Innovation lags behind in India

Though India may pride itself as the knowledge superpower among emerging economies, its record in bringing to the market innovative and great products and services falls far short of its major competitors like China and Israel.

The NYT reports that "Indians are granted about half as many American patents for inventions as people and firms in Israel and China... corporate and government spending on research and development significantly lags behind that of other nations... and venture capitalists finance far fewer companies here than they do elsewhere".





Unlike Israel, leave alone the US, whose success with innovations is attributed to the easy access to venture capital funds for small technology start-ups, Indian start-ups do not have similar access to seed capital from angel investors. A general cultural aversion to risk (though this is not so among atleast some communities) taking may also partially explain this deficiency. Much of the Chinese advances with R&D and patents have happened in recent years, with US patentts having taken off since 2006.