Abstract
India is at the 3rd position worldwide in terms of publication of scientific literature. However, in terms of productivity, it has been consistently failing to transform the research knowledge into industrial output. This study compares India with the leading countries to understand its lacuna in terms of R&D policy and outputs. Although scientific publications are regarded as the output of basic research, patent applications serve as a better indicator of the applied research. This paper assesses the important determinants for patent filings of a nation. It also focuses on the role of academia and industry collaboration in R&D and the productivity of a nation. We found that the higher the GERD (total Gross Domestic Expenditure of R&D) and the R&D personnel in a nation, the higher the patent filings of the nation. Moreover, we show that academia-industrial collaboration plays a key role in transforming basic research into real-world applications, as we illustrate the government’s role in making necessary policies to make the collaboration successful. This paper highlights the significance of investing in R&D to improve the productivity of a nation, as also the need to design policies to strengthen the applied research environment by fostering solution-centric collaborations between academia and industry.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
List of Abbreviations
- BRICS
- Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa
- FORD
- Field of R&D
- FTE
- Full-Time Equivalent
- GDP
- Gross Domestic Product
- GERD
- Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D
- GNI
- Gross Net Income
- HC
- HeadCount
- HIC
- High Income Country
- LIC
- Low Income Country
- LMIC
- Lower Middle Income Country
- OECD
- Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
- NRF
- National Research Foundation
- PPP
- Purchasing Power Parity
- PRI
- Public Research Institution
- R&D
- Research & Development
- RDPPMI
- R&D personnel per million inhabitants
- UIS
- UNESCO Institution of Statistics
- UK
- United Kingdom
- UMIC
- Upper Middle Income Country
- UNESCO
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
- USA
- United States of America
- WIPO
- World Intellectual Property Organization