BS Number Wise: Indian private sector's R&D aversion

Share of companies not reporting any spending on research is increasing; two sectors contribute to most of the spending

Work done at USA’s Bell Labs, the legendary private sector research centre, is the reason we have lasers, cellular phones, programing languages, communication satellites and solar cells that account for more than 50,000 megawatts (or 12.7 per cent) of India’s electricity generation capacity.

India’s government is keen on similar innovation. It extended the Atal Innovation Mission till 2023 to help establish laboratories and incubation centres. It has also celebrated increased domestic patent filing.

Indian private sector spending on research and development had been rising before the pandemic, but the contribution to overall national R&D spending was modest. The good news is that