A Homegrown Innovation Ecosystem is Taking Root

UPSC Syllabus: Gs Paper 3- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Introduction

India is gradually moving from importing technology to developing it through public research institutions, corporate R&D and deep-tech startups. Rising patent activity, indigenous technologies in semiconductors, communications, space and healthcare, and growing private R&D show this shift. However, low R&D spending, weak commercialisation and limited research capacity still prevent India from becoming a fully technology-driven innovation economy.

India’s Innovation Landscape: Progress with Persistent Gaps

1. Rising patent activity: Patent filings increased from over 1,10,000 in 2024–25 to more than 1,43,000 in 2025–26, a 30.2% rise.
2. Growing domestic participation: Domestic applicants now account for almost seven in ten patent filings, showing greater participation by Indian innovators.
3. Limited patents in force: India had just over 2,40,000 patents in force in 2025, far below China, the U.S. and Japan, indicating weaker conversion of applications into active patents.
4. Low R&D spending: India spends just under 1% of GDP on R&D, compared with about 2.4% in China and 3.5% in the U.S.
5. Weak commercialisation: Limited movement from research outputs to marketable products reduces the economic impact of India’s growing patent activity.
6. Improving global position: India ranked 38th among 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2025, while its innovation output rank was 32nd.

Three Emerging Pillars of India’s Innovation Ecosystem

1. Public Research and Government Institutions

• Long-gestation research: Public institutions, with government support, are developing foundational technologies that require long-term research and investment.
• Indigenous GaN capability: The DRDO, through its Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL)and Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC), developed Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) critical for military and defence applications.
• Technology transfer: DRDO is transferring Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistor (GaN HEMT)-based technology for 5G/6G infrastructure, electric-vehicle chargers and renewable-energy inverters.
• Research-to-market pipeline: The GaN ecosystem shows how government laboratories develop foundational technology, academic institutions build research capacity, and startups move it towards commercial markets.

1. Corporate R&D and Industry-Led Innovation

• Rising private R&D: Private-sector Research and Development (R&D) spending exceeded the combined spending of all government levels for the first time in 2024 and is expected to account for 55% in 2025–26.
• 6G technology development: Members of the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) have made over 7,700 patent filings across 5G and 6G technologies, including more than 4,400 foreign filings.
• Greater standards participation: Indian entities made almost 3,000 technical contributions to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a 15-fold increase from 2020, strengthening India’s participation in global communication standards.
• Intellectual property ownership: Jio Platforms Limited entered the top 20 international patent filers in 2025, ranking 19th and showing greater participation in global technology creation.

1. Deep-Tech Startups and Commercialisation

• Shift towards deep technology: Indian startups are moving beyond service-based platforms towards deep-tech and complex manufacturing, supported by government initiatives and private capital.
• Space technology: Pixxel, Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are developing capabilities in hyperspectral imaging, launch vehicles and reusable space technology.
• Affordable healthcare innovation: ImmunoACT developed NexCAR19, India’s first indigenous Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, at around one-tenth of typical treatment costs.
• AI-enabled medical technology: Remidio Innovative Solutions uses smartphone-based retinal imaging and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address preventable blindness, including diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

From Technology Importer to Technology Creator

1. From implementation to standard-setting: Growing participation in international standards and intellectual-property ownership is shifting India from a technology implementer towards a standard-setting innovator.
2. Ownership of critical technologies: Indigenous capabilities in GaN semiconductors and 5G/6G technologies show increasing domestic ownership of technologies earlier dependent on external sources.
3. Research-to-market transition: The emerging innovation pipeline increasingly connects government laboratories, academic institutions and startups, allowing research capabilities to move towards commercial applications.
4. Broader technological entrepreneurship: Growth in space, healthcare and deep-tech startups shows that domestic innovation is expanding beyond traditional service-based platforms.

Key Challenges in Building an Innovation-Led Economy

1. Low global patent scale: India’s patent applications remain far below China’s 1.8 million and the U.S.’s nearly 6 lakh, showing a large gap in technological scale.
2. Low international patenting: India filed 4,547 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2024, compared with over 70,000 from China and 54,000 from the U.S.
3. Weak research workforce: India ranks 80th in full-time-equivalent researchers and 95th in knowledge-intensive employment, showing a limited research talent base.
4. Gender gap in advanced research: India ranks 101st among 119 economies in employment of women with advanced degrees, indicating limited participation of women in high-level research.
5. Weak university-industry linkages: Technology transfer, venture creation and financial connections between universities and industry remain underdeveloped, slowing the movement of research into markets.
6. Limited deep-tech financing: Deep-tech ventures need patient capital, strong intellectual-property protection and tolerance for failure, but these conditions remain limited in India.

Government Policy Push for Innovation

1. Large RDI funding: The government announced a ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme and support for deep-tech innovation to strengthen long-term research and private-sector participation.
2. School-level innovation: In Budget 2025–26, 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs were proposed in government schools, while funding for the programme increased from ₹500 crore to ₹3,200 crore in Budget 2026–27.
3. Regulatory support for deep-tech: Removing the three-year existence requirement can make deep-tech startups eligible for schemes under the Industrial R&D Promotion Programme.
4. Opening nuclear innovation: The SHANTI Act, 2025 permits research, development, design and innovation in peaceful nuclear-energy and radiation applications, subject to the legal framework.
5. Inclusion in science: Programmes such as Women’s Instinct for Developing and Ushering in Scientific Heights and Innovations (WIDUSHI) and Women in Science and Engineering – KIRAN (WISE-KIRAN) aim to increase women’s participation in scientific research and engineering fields.

Way Forward

1. Increase private-sector R&D: Industry should invest more in long-term and high-risk research to strengthen private-sector leadership in India’s innovation ecosystem.
2. Strengthen research-industry-finance links: Stronger connections between academia, industry and financial capital can help move research from laboratories towards commercial applications.
3. Improve technology transfer: Standardising technology-transfer terms for publicly funded intellectual property can make it easier for research institutions to transfer innovations to industry.
4. Bridge the commercialisation gap: Greater funding is needed between a granted patent and the first paying customer to help promising technologies reach the market.
5. Strengthen the patent system: Expanding patent-examiner capacity can support more efficient processing of India’s growing patent activity.
6. Support deep-tech and frontier technologies: Greater support for deep-tech sectors and emerging technologies can help Indian startups develop globally relevant technological capabilities.
7. Build global technology standards: Continued participation in 6G standards and standard-essential patents (SEPs)can strengthen India’s role in developing future communication technologies.

Conclusion

India’s innovation ecosystem is taking shape as public research, corporate R&D and deep-tech entrepreneurship increasingly reinforce one another. Indigenous capabilities in semiconductors, communications, space and healthcare show technological capacity. However, low R&D investment, limited patenting scale, weak commercialisation and talent gaps remain. Sustained investment, stronger research-industry links, better technology transfer and support for frontier technologies can help India build a technology-driven innovation economy.

Question for practice:

Examine the emerging homegrown innovation ecosystem in India, its key pillars, major challenges, and the measures needed to strengthen it.

Source: The Hindu