeking better avenues. We provide land and other facilities to many global companies for setting up their GCCs (Global Capability Centres) here. They excel and export their products abroad, like Apple’s iPhones.
This may fetch us some handsome remittances and exports revenues, but not make India a leading innovation and R&D hub. We will never be able to compete with the other developed giants like the US, China, the EU or even Japan. We enter into FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) only to expand our exports, mostly labour intensive goods but will not be able to add value to our brands. Can we imagine India in 2047, even without a single leading global brand?
But, that may be the case, if our companies fail to spend on innovation and R&D in next one or two decades.