3.5% of global research output in 2010 from India: 2.4% research in IT

Nehru and Gandhi at the opening of the Indian National Congress, 1937. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Individuals in Bharat have made tremendous strides. Tata and Birla have made super-human efforts to pull themselves up from the boot straps and have indeed achieved major success in steel, and then moving up the food-chain into automobile manufacturing. Tata indeed owns Jaguar and Range Rover and after a faulty start has been able to keep them running.

The same cannot be said about state run enterprises which are steeped deep into corruption. Like most third world countries, including the immediate neighborhood which includes Pakistan and Bangladesh, Bharat has been unable create any worthwhile investment in research and development. China on the other hand has become technologically independent.

If Bharat is to make strides in economics and science it has to spend less on defense and more on its basic infrastructure and more on research and development.

Bharati expense on useless high-drama ventures like rockets to the moon keep all of South Asia steeped in penury. While most of the programming of Widows was done in Bharat, the local companies have failed to produce “Kharki” “Durwazay” or other software that would compete with Windows. China on the other hand has used technology to produce jets, plasma TVs, phones and almost everything needed by consumers in the West. The China duplication machine is able to emulate almost every major gadget that comes out within a few weeks. In fact, China will achieve technological superiority in a couple of decades.

India At Its Best (Photo credit: the opoponax)

According to the Times of India, just 3.5% of global research output in 2010 was actually from India. In most disciplines, India’s share in global research output was actually much below this overall average count.

India’s share of world research output in clinical medicine was a meagre 1.9% in 2010, 0.5% in psychiatry, 1.4% in neurosciences, 1.8% in immunology, 2.1% in molecular biology and just 3.5% in environmental research.

•  Bharat’s research on physics stood at 4.6% in 2010, China’s stood at 19%.
• In 2010, India’s largest shares of world research output were in chemistry (6.5%), materials science (6.4%), agricultural sciences (6.2%), pharmacology and toxicology (6.1%), microbiology (4.9%), physics (4.6%) and engineering (4.2%).
• India is often referred to as the next big place for computer sciences. But the figures on its research is abysmally low. Only 2.4% of global research on computer sciences was from India in 2010 while the world share moved to three emerging research economies – China 15%, Korea 6.3% and Taiwan 5.7%.
• India’s global share of research in economics stood at 0.7% in 2010 while in social sciences it was worse – 0.6%.
• The biggest declines in volume of research between 1981 and 2010 were in plant and animal sciences (-2.2%) and agricultural sciences (-1.6%). The most significant expansions were in pharmacology and toxicology (+4.2%), microbiology (+3.2%) and materials sciences (+3.1%).

The model for growth for Pakistan is China, Malaysia and Turkey. These countries have pulled themselves up from the bootstraps and risen a cut above the rest. Pakistan was the economic miracle in the sixties. The country has faltered and thirty years of war in Afghanistan has taken its toll.

Today Pakistan faces the same dilemma as Laos, and Cambodia –which suffered colossal losses during the French Vietnamese war, which later became the US Vietnamese war. It was a proxy war between the US and China. In Afghanistan, the proxy war between the US and the USSR ended in the destruction of the USSR. It is now being converted into an India-Pakistan proxy war. Both countries would be smart if they prevent this from happening. Event in FATA and Balochistan however clearly indicate that policy makers int he South Block have not learned a  lesson. Support for the Anti-Pakhtun forces in Afghanistan and Anti-Pakistani forces in balochistan continue unabated.

Bharat’s success in the past two decades cannot over-shadow its lackluster growth rate of around 2.5%-3% in the past 50 of of its 65 years of existence as an independent country. Pakistan grew on an average of over 7% for the past sixty five years. It doubled its GDP in the past ten years. The past four years have been horrid for Pakistan. Its mediocre 5% growth rate was cut in half by a once-in-a-century earthquake, and devastating floods in two years in a row. Murder and occupation in Afghanistan has also taken a colossal toll which has hampered investment and growth.

Pulling out of the malaise will take a couple of years. After the US pull-out there will be steps towards peace. Better governance will allow growth back to its normal rate and  an improvement of relations with Bharat may spell more money for the masses. Bharat has to halt its failed policies and move towards reconciliation with Lanka, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and even tiny Maldives. This howeer requires bold leadership as has emerged in Bihar and the UP. The current leadership and its progeny has nothing to offer.

Without Research and Development, Bharat cannot cross the rubicon and begin smooth sailing. Right now it is in the jaws of the new “East India Company”–which has exploited cheaper labor rates in India. The Call Center industry has moved to the Phillipines.

The future of India is in the hands of Tata, Birla, Putney, InfoSys, and Wipro. They (with the exception of Tata) have however failed to deliver on products. Tata also did not do in R&D worth anyting. It was however able to acquire failed companies and make them run. Will Tata and other Bharati comapanies be able to innovate. Current trends and a listing of patents filed in the US Patent office show no major R&D.

3.5% of global research output in 2010 from India: 2.4% research in IT