India, Science and Technology:  2008

S&T and Industry

 

 

 

Materials R&D and Innovation

 

 

 

 

Avinash Kshitij

 and Bikramjit Sinha

 

This section examines the status of R&D and innovation in the India’s materials sector. The production of metal ores has increased at the rate of 16.4 per cent per annum while the growth of metal product is only 2.44 per cent. The metal ore production is dominated by Zinc and its ores while production of metal products is dominated by Iron products. The trend of materials trade is comparatively better than the trade of all commodities; the share of export of materials is higher than the import of materials. It is observed that India is short on crucial strategic materials and in view of the present world order we propose that India should emphasize more on i) Domestic value addition, ii) Technology for processing advanced materials, and iii) enhance capability and capacity to produce novel materials. We try to highlight the present state of R&D and innovation in both the private and public sector to make the task of embarking on the proposed strategies easier. Listed companies are selected as the representative of the private sector and it is observed that the number of companies doing R&D is decreasing over the period 1995-2005. We took, publications by universities and research organizations as an indicator of R&D in the public sector. There has been approximately 3 fold increase in the number of publications in a span of 13 years but these publications are concentrated more in the conventional disciplines of material research like polymer and alloy and there are very few publications in emerging and new areas like cryogenic, supra molecular material etc. It is also very clear that major R&D work in India is still being done at government research institutes and universities like CSIR and IITs. So, these research institute and universities should come ahead and join hands with private industries/companies to enhance the advanced materials research capacity and capability of India.

 

Introduction

All eras in the history of mankind like the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the present Silicon Age have been known by the nature of predominant materials in use during that time because materials define the extent of sophistication and standard of living. The development of the field is influenced by the challenges and opportunities created by the technological advances and the sectoral business shifts at the national and global level. Further, its course of progress is also determined to a great extent by societal needs, from national security and communications to health and housing. However, traditional materials like iron, steel, aluminum are structural in nature while most of the novel materials like metallic glass, ferro-electric, nano materials, are primarily functional with electronic or biological properties or unique properties like resistance to high temperature or pressure. The recognition of India as the second fastest growing economy and aspiration of India to become a developed nation by 2020 necessitates development of more novel materials. Increasing the availability and affordability of traditional materials is essential to sustain and improve the quality of life for more than a billion (incessantly increasing) people. Fulfilling these ambitions or promises requires a strong research and development foundation; public, private and/or joint initiatives.

 

Materials Production in India

The production of materials can be categorized into two components; production of raw metal ores and production of metal products. National production of metal ores has increased from 248,263 thousand tons in 1995 to 1,063,734 thousand tons in 2005 with an annual average annual growth rate of around 16.4%. The highest growth of about 50% was observed during 2000 and the only negative growth was in the year 1996 (-1.3%). However, the good thing about the total metal ore production is that it is continuously increasing especially beginning from the year 2000 (Figure 1).

 

Source: Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

Indian metal ore production comprises of Aluminum ore and concentrates, Chromium ore and concentrates, Copper ore and concentrates, Gold ores and concentrates, Iron Ores and concentrates, Lead ores and concentrates, Silver ore and concentrates and lastly Zinc ore and concentrates. Zinc ore and its concentrates contribute on an average 77% to the total metal ore production followed by iron ore and its concentrates (21%) and gold ore and its concentrates have lowest contribution (Table 1). This production dynamic may be indicative of the country’s reserves of the ore and hence have significant implication in shaping the national materials R&D.

 

Table 1: Relative share (%) of different ore types to total metal ore production

 

Source: Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

Although production of metal products increased from about 25811 thousand MT in 1995 to around 32404 thousand MT with an average growth rate of 2.44% per annum but actually it has started declining after the year 2002, which is in contrast to a continuously increasing trend of the production of raw materials-metal ores (Figure 2). As evident from the graph, the highest growth of 12.5% was recorded in the year 2002 while the lowest, in fact negative growth of -4.14% was observed in the year 2004.

 

 

Fig 2: Production of metal products in India

Source: Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

Earlier we have seen that India’s metal ore production is dominated by Zinc ores and its concentrates. In terms of production of metal products, which directly implies value addition to the raw metals; production of Pig Iron comprises the highest share of about 72.54% of the total metal product output. If the other products of iron like angles of iron, iron railway tracks, iron tubes are combined together then the share of iron products goes up roughly to around 90% (Table 2).

 

 

Table 2: Relative share (%) of different types of metal products to total metal product production

 

Source: Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

India’s Materials Trade

India trades materials in different forms; raw metals, metal products as well as fabricated metal products including machinery and equipments in finished form. The materials trade data was extracted from the Commodity Trade Statistics Database of the United Nations Statistics Division under the following subheads: Aluminum and articles thereof, Articles of Iron and Steel, Asbestos mica materials, Ceramic products, Copper and articles thereof, Iron and steel, Lead and articles thereof, Metal coins, Misc articles of base metals, Misc. manufacturing materials, Nickel and articles thereof, Other base materials, Tin and articles thereof, Tools of base metals and Zinc and articles thereof. In terms of total volume of trade, materials share around 23% of the total trade. On an average, the percentage share of export (24.57%) is higher than the percentage share of import (21.81%). This is a clear indication of the increasing export of materials or material products. The percentage share of export was highest during the year 2004 (28.96%) and lowest in the year 1991 (20.47%). On the other hand, with around 27.48%, the share of import was highest in the year 1998 and the share of import was lowest during the year 1995 (17.40%). Further, the percentage share of trade balance is only 2.93 percent and is also in favour of materials because the gross national trade balance runs in the negative.

 

Table 3: Relative share of materials trade (%) to total trade of India

 

Source: Commodity Trade Statistics Database, United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

India’s foreign trade has increased very sharply beginning 2003 and though the export has also increased but the steep rise in the volume of total trade is due to the increased import. This is also clear from the increasing trade deficit starting from 2003. Nevertheless, the value of India’s foreign trade has increased from 37409 million USD in 1991 to 364543 million USD during 2007 with an average growth rate of 15.81% per annum (figure 3) during the period 1991 to 2007. However, the average annual growth of import (17.03%) was higher than those of export (14.43%) and most importantly the value of trade balance have increased by as high 41.62% in the negative.

 

 

Fig 3: India’s Foreign Trade of all commodities

Source: Commodity Trade Statistics Database,United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

Likewise the pattern of trade in all commodities, the trade of materials has also increased over the period 1991-2007, especially sharp rise after 2001. Till 2003 there was not so much difference in the trade volumes but since 2003 we are importing more materials than what we are exporting (figure 4). The volume of total trade of materials has increased from 7403 million USD during 1991 to 81284 million USD during 2007. This trade volume has increased at an average annual growth rate of 16.73% during the period which is higher than the average annual growth rate of the volume of trade of all commodities. The volume of export and import of materials has grown by 15.93% and 17.85% respectively. Interesting to note here is that the average annual growth of trade balance is only 11. 26% which is much lower than those in the growth of trade balance of all commodities.

 

 

Fig 4: Foreign Trade of materials in India in monetary terms

Source: Commodity Trade Statistics Database,United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

However, the trade of materials in terms of quantity has increased very sharply especially after 2001 (Figure 5). There was also positive trade balance especially during the period 2002-2004, which was of course due to the higher export of raw materials indicating the lack of value addition and hence technological inefficiency. Unfortunately, the trend has again started to change from 2005. This means India should capitalize in the progress made in the previous years and should not allow import to exceed at least in the area of materials which is of strategic importance.

 

Fig 5: Foreign Trade of materials by India in quantitative terms

Source: United Nations Statistics Division - UNSD

 

 

Materials R&D Strategy of India

From the preceding paragraphs it is apparent that materials contribute a major share of India’s foreign trade. In fact the dynamics of foreign trade in materials is better than foreign trade of all commodities put together, evident from the favourable trade balances in some of the years under consideration. But this does not mean the picture is encouraging. There exist a need to improve the production of metal ores as well as enhance value addition in order for India to become self sufficient in materials to meet the growing internal demand of new and novel materials. Increasing the availability as well as affordability of traditional materials and development of novel materials depends to a large extent on the country’s materials R&D status, whether we are ready for the race or what needs to be done ahead.

The world emphasis on materials is shifting from the present silicon based approach to diverse and novel materials like nano materials, cryogenic materials, biomaterials, and mesoscopic materials, energy materials etc. Accordingly, the national S&T policies on materials science could focus on three basic endeavors.

1. Domestic value addition

A detailed observation of the material trade data indicates that India exports more of raw materials than metal products and metal fabricated products. Policies could be formulated in such manner as to encourage more value addition in domestic production. This will enhance forex earnings.

1. Technology for processing advanced materials

Another feature of India’s material industry is that we are short on, rather virtually nil in strategic materials like Vanadium, Uranium, and Lithium etc. Non-availability of resources is a natural phenomenon and the country needs to enhance technological capacity to process those strategic materials or their substitutes in order to have a substantial bargaining power in the market.

1. Capability and capacity to produce novel materials

To meet the growing national demands of health, hygiene, sanitation, housing, energy and to improve the standard of living: should be the third objective of national materials science strategy. There is an urgent need to enhance the capability and capacity to develop advanced and novel materials.

 

In the following paragraphs the present state of affairs of materials science research in India has been captured as a pre-requisite formulating a strategic plan. First the status of materials research in the private sector is analyzed. Secondly the materials science research status in the Indian Universities and research organizations are evaluated in the line of materials science nomenclature proposed by the National Science Foundation, USA. Because the NSF nomenclature gives an exhaustive list of the new and emerging areas of material science and we tried to highlight India’s position in the global scenario.  

 

Materials R&D in the private sector

In order to have a competitive edge in the business process, a lot of companies used to have in-house R&D facilities.  The following observation is based on the listed companies and the information was collected from the CMIE database. Among the listed companies, it is clear that the number of companies doing R&D is decreasing over the period 1995-2005 (figure 6). Likewise, there is also a decline in the number of companies paying Royalty and License fee etc. However, there has been a rise in the number of companies earning from forex reserves.

 

 

Fig 6: Status of R&D in materials related companies in India

Source: CMIE

 

The above figure gives a broad view of the status of R&D in the materials related companies, but whether the R&D undertaken has any effect on the performance of the companies is not clear from it. One way of idea of ascertaining this is to know the pattern of consumption of materials, earning, etc.per unit of sales. The quantity of power consumed per unit of sales has been on the decline which indicates efficiency or the technology or product used. The amount of royalty paid, license fee paid per unit of sales is also decreasing over the considered period. Both forex expenses as well as forex earning per unit of sales is increasing. What is more serious is the decreasing R&D expenditure per unit of sales, which needs immediate attention

 

 

Fig 7: Trend of innovation in the materials related companies

Source: CMIE

 

 

Materials R&D in the universities/research organizations: publications

There is no denying the fact that universities and other research institutions/organizations are the places where most of the basic knowledge is generated. In these centers, research is done basically for the advancement of knowledge and not for commercial revenue generation. The knowledge generated is communicated or disseminated in the form of publications and protected mainly through patents. This knowledge becomes the feedstock to bridge organizations for development of engineering solutions for industries who convert the knowledge to commercial products or processes. So, it would be interesting to see if our academics are generating enough and relevant knowledge, processes and products which can be taken up by the industries for commercialization. 

 

In order to know the status of publication in materials, one of the leading citation databases of the world, the Web of Science (WoS) was used. The database covers over 10,000 high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as international proceedings coverage for over 120,000 conferences. The database was searched using the set of 25 keywords in material science developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, to make the assessment compatible as per the global standards. Further, the keywords in the top 100 cited material science papers were also used. Further we covered a span of 13 years in order to provide a comprehensive and more accurate picture of the status of India’s S&T publications in material science research.

 

Overall output in Material Science:   In terms of publications encompassing all the sub areas of material science, India has been witnessing an annual growth of around 10% over the period 1995-2007, though the growth is not uniform across the years. There has been approximately 3 fold increase in the number of publications in a span of 13 years and is very encouraging to note such a trend (figure 8). However, an overview of the total publications does not give a comprehensive picture of India’s presence in the different sub areas of material science research. The next few paragraphs deals with the output of India’s S&T in the material science sub areas.

 

 

Fig 8: Trend of India’s publication in Materials science

Source: Web of Science

 

Indian publication in the material sciences is concentrated more in the conventional disciplines of material research. Highest number of papers has been published in the polymer (7079 nos.) followed by those in alloy (4007). From table 4, it is clear that even though presence of India can be felt in as high as 24 of the 25 areas of materials science outlined by NSF, only the top 12 areas are worth mentioning.  

 

Table 4: Indian publication in different areas of material science during 1995-2007

 

Source: Web of Science

 

Based on the total publications in these 12 areas, the IITs together occupy the top position with 3376 papers followed by CSIR (2516 papers) and IISc (1212 papers). However, in terms of number of areas only three institutes namely IITs, CSIR, and IISc have published in all the 12 top areas of material science followed by BARC (11 areas), BHU (10 areas). Indian Association for Cultivation of Science and Annamalai University are the two institutes having publication in 9 areas. Both TIFR and Delhi University have published in 8 areas. What is to be noted here is that most of the institutes have publications in only 1 or 2 areas of the material science (table 5).

 

Table 5: Top Institutions/Universities in material science publication

 

Note: based on number of papers of the top 12 fields of material science

Source: Web of Science, 1995-2007

 

However, if we see the position of the leading institutes for each area of material science separately, the scenario may be different and this will be discussed in the next section.

One also wishes to know whether the publications are done mostly by single authors or done in groups. When this pattern of co-authorship was seen in all the 12 dominant areas of material science together, it appears that 3-authored papers are the highest comprising about 27.72% of the total publications followed by 2-authored papers (27.30%).  Papers published by single authors comprise only 5.37% of the total publications (table 6). But this picture may be different if the co-authorship is studied within each of the different areas of material science.

 

Source: Web of Science, 1995-2007

 

 

In terms of collaborative publication, there appears to be a good understanding between Indian and German researchers (627 joint publications), followed by USA, Japan and so on (table 7). There are joint publications with authors from the countries other than the listed one, but those are not significant. This is actually the position of the top 10 foreign countries with which India has joint publications.

 

Table 7: Pattern of collaborative publication (foreign) in materials science in India