On Friday June 16, I attended the National Academies symposium: “India’s Changing Innovation System.” The event was part of the Academies’ Comparative Innovation Policy program. Topics discussed will integrate into a published report. In attendance were representatives from US and Indian government agencies, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Johns Hopkins, George Washington, MIT, IBM, GE, Google, Lucent, Oracle; as well as numerous small companies and law firms looking to do business in India.

The symposium underscored current and planned partnerships between India and US industry. Conference speakers from IBM, GE and Google spoke about their corporations’ investments and R&D activity in India, as well as collaborative planning with the Indian government to help modernize its education, health care and technological infrastructure. The main take-away of the conference is that a lot is going on between the US and India, and that vast potential arises from a country with an extremely talented workforce and desire to step into the global innovation economy. While there was not a lot of detail on how or when various plans would implement, the symposium covered important points, including:

° educational, industrial and workforce capabilities that make India a potentially strong economic force, with several comparisons of India and China
° innovation activity indicators, especially patents, resulting from India based R&D; however the specific issue of software patents was not addressed
° acknowledgement that US corporate R&D in India is patented back in the US, rather than in India
° increased R&D spending in India’s pharmaceutical industry, which recently began receiving patents under new Indian patent laws
° India’s excellence in redesigning technology, and technical skills; these lend to India providing excellent technical support and services
° India is a part of most major US industry corporations’ “global” R&D initiatives
° the need for technology and knowledge transfer from the IITs into Indian industry, currently this is strained by the extent of Indian government control over the IITs
° current close working relationships between the Indian S&T Ministry and US consultants, including IBM and Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School

Throughout the symposium, I listened for how the Academies project addressed ways to turn India from a technology "support/services" powerhouse to one leaning more towards investment backed R&D and frontier innovation. Central to these issue is India’s acceptance of patents for software. Scholars such as Shyam Sunder of Yale have said for years that India needs to better enforce IP laws and strengthen IP protection, especially in industries where there is currently lack of incentive for investment and innovation. Yet, NASSCOM, the major technology industry trade association in India merely states on its website: “Software can probably be patented in India.”

Although India certainly has the brainpower and desire to succeed as a “frontier innovation” leader, the questionable position of software patents in the country partially explains India’s lack of a packaged software industry, and how US corporations may place R&D in India, yet not lend the full investment in the country due to its IP laws. Further, to increase the role of the IITs and cross-sector technology transfer in India’s innovation economy, India may need to look at the US university innovation model under Bayh-Dole, as other countries have done by enabling patents for publicly funded software research.

India recently accepted pharmaceutical product patents, after many years as a “generics” drug center. The Academies presentation by Dr. Swati Piramal, Director of R&D for Mumbai based pharmaceutical, Nicholas Piramal, detailed the increased R&D investment and patent filings by her company under the new pharmaceutical patent policies. Last year Dr. Piramal was quoted in Business Week as stating that the new laws: "Indian (pharmaceutical) companies are no longer going to be just copycats.” Consequently, there are now more Western corporations moving into and investing in India. Indian companies put more into R&D because they can recoup their investments.

Unfortunately, without clear resolution on patents for its software industry, India’s technological industrial development may not enjoy the same growth as its other industries. India's software industry may be limited far before it reaches full potential, even amidst current and planned collaborations with the US.

posted by Noel Le @ 11:52 AM | International

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(1)