India comes in third place among the world's most desirable locations for technological investments. Being aware that science and technology are essential for economic prosperity, modern India has placed a major emphasis on them. India is ranked as one of the top five nations for space exploration, placing it among the top nations in the world for scientific research. India ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index for 2022, which is an improvement from the 46th position in 2021. India also moved up to fifth rank in the Global R&D Funding Forecast 2021. The Government is extensively promoting research parks and technology business incubators, which would promote innovative ideas till they become commercial ventures.
The Indian Web 3.0 ecosystem has raised US$1.3 billion in funding through April 2022. A report by Vantage Market Research stated that the global Web 3.0 blockchain market revenue is expected to reach a value of US$ 23.3 billion in 2028.
India ranks 3rd in the world in terms of the number of PhDs in science and engineering. India remains among the top three countries in scientific publication in SCI journals as per the NSF database.
R&D spending is anticipated to equal around 2% of the nation's GDP by 2022. India's engineering R&D and product development market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 13% from 2019 to 2025, reaching US$ 63 billion from US$ 31 billion. India's IT spending is expected to increase by 7% YoY to US$ 101.8 billion in 2022 from US$ 81.89 billion in 2021.
State University Research Excellence (SERB-SURE) to create a robust R&D ecosystem in state universities and colleges; Fund for Industrial Research Engagement (SERB-FIRE) to support research and development to solve critical problems that are relevant to industries in a public-private partnership mode.
India's gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP has remained stagnant at around 0.7% for about a decade, lower than Brazil (1.16%), South Africa (0.83%) and others.
In India, there are more than 1,250 Global Capability Centres (GCCs), where companies can outsource their product development and receive product engineering services. These GCCs are home to some of the largest companies, many of which have their largest or second-largest R&D centres located in the country.
With support from the Government, considerable investment and development has incurred in different sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, space research, and nuclear power through scientific research. For instance, India is gradually becoming self-reliant in nuclear technology. India also offers various opportunities for research & development and innovations. As of 2021, >70% of the 50 most innovative firms across the world have a research and development centre in India.
Actis, a global investor in sustainable infrastructure, is planning to invest over US$ 700 million to acquire and expand assets for its platform aimed at offering real estate to tenants in the life sciences and allied sectors in India. Coforge, a provider of digital services and solutions, opened a centre of excellence (CoE) for the Metaverse and Web3 technologies in India, with the aim to train and upskill over 1,000 people.
The government has announced plans to establish 75 science technology & innovation hubs in India for scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) and empower them to contribute to the socio-economic improvement of the country. The government has also launched the ‘AmritGrand Challenge Programme’ called ‘JANCARE’. This programme has been launched to identify 75 start-ups in several sectors such as telemedicine, digital health and mHealth with Big Data, AI, blockchain and other technologies.
The Department of Health Research (DHR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have launched the ICMR-DHR Centers of Excellence (CoE) for promoting medical technology breakthroughs at seven IITs.
The Indian Space Policy-2023: It was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security on April 6, also permits non-government entities (NGEs) to offer national and international space-based communication services, through self-owned, procured or leased geostationary orbit (GSO) and non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) satellite systems.
NGSO is a reference to low earth orbit or medium earth orbits that are home to satellites providing broadband internet services from space.
The policy also encourages NGEs to establish and operate ground facilities for space object operations, such as telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) Earth Stations and Satellite Control Centres (SCCs).
The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, in association with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA), launched the India International Science Festival 2021, a unique platform, with its theme being celebration of creativity in science, technology and innovation for a prosperous India. The government has also launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA) to accelerate technology advancements and strengthen the space sector in the country.
INDIAai and NASSCOM have launched the first edition of the Lab2Market initiative to boost industry-academia collaboration.
Under the Union Budget 2023-24, the government announced the allocation of Rs. 16,361 crore (US$ 1.99 billion) to the Department of Science and Technology.
Under the Union Budget 2022-23, the government announced allocation of Rs. 4,217 crore (US$ 1.86 billion) to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Department of Atomic Energy was allocated Rs. 22,723.58 crore (US$ 2.97 billion).
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been allocated Rs. 6,000 crore (US$ 785.64 million).
The Ministry of Earth Sciences was allocated Rs. 2,653.51 crore (US$ 347.45 million). The Ministry of Science & Technology has received an allocation of Rs. 16,361.42 crore (US$ 1.97 billion) in the Union Budget, a nominal increase of 15% from the previous budget estimate.
DST and GE India are likely to collaborate for Advanced Technology Research, according to the Science and Engineering Research Board. Over the next five years, academic institutes will get up to US$ 2.68 million in funding for research in the fields of energy, healthcare, and aviation.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its first Indian human mission by 2022.
References - Media reports, Press Releases, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Union Budget 2022-23/2023-24
