A grand strategy for technology

India cannot count on businesses to lead its technological drive

A grand strategy for development that looks decades ahead, not just years, requires a rethink in many areas of development policy. One such area is technology development. India’s research & development (R&D) spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is way below that of major economies — 0.67 per cent in 2018-19 as against over 2 per cent in China and the European Union, over 3 per cent in the US and Japan and a whopping 4.5 per cent in South Korea. Moreover, while this percentage has stagnated in India, it has risen steadily in the other major