India Innovation Trends

Innovation is one of the key contributors to a country’s economic growth. The quantum of Intellectual Property is an essential indicator to determine the state of innovation in a country.

Intellectual Property protection in India has gained momentum in the past few years with a slew of government initiatives. These initiatives are aimed at raising awareness on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), evolving the IPR policy to be more effective and reducing filing fees for MSME’s and startups.

 

Top Technology areas for the India priority patents published during 2013-15 Source: Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Innovation

 

India in comparison to Asia

Innovation growth in India looks promising with highest growth rate of published patent records amongst some of the major Asian countries outlined in the table below.

Despite ranking fourth on the number of patent records published during 2013-15, India holds the top rank on the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) with a 26.32% rate. This reflects India’s strong innovation potential.

 

FIGURE 1: Patents Published (2013-15) and CAGR Source: Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Innovation

India’s Innovation Growth

India’s innovation growth has been driven by a variety of segments – corporations, government funded research organizations, and academic institutions. In addition, a significant number of individual patent filers have also contributed to India’s innovation growth story.

The corporate sector dominates the list of applicants who have first filed patent applications in India. These include global multi-national corporations and India headquartered corporations. However, presence of academic institutions and government funded research organizations in the top applicants list showcases that this segment has also developed a healthy IPR culture.

FIGURE 2: India Priority Patents Published in India Source: Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Innovation

 

Focus on Technology

Polymers & Plastics, Computing, Pharmaceuticals and Telecommunications are the top 4 Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) categories under focus for the India priority patents published during 2013-15.

FIGURE 3: Top 10 DWPI categories for the patents published during 2013-15 Source: Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Innovation

 

‘Medical, dental and veterinary applications’ is the key area of focus for patents that were published in the category of polymers and plastics. This is in line with the business focus of some of the top applicants in this category such as Cadila Healthcare, Colgate Palmolive and Hindustan Unilever.

The patent records related to the category of computing were primarily focused on software products and database applications. India headquartered IT majors such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL feature in the top applicant list in this category.

Similarly, top applicants in the pharmaceutical category have been Indian generic drug manufacturers such as Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Cadila Pharmaceuticals. However, top applicants in the telecommunication category are largely dominated by multi-national telecommunication giants such as Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia.

Conclusion

Indian innovation story has gained momentum and is ready to script a new chapter.

Several initiatives by the Government of India and the establishment of research centers by corporations are encouraging innovation across the country.

Top multinational technology corporations are increasingly protecting their inventions in India. On the other hand, Indian headquartered companies are now looking globally beyond India to protect their inventions which shows India’s capability in research and developing world class products for the global market.

Number of patents published in India is growing by leaps and bounds each year. If this trend continues, it will not be long before India cements its position in the top ranks of global innovation charts.

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