Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

India- an R&D Hub

Posted : August 28, 2005 at 6:47 am [IST]

Knowledge Wharton has a special section recently on R&D in India. For all in technology, the write-ups are very much informative. Here is some extracts from the ‘R&D in India: The Curtain Rises, The Play Has Begun…’

  Motorola’s two research and development facilities in India helped produce a sub-$40 cellular phone for emerging markets.

  Microsoft in January launched its third international research center in India.

  Intel has 800 India-based engineers working on software and hardware designs for its communication and semiconductor product lines.

Many U.S. companies are designing everything from auto parts to consumer electronics in India through outsourcing or setting up their own facilities in India, mostly still in Bangalore.
All these represent just the beginning of advanced research and development in India. If R&D in India were a three-act play, advanced development for products would be in the first act. Basic research, the software engineering and development to support other labs, is probably in the second act, according to experts.

More than 150 international companies are doing R&D in India. As the number of companies from the U.S. and Europe moving R&D operations to India rises, hopes are high that the third act will be a grand finale that potentially could turn the country into an R&D powerhouse.

“All the leading pharmaceutical companies have set up research operations in India,” notes Harbir Singh, a management professor at Wharton. “These companies have realized that India is not just a location where you conduct clinical trials; you can also do basic research. R&D in India isn’t just about low-end work.”

Experts say that much of the R&D in India is geared toward smaller projects that complement other innovation centers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. “R&D centers in India focus on what he calls “competencies,” or things like two- and three-dimension modeling, computer-aided drafting and add-ons to existing products.”

But is not a good beginning?

For the year ending March 31, revenues from product development and R&D services in India stood at $3 billion, up from $2.3 billion a year earlier, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), India’s information technology services trade association.

It may still relatively be early in the movement of R&D to India. Experts predict gains ahead. The next big technological innovations could emerge from India, China or Russia, far away from Silicon Valley. Rafiq Dossani, a senior research scholar for the Stanford University Institute for International Studies, says R&D is simply following the movement of information technology work to India. “You can see it happening as the U.S. information technology giants come to India,” says Dossani.

But the important aspect is somewhere else. Most U.S. companies use R&D in India to create products that are largely exported to the world. A communications chip designed in India can wind up anywhere. In contrast, R&D in China is primarily designed to create products to sell locally. For instance, Intel’s R&D centers in China are focused on speech recognition software and designing hardware that can recognize the characters in the Chinese language.

Let us hope, the scientist community are happy. Many younger knowledge seekers must join the research and development sector. They need not worry about the constraints of opportunities any more. Some of the lead scientists can even think of having some research institution and facility of their own. If US can have such an entrepreneurs, why can’t India?

- Indra

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