India right this moment has outstanding contradictions in analysis, growth and innovation. Regardless of unprecedented authorities ambition, mirrored in important funding, regulatory reform and improved world innovation rankings, the nation continues to underperform the basics that drive innovation energy. Whereas the headline suggests momentum, the outcomes inform a grimmer story. Which means analysis and growth (R&D) depth is low, world technological affect is restricted, research-to-market transition is weak, and personal sector participation stays inadequate. Whereas current coverage initiatives are mandatory and welcome, India’s innovation problem is not intentional however operational. Inspecting R&D spending, the dimensions and high quality of patents, the human capital hole, and the weak bridge between analysis and entrepreneurship, a corollary conclusion emerges. Significant change requires a lot deeper systemic change, particularly by {industry}.
A yr of promise
2026 has began with a number of hope after the Indian authorities introduced a Rs 100,000-crore (roughly $12 billion) Analysis, Growth and Innovation (RDI) Fund final yr. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her ninth consecutive Union Finances speech, reaffirmed the federal government’s dedication to analysis and growth by means of Rs 20,000,000,000 crore sources for deep tech startups, extension of tax incentives and investments in digital infrastructure. The practically six-fold enhance in funding for our flagship program Atal Tinkering Labs from Rs 5 billion to Rs 3,200 billion additionally underlines our deal with creating future innovators. The federal government’s intentions are clear. It’s Vikshit Bharat powered by Yuva Shakti. However whether or not this interprets into innovation outcomes will rely upon how decisively the {industry} responds.
These measures largely observe the elimination of the three-year survival requirement that had restricted deep tech startups’ entry to schemes below the Ministry of Science and Industrial Analysis’s Industrial Analysis and Growth Promotion Programme. Late final yr, the federal government additionally lifted an entire ban on patenting nuclear-related innovations. The Sustainable Use and Promotion of Nuclear Vitality for the Transformation of India (SHANTI) Act, 2025 grants patents on the “Peaceable Makes use of of Atomic Vitality and Radiation” and opens the door for better non-public sector participation. However as with all reform, the actual take a look at shall be whether or not the {industry} invests sufficient to translate this openness into deployable expertise.
All these developments have coincided with a big enchancment in India’s rating within the International Innovation Index (GII). India at present ranks thirty eighth out of 139 economies within the 2025 GII, with the variety of patent purposes practically doubling from lower than 59,000 in 2020-21 to greater than 110,000 in 2024-25. Home purposes now account for about 62% of the whole, however this variation is current and policy-driven, highlighting that the underlying innovation base, notably industry-driven analysis and growth, stays shallow. Whereas these indicators level in the correct route, systemic and structural issues stay that impede actual transformation in India’s analysis, growth and innovation.
Disadvantages of the non-public sector
R&D spending as a share of GDP, particularly non-public sector spending, is a crucial indicator of innovation readiness. India invests simply 0.65% of its GDP in analysis and growth, properly under developed international locations and lots of of its friends, together with Singapore, Japan and South Korea (lowest amongst BRICS international locations excluding South Africa). In most innovation-driven economies, {industry} drives essentially the most R&D spending. However in India, the state nonetheless accounts for a disproportionate share, reflecting the non-public sector’s restricted urge for food for long-term, high-risk innovation.
Equally, whereas India’s patent software numbers are spectacular on their very own, they’re a fraction of the greater than 1.8 million patent purposes filed in China (1.6 million home purposes), which is considerably decrease than the 600,000 patent purposes filed in america (270,000 home purposes). This displays the absence of sustained, high-risk R&D funding by the Indian non-public sector.
As a result of inventors search safety overseas just for commercially viable concepts, one approach to assess the affect of an innovation is thru worldwide patent purposes. The variety of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) purposes signifies India’s world contribution. In 2024, there have been 4,547 instances, a 22% enhance from 2023. Though development is powerful, India stays far behind China (over 70,000), the US (over 54,000) and Japan (over 48,000). Even Switzerland, which is barely bigger than the state of Kerala, has filed greater than 5,300 purposes. These examples reveal that scale, not simply development price, drives world technological affect.
In response to the GII 2025, India performs poorly on key indicators of human capital important for innovation, rating ninety fifth in employment in knowledge-intensive sectors and eightieth within the variety of full-time equal researchers. The scenario is much more dire with regards to gender variety, with India rating a hundred and first out of 119 international locations in hiring ladies with superior levels, a weak spot that’s important given the robust correlation between variety and innovation efficiency. Recognizing this hole, the federal government has launched initiatives resembling Girls’s Intuition for Creating and Main Scientific Heights and Innovation (WIDUSHI) and Girls’s Participation in Science and Engineering (WISE)-KIRAN to advertise ladies’s participation in science and engineering, however their effectiveness just isn’t but clear. For now, this knowledge highlights that India’s innovation agenda is as a lot about recruiting and retaining expertise as it’s about funding and coverage intent.
fault line
A ceaselessly cited attribute of India’s growth trajectory is an absence of “large-scale, labor-intensive industrialization” in comparison with its East Asian friends, resulting in an overreliance on agriculture and providers. Even India’s so-called new-age unicorns are constructed on a wealthy workforce (e.g. on the spot supply platforms) fairly than deep, defensible, real R&D-driven innovation. It’s subsequently cheap to conclude that the absence of worldwide important applied sciences of Indian origin is due not merely to historic coverage decisions but additionally to the reluctance of the non-public sector to spend money on deep and long-term conceptual analysis and growth.
Improvements are handiest solely when analysis is established in an organization, when concepts efficiently transfer from the lab to {the marketplace}. In India, this final step, the dearth of an industry-driven commercialization mechanism to affect innovation, stays the weakest hyperlink within the analysis, growth and innovation (RDI) chain. Whereas universities and public analysis establishments produce scientific outcomes, mechanisms for expertise switch, enterprise creation, and threat capital adjustment stay underdeveloped. Excessive-tech entrepreneurship is inherently unsure and capital-intensive, requiring long-term imaginative and prescient, tight affected person financing, robust mental property safety, and an ecosystem that tolerates failure. Nations that lead in innovation have constructed bridges between academia, {industry}, and finance. India’s alternative lies not solely in growing the variety of startups, but additionally in fostering R&D-driven corporations that may create globally aggressive applied sciences.
India’s non-public sector should now take over the baton and rise to the problem of driving India’s RDI story. There are seen buds within the industrial area sector, with a number of profitable startups exhibiting robust promise. Deep tech can also be an rising sector, and if the {industry} seizes the chance proactively and commits long-term capital, the government-created RDI fund may very well be a game-changer. As soon as the 6G customary is rolled out globally within the subsequent few years, we’ll see what number of Indian patents shall be included in the usual important patent (SEP) listing. The federal government paved the way in which. However the query now’s whether or not India’s non-public sector R&D will transfer ahead.
Gaurav Jain is the founding father of Hastin Analysis and an IP skilled who helps corporations, startups, and universities flip concepts into worthwhile IP. Mukundan Chakrapani has a PhD in science and a legislation diploma, has expertise in a wide range of fields, and has lately returned to academia. The views expressed are private
issued – March 13, 2026 12:16 AM IST
