Indian Innovation: Action on Many Fronts

Because India is so large and so diverse and because change is occurring at such a rapid pace, it is impossible to talk about a single innovation policy. Conditions vary widely among technologies, among industries and among regions. For example, India is on par with global leaders in some technologies (nuclear power, space), well behind in other sectors (productivity of small and medium enterprises), and in a position to leapfrog into global leadership in some areas (tools for rural development). It should therefore come as no surprise that innovation policy is actually a rich mix of policies and strategies linked to specific conditions and goals. A comprehensive survey of Indian innovation activities is impossible, so I will provide snapshots of a few programs that illustrate the variety and careful customization of current strategies.

India is on a rapid economic growth trajectory that will make it a “developed country” sooner or later. Of course, developed-country status is not a single-point destination. Even already-developed countries want to develop further. The key for India in sustaining its economic development over a long period is to become scientifically advanced, and ultimately to become a global innovation leader.

Measuring a nation’s S&T progress is complex. One must look at papers published in basic science and at patents granted and products introduced in technological development. For government missions such as energy development or space exploration, quantifiable measures are more elusive. And for something as multifaceted as rural development, the challenge is truly daunting. India is making a concerted effort to develop reliable measures for progress in all these areas, but this will be a task that requires continual updating.

Quantifying a nation’s innovative capacity is even more complex. Technology is obviously a critical dimension, but a variety of legal, financial, and cultural dimensions are also essential. Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, has highlighted the importance of factors such as retention of talent, improvement of infrastructure, expansion of venture capital, and quality of leadership in maintaining a healthy environment for innovation.

India has been investing in the S&T infrastructure for innovation. Evidence of progress can be seen in the government’s mission-oriented laboratories, in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, in the universities, in the Indian Institute of Science, and in the Indian Institutes of Technology. In-house corporate R&D capacity is growing, and industrywide cooperative research associations are forming. Nearly 150 of the Fortune 500 companies have R&D facilities in India, and many Indian companies have joint research projects with non-Indian companies. Still, there is plenty of room for growth and improvement.

India has long believed in self-reliance, but that has too often been interpreted to mean self-sufficiency. In the context of today’s rapid globalization, self-reliance does not mean avoidance of international scientific and technological cooperation. In fact, the latter is a must, and today’s India must take and give in equal measure in international cooperation. India must promote itself as an equal partner in international cooperative research projects. It already participates in projects such as the Large Hadron Collider being built by the Center for European Nuclear Research in Geneva and has also recently joined the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor cooperative program. The government is supporting creation of a high-speed computer communications network that will facilitate cooperative work among Indian researchers and between Indians and their international colleagues.

Technology foresight. The need to customize policies and goals for each country is illustrated by the difference between India and the United States in their approaches to the fast breeder nuclear reactor. India places a high value on reprocessing spent fuel to close the nuclear fuel cycle, because it has limited uranium reserves and the world’s largest thorium reserves. The United States, with easy access to relatively cheap uranium (though the price has risen sharply in the past couple of years), is content to store the spent fuel as “waste” for decades. But U.S. planners are well aware that the plutonium in the spent fuel will last for thousands of years. In fact, the longer one waits, the easier it becomes to reprocess the spent fuel because other shorter-lived radioactive elements that make reprocessing difficult will have decayed significantly. The United States sees no need to rush ahead with reprocessing.

India, on the other hand, sees reprocessing as essential for its near-term development of nuclear power and has invested its resources accordingly. It has become one of the world leaders in pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) technology and has achieved technological self-reliance in the entire fuel cycle related to this technology. A test reactor has operated successfully for more than two decades, and the first prototype fast breeder reactor is under construction in Kalpakkam. By closing the fuel cycle with plutonium, India can extract 50 times more power from its limited uranium resources. India can use its domestic thorium as a “blanket” in the breeder reactors, and during operation the thorium232 will be converted to uranium-233, an excellent nuclear fuel. Although developing the necessary technology will be expensive, the rewards will make the investment worthwhile—particularly in the future.

Rural technology delivery. India has a large rural population, and the government has made a concerted effort over the years to develop technology that can contribute to rural economic development. The impact of these efforts, particularly in the non-farm sector, has not been very significant. A variety of initiatives are now under way to correct this deficiency. One promising approach is found in the Rural Technology Action Groups (RuTAGs), which are based on the realization that active scientists are too busy with their own work to be of much use for grassroots technological intervention in rural India. However, if some voluntary organization or a government agency has recognized a problem in a rural area and implemented a technological solution up to a point, the researchers at higher-level R&D institutions and universities can carry it further.

Each RuTAG is located in either a premier educational institution or a corporation and has strong links with reputable science and technology-based voluntary organizations. A nationally recognized person is identified to be the adviser and a retired scientist is nominated as the coordinator of each RuTAG. So far, three such RuTAGs have been set up, one each in Chennai (Tamilnadu), Dehradun (Uttarakhand), and Guwahati (in the North East). Some of the projects taken up at Uttarakhand through the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization, a volunteer group, are upgrading water mills with help from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)Delhi; improving packaging and food processing technology with the help of Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore; and recharging aquifers with help from the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai. In Tamilnadu, projects include converting natural dyes from liquid to powder and improving the manufacturing processes for traditional ayurvedic medicines. Institutions such as IIT Madras, Central Leather Research Institute, Anna University, and the National Institute of Ocean Technology are providing technology as well as R&D support.

The primary need in rural areas is for technology delivery rather than development of new science. Because the rural people are often unaware of the technologies that can help them, the initiative to deliver this technology must come from government or independent service organizations. Because the specific needs of rural areas can differ from those of urban areas, there is also some need for directed basic research to create new knowledge that can be helpful in meeting rural needs.

Academia-industry interaction. With government mission agencies driving the agenda, India has been successful in nurturing cooperative research efforts with industry in areas such as nuclear power and space. The challenge now is to achieve the same type of cooperation in research related to commercial technology and products. In the past, cultural resistance to cooperation has been a powerful barrier to collaboration, but I believe that the attitudes of scientists and business leaders are changing as Indian companies become more globally competitive. Once cultural resistance is overcome, the potential for productive cooperation is great. If industry begins to interact actively with academia, it can also play a greater role in guiding academic activities in the direction of industry interests, be it human resource development, R&D prioritization, or the choice of areas of international cooperation.

Beginning in 2002, my office has been organizing meetings at which leading representatives of academic institutions and industry have tried to reach consensus on some ways that they could work together. Very often people with degrees in engineering don’t go in for research and technology development, even though they may have a talent for it. Instead they opt for jobs in management or migrate to other countries. To tap some of this lost talent, industry should choose some of the most talented new university-trained employees and offer them the opportunity to do industry-related research with a leading university scientist. Although receiving a salary from a company, the student should be no different from any other student of the professor, and the research should not be limited to immediate problem-solving for the company, which is too restrictive. In choosing a research topic, the employee-student might not be addressing the company’s problems consciously, but subconsciously the company’s practical needs would certainly influence the choice as well as all other professional interactions. Over a period of four to five years, the employee-student could evolve into someone very useful for the company’s product or process development. Indian industry should realize, and it is beginning to, that information exchange is free in an academic environment. When a professor from abroad meets an Indian colleague, the discussion of industry-oriented research is much more open than a discussion between an Indian industry scientist and a foreign counterpart. The employee-student would have the advantage of being part of the open interchanges between academics.

The automotive sector. Another outcome of the discussions between academic and industry leaders was the formation of a cooperative effort to focus on vehicles from scooters to heavy trucks. The mandate is to identify frontier technologies that will contribute to development of vibrant, world-class automotive systems, subsystems, and parts industries. The group has drawn up a technology roadmap for the Indian automotive sector, which includes advanced materials and manufacturing, alternate propulsion, and automotive infotronics. Projects in these areas are currently funded for precompetitive applied research jointly by the Department of Heavy Industries, the Department of Science & Technology, and my office. I think this should be expanded to include directed basic research in some areas.

This initiative has already had significant success. For example, an engine management system for 2/3 wheelers, which previously had been available only from foreign companies, was developed by IIT Bombay in collaboration with IIT Madras and partners from the industry. Initial results indicate that the new system achieves better fuel economy with reduced emissions and at a lower price than the foreign technology. A similar R&D advisory group has been established for the machine tool industry and another is planned for semiconductors.

Small and medium enterprises. The small and medium enterprise (SME) sector creates jobs and wealth. Although many Indian SMEs can now produce world-class products, this is in only a few sectors such as auto components, and most are dependent on foreign designs. The government is keen on strengthening SMEs, which have little access to modern R&D facilities, through technology infusion. Academia-industry interaction could be a very effective means for enabling SMEs to bridge the technology and knowledge gap. One approach could be through incubators in academic institutions, in particular those proximate to technologically homogenous SME clusters.

The Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of the Department of Science and Technology is playing an important role here through Centers of Relevance and Excellence (TIFAC-COREs). This is a triangular partnership among the government, an academic institution, and industry. The topics range from fireworks safety and environmental engineering to wireless technologies and pharmacogenomics. The more than two dozen COREs in existence are geographically dispersed, develop quality manpower, and provide development support.

TIFAC is also partnering with the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in a cluster-based approach to upgrade SME technology. This effort is getting started with an assessment of SME technology needs in numerous product areas ranging from sporting goods and agricultural implements to surgical instruments.

Innovation ecosystem. Although many Indian programs focus tightly on specific technologies or business sectors, the government is also paying attention to the innovation ecosystem, the larger legal and economic environment in which innovation must take root. This includes the education system, which nurtures creativity; an R&D culture and value system that supports basic research, applied research, and technology development; an industry culture that is keen to absorb academic inputs; a bureaucracy that is supportive; a policy framework that encourages young people to pursue scientific careers; and an ability to scan scientific developments in the world and to use technology foresight to select critical technologies in a national perspective.

An intangible part of the innovation ecosystem is the courage to take risk. The greater the innovation, the higher is the risk in converting it into a marketable product or process. The government is looking for ways to help make this risk manageable. The United States has programs such as the Small Business Innovative Research program and the Advanced Technology Program that provide funds to companies to invest at critical high-risk stages in technology development where private funding is hard to find. India must have similar programs, and the Department of Biotechnology has initiated a pioneering program in this context.

Recruiting new scientists. The educational path to becoming a scientist is very demanding, so young people need reassurance that their efforts will be rewarded. India’s Steering Committee for Science & Technology for the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012), which I chaired, recommended that the most talented science students completing their 12th year of education be offered a 15-year career support program. In the first five years, they would receive a fellowship that would enable them to work toward a master’s degree. During the next five years, they would receive a larger fellowship, equivalent to what their peers are earning in their jobs, as they worked toward the Ph.D. Finally, they would be guaranteed a proper job in a university or national lab for the final five years. The best students have their choice of many reliable and remunerative career paths. In order to attract these students, science must offer security and economic rewards as well as intellectual stimulation.

Directed basic research. India intends to be a major participant in basic scientific research, but no country can afford to be active in every field. The practical approach is to choose fields that not only advance the frontiers of science but that are also in he long-term interest of Indian industry, Indian society, or India’s srtraegic goals. Most of the latter usually relate to cross-disciplinary technology areas.

In its execution and in the requirement of no deliverables other than new knowledge, directed basic research does not differ from curiosity-driven basic research, so university academics should be comfortable with it. From a national perspective, scientists carrying out directed basic research in any area would find it easier to interact with the related industry or related strategic mission or to participate in related societal development programs.

The challenge for India is to achieve a coherent synergy among these diverse programs, to keep programs with very different short-term goals consistent with a long-term direction for the country. India can become a global innovation leader, provided it uses technology foresight to make the right technology choices in a national perspective, nurtures a robust innovation ecosystem, leverages international cooperation to reinforce its own innovation strategies, and maintains a coherent synergy among these efforts.