Overview

 

 

Innovation, the introduction of new goods, services, or processes contributes to national competitiveness as well as social welfare. To achieve that goal, S&T is undoubtedly the key driver. In such a context, S&T financing is the most important factor which plays a major role because the organizations that fund S&T work, decide how it is done and what kinds of innovations the nation will ultimately produce. This theme focuses on financial inputs and flows into S&T in the country at the government level (across several ministries and departments) with special emphasis on some hidden expenditures on S&T which generally remain untraced. Financing across some select sectors like health and environment has been looked into. The theme also captures the trend of the private investment in Research & Development and in the area of high technology trade over several sectors.

Beginning with a detail examination of the various sources of S&T financing, the schemes and programs under which financing of S&T takes place and the trends in financing of S&T, this theme then looks into how financing takes place specifically for two important sectors: ‘health’ and ‘environment’. Subsequently investment in S&T and innovation get captured through analyses of multiple forms of expenditures on S&T. Finally this theme looks at the trends in high technology trade over several sectors like armament, scientific instruments, pharmacy and computer office equipments. Between the years 1995 and 2006, India’s share in global high technology trade has increased marginally from 0.14 percentage points to 0.23 percentage points. The analysis indicates that India has performed relatively well in the knowledge intensive service industries.

 

 

Theme Contents:

 


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