- India has shown growing policy ambition in research, development, and innovation (RDI) through funding commitments, regulatory reforms, and institutional initiatives.
- Recent policy measures include the creation of a ₹1,00,000 crore Research, Development and Innovation Fund, a ₹20,000 crore corpus for deep-tech startups, and expanded support for Atal Tinkering Labs.
- Regulatory reforms such as the removal of restrictions on deep-tech startups and the SHANTI Act, 2025 allowing patents for peaceful uses of nuclear energy signal greater openness to innovation.
- India has also improved its standing in global innovation metrics, reflecting an encouraging policy direction.
- However, despite this progress, India continues to face a gap between policy intent and innovation outcomes, particularly in translating research into globally competitive technologies.
Data and Trends
- India ranked 38th among 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index (2025), showing gradual improvement in innovation performance.
- Patent filings increased significantly from less than 59,000 in 2020-21 to over 1,10,000 in 2024-25, with domestic filings accounting for about 62% of the total.
- Yet, India’s scale remains modest compared to global leaders:
- China: over 1.8 million patent applications (1.6 million domestic).
- United States: around 600,000 filings.
- Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications is an indicator of global technological relevance and it stood at 4,547 in 2024, up 22% from 2023.
- However, this remains far lower than:
- China: over 70,000 applications.
- United States: over 54,000 applications.
- Japan: over 48,000 applications.
- R&D expenditure in India stands at 0.65% of GDP, which is significantly lower than many innovation-driven economies and even several BRICS countries.
- India’s human capital indicators also reveal weaknesses:
- Rank 95 in employment in knowledge-intensive sectors.
- Rank 80 in number of full-time equivalent researchers.
- Rank 101 out of 119 economies in employment of women with advanced degrees.
Associated Challenges
- Low R&D investment
- India’s R&D spending remains limited, particularly from the private sector, with the government bearing a disproportionate share of innovation expenditure.
- Weak industry participation
- In most leading innovation economies, industry drives research investment, whereas in India, private firms remain reluctant to invest in long-term, high-risk innovation.
- Limited global technological influence
- Despite growth in patent filings, India’s global patent footprint remains small, limiting its influence in emerging technology standards.
- Human capital constraints
- Shortages of researchers and low participation in knowledge-intensive employment sectors weaken the country’s innovation ecosystem.
- Gender imbalance in advanced research roles further limits the talent pool.
- Weak research-to-market linkages
- India’s innovation system faces a major bottleneck in commercialising research outcomes.
- Technology transfer mechanisms, venture creation, and alignment with risk capital remain underdeveloped.
- Structural limitations
- India’s development trajectory lacked large-scale labour-intensive industrialisation, resulting in greater reliance on agriculture and services.
- Many emerging digital businesses rely more on labour abundance rather than deep technological innovation.
Way Forward
- Strengthen private-sector participation
- Industry must play a larger role in long-term R&D investment, particularly in high-risk and high-impact sectors.
- Promote deep-tech innovation
- Government initiatives such as the RDI Fund and deep-tech startup corpus should encourage sustained investment in frontier technologies.
- Build stronger research-industry linkages
- Innovation ecosystems must strengthen collaboration between universities, industry, and finance, enabling ideas to move from laboratory to market.
- Enhance talent inclusion
- Expanding participation in knowledge-intensive sectors and improving gender diversity in research can strengthen the innovation base.
- Encourage long-term risk capital
- High-technology entrepreneurship requires patient funding and tolerance for failure, supported by robust intellectual property protection.
- Focus on globally competitive technologies
- India’s future innovation success will depend on creating globally relevant technologies, including emerging domains such as deep tech and next-generation communication systems like 6G.
Conclusion
- India’s innovation landscape reflects a promising policy framework but a fragile execution environment. Moving toward a true innovation-led economy will require greater private-sector commitment, stronger research-to-industry linkages, and sustained investment in human capital and deep technology ecosystems.
