India is home to some excellent institutions, high calibre talent and successful enterprises. What is missing is the full realisation of our innovation potential. Ten years ago we established CTIER to bring technical capability and innovation to the forefront of policy discussion and base it on data. We have seen modest but encouraging change since, be it in the policy space or within Indian industry.

This Handbook, now in its fourth edition, is a wealth of information and data on innovation and technology in India. Over the years it has brought together various stakeholders, including industry, government bodies and academia, to derive insights to strengthen India’s R&D and innovation ecosystem. It has helped shape academic thought in the economics of innovation. It has helped design programmatic interventions to build the capabilities needed to transform Indian industry into an innovation powerhouse.

The potential for Indian firms to lead globally in technology is real. Many of our large Indian firms are profitable by international standards; they just invest very little in R&D. For policymakers, the key imperative is to identify who should fund what research (scientific research as well as technological research) and where it is best performed, whether in industry or academia. Unlike the rest of the world, public R&D in India is mostly performed in autonomous government laboratories, which are cut off from our higher education institutes and industry. By doing much more of our public research in our higher education system, we would simultaneously train more advanced talent needed by our industry. And strong inhouse investment within industry is a precondition for taking advantage of public research.

The essays in this edition start with a comparison of data on key innovation parameters between India and the two technology giants, the US and China. In the current environment of intense competition for technology and talent, the essay serves as a reminder of the need for India to capitalise on her strengths in key sectors like pharmaceuticals & biotechnology and automobiles & parts among others, while growing her capabilities in sectors like electronic & electrical equipment. The subsequent essays focus on building a bold ambition for the pharmaceuticals & biotechnology sector and exploring and expanding opportunities in the emerging sectors of semiconductors and electric vehicles.

As before, the CTIER Handbook makes available the most current and useful data on technology and innovation in India. Companies over time tell us about progress we made. International companies tell us how far we have to go. Janak and his young team at CTIER do us all a great service by producing these excellent Handbooks.

Coinciding with our tenth anniversary, this is a special edition for the CTIER team