Need to Ramp Up R&D Infra, Bridge Resource Gap in Innovation Funding, Says PSA VijayRaghavan

The country’s top scientist said the Economic Advisory Council has developed a report on mapping the entire R&D ecosystem in the country and it is being constantly updated in partnership with his office, the PSA said. “Our challenges here are…difficulties in raising resources when the pandemic is ravaging the global economy even as the industry and government increase investment,” he observed.

VijayRaghavan said innovation is concentrated in science and technology clusters and India is pushing hard to develop initially the clusters which have already started functioning in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai-Pune regions. “So we will push the development of these clusters in a manner similar in which other countries have done,” he said.

VijayRaghavan said India excels in innovation outcome it produces, and its role in the global ICT services industry is reflected in its ICT services. “But now we must push that these ICT services are ramped up to higher and higher levels of services. That is indeed happening with importance being given to design and development in our ICT,” he said.

According to the GII List-2020, released jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD Business School on Wednesday, the rankings show stability at the top but a gradual “eastward shift in the locus of innovation” as Asian economies like China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam have advanced considerably in the innovation ranking over the years. India moves up for positions from last year’s ranking.