Innovation, in both products and processes, has the potential to be India’s big-ticket to development in the field of science and technology. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· India’s continuous improvement to reach the 48th position (among 131 economies) in the recently released Global Innovation Index (GII) is indeed good news. GII uses a broad definition of innovation which includes both product and processes.
· It has two sub-indices with equal weightage, ie, inputs (pillars of institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication) and outputs (knowledge and technological outputs and creative outputs).
· INSPIRE scholarships, infrastructure support through FIST Scheme, incubation support, soft loans and tailored grants, goal-specific challenges such as Smart India Hackathons and sectoral schemes such as Biotechnology Ignition Grants have been beneficial in shaping the innovation landscape.
· That said, India has many grounds to work upon. Catching student innovators when young, through Atal Innovation Mission, Smart India Hackathons, Grand Challenges and making entrepreneurship a part of school curriculum, will foster an innovative and entrepreneurial culture.
· According to R&D Statistics and Indicators FY20, women participation in extramural R&D projects has increased significantly to 24% in 2016-17 from 13% in FY01.
· Policy support through schemes like KIRAN of DST has to be complemented with behavioural changes to promote female labour force participation and equitable sharing of household care services. Unleashing this “gender dividend” can help nurture innovations for women-centric issues.
· As per DST, gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP was 0.7% in FY19—low even if one accounts for India’s income levels. To boost it to the targeted 2% by 2022 (recommended by PMEAC), both public and especially private sector expenditure on R&D need to rise. Indian brands do well in terms of international brand value, but industry R&D is limited to 40% of GERD (compared to 50% in other BRIC economies), that too for few firms and too few sectors.
