Science & Technology Industry Analysis

India has a strong network of science and technology institutions and trained manpower. It has the third-largest scientific and technical manpower in the world. As of June 18, 2021, India comprised 988 universities. As per the Economic Survey 2021, India’s GERD as a percentage of GDP stood at 0.65%. India’s medical technology (MedTech) sector is forecast to reach US$ 7.8 billion in 2020 and US$ 9.6 billion in 2022.

In FY21, there were 5,018 R&D projects, 2,528 fellowships, 3,702 publications, 30,532 ongoing projects and 797 innovations.

India is among the top-ranking countries in the field of basic research. India stood third in the number of science and engineering publications in the world.

The engineering R&D and product development market in India is forecast to post a CAGR of ~12% to reach US$ 63 billion by 2025, from US$ 31 billion in 2019. In the Union Budget for FY20, the Government announced setting up of National Research Foundation for R&D.

In total 1,494 Indians were listed among the top 2% scientists in world.

At rank 48, India stands among the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 with a score of 35.6. In 2019, it was placed at #52 position with a GII score of 36.58. India ranks 45^th on the innovation output and 57^th on the innovation input sub-indices. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research runs 37 national laboratories and 39 outreach centres. India ranks 10^th in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 that was launched by the International Telecommunication Union.

India's biggest IT giants, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies, added >17,000 staff, including freshers and lateral hires in the second quarter of FY21, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In September 2020, Remedial Action, Knowledge Skimming and Holistic Analysis of COVID-19 (RAKSHAK), became a part of Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) in IIT, Jodhpur. The various projects under RAKSHAK include developing a technology platform based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to mitigate situations arising amid/due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On September 22, 2020, Rajya Sabha passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to provide knowledge in the field of Information Technology to offer solutions to challenges faced by the country.

Under the Union Budget 2021-22, the government announced allocation of Rs. 14,794.03 crore (US$ 2.02 billion) to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Department of Atomic Energy has been allocated Rs. 18,264.89 crore (US$ 2.50 billion). The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been allocated Rs. 6,067.39 crore (US$ 831.63 million). The Ministry of Earth Sciences was allocated Rs. 1,897.13 crore (US$ 260.03 million).

In January 2021, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) signed an MoU with the Russian centre for collaboration on marine sciences and technology.

In January 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) announced that it will establish a quantum computing applications lab in the country, in collaboration with AWS, to accelerate quantum computing-led R&D and enable new scientific discoveries.

In January 2021, Wipro signed an MoU with Israel’s Tel Aviv University for research and analysis in quantum science and technology.

In December 2020, India’s first indigenous mRNA vaccine candidate received approval from the Indian Drug regulators to initiate Phase I/II human clinical trials. The novel mRNA vaccine candidate, HGCO19 has been developed by Gennova, Pune, and supported with seed grant under the Ind-CEPI mission of Department of Biotechnology of Ministry of Science & Technology.

In December 2020, the Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan appealed to the scientific community to ‘Innovate for India (I4I)’ and create competitive advantages to make India ‘Aatmanirbhar’.

F - forecasted, * in Purchasing Power Parity terms

R&D – Research and Development