Thomson Reuters has recently come out with a report titled ‘Research and Innovation Performance of the G20’ where scientific research and patent information has been mined to study the scale and impact of scientific research and innovation in the G20. The data was mined from Thomson Reuters’ proprietary databases including Web of Science and Derwent World Patent Index.
Scientific Research: The Report casts light on India’s growing influence in the sphere of scientific research. India, along with China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia saw an 83% increase in paper output in Web of Science. India’s increase was three times the world average over the last decade, with a whopping 146% rise from 2003-2012. India’s greatest world share in papers is in Chemistry (6.3%), followed by Agriculture and then Engineering and Technology. However, it must be noted that while the output has increased exponentially, the percentage of ‘highly cited papers’ hovers at around 0.5%, which is much lower than the world average.
Patent Filings: The report states that an average of 5,900 applications per annum are filed in India, which equals that of Australia and Great Britain. However, around two-thirds of patent applications filed in India are those of foreign concerns seeking protection in the Indian market. Bharat Heavy Electricals (with 176 patents) and TVS Motor Co (with 143 patents) filed the highest number of patents in 2012. Domestic innovation has remained stable at 29% since 2005. India’s contribution to innovation when compared to the rest of the G20 is highly concentrated on agro-chem and pharma-related technology sectors.
The Report concludes optimistically, noting that the historical gap between the science “haves” and “have-nots” seems to be closing in as developing countries (mostly Asian) increase their output of research material and innovation.
