It was assumed for several decades that India lags behind in Innovation and technological developments. However, in a country having highest youth population, it was not possible that there are no innovations. The fact was that innovations made by our countrymen, especially by the MSME’s, was not properly recognized and also was not channelized.
Our MSMEs were finding their own ways and methods of improving the productivity, processes etc. silently. They were also not aware of how to commercialize the same.
However, the Central Government has taken various steps to encourage, streamline and commercialize these innovations and provide exposure to the young and creative entrepreneurs on national as well as international levels. Some of them are summarized in this write up.
To understand the formalization of innovation and R&D in India, we should begin with the India Innovation Index.
The India Innovation Index released every year by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness attempts to create an extensive framework for the continuous evaluation of the innovation environment in all States and Union Territories; it ranks them on the basis of their scores and recognize opportunities and challenges, and assist in tailoring government policies to foster innovation. NITI is also handholding States and Union Territories in improving their rankings in the index, which will subsequently result in the improvement of India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index. NITI Aayog released the second edition on 20 January 2021. The top 5 Major States were Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala.
This Index could be of vital significance to the States in identifying their innovation performance and initiating necessary policy interventions to leverage their unique strengths.
Now, we can delve in to some of the initiatives taken by the Central Government for promoting and channelizing innovation and R&D in India and especially among MSMEs.
AGNIi – Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations
AGNIi is one of the 9 missions of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), which is serviced by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India. The primary aim of AGNIi mission is to boost the innovation ecosystem in the country and help commercialize innovative solutions. AGNIi is executed at Invest India, India’s National Investment Promotion Agency. AGNIi helps commercialize Indian technological innovations by connecting innovators across industry, individuals and the grassroots to the market.
Following services are offered by AGNIi
- Identify and provide commercialization support to market-ready indigenous innovations.
- Collaborate with existing innovation programs.
- Support to government laboratories for commercialization of their market ready inventions.
- Capacity building of scientists, innovators and technology transfer offices.
- Bridging the gap between industry and academia.
Following Innovator specific services will also be available through AGNIi:
- Detailed feedbacks on all applications through industry experts to help the innovator further refine their idea and strategy.
- Online training modules for the innovators and mentorship programs/workshops.
- Connection with the industry to scale up and advance the innovation to the market.
- Opportunities to network and connect with other ecosystem players and access to infrastructure for developing products.
- Access to different modes of commercialization such as licensing for Joint Ventures, documentation for and legal support.
- Recognition by experts to support the innovator in their commercialization journey.
Eligibility criteria for innovations to register with AGNIi are:
- Innovation is a working prototype.
- Company/Organization if any is registered in India.
- Innovation has a product / hardware components and is not just a service.
Hence, AGNIi will prove to be very useful for Entrepreneurs and Innovators from MSMEs and Startups from manufacturing sector. Currently, there are around 500 innovations registered with AGNIi.
iDEX is yet another initiative undertaken by the Defence Ministry.
The Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence has approved a central sector scheme viz. Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX)with budgetary support of Rs. 498.80 crore for the 5 years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The objective of the scheme is to provide financial support to nearly 300 Startups/ MSMEs/ individual innovators and about 20 Partner incubators through Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO).
To avail the grants under the grant mechanism of iDEX i.e. Support for Prototype and Research Kickstart (SPARK), the eligibility is as follows:
- Startups, as defined and recognized by Department of Industrial Policy Promotion (DIPP), now DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
- Any Indian company incorporated under the Companies Act 1956/2013, primarily a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as defined in the MSME Act, 2006.
- Individual innovators are also encouraged to apply (research & academic institutions can use this category to apply).
iDEX envisages to fund DIO to take up the following activities:
- Setting up and managing the iDEX network in the form of Partner Incubators.
- Communicating with innovators/start-ups/technology centres of MSMEs through the Partner Incubators (PIs).
- Organizing various challenges/ hackathons to shortlist potential technologies and entities for defence and aerospace use.
- Interfacing with the Services about key innovative technologies and encouraging their adoption into the defence establishment with suitable assistance.
Atal Innovation Mission
Atal Innovation Mission (“AIM”) is another endeavour of the Government of India to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Its objective is to serve as a platform for promotion of world-class Innovation Hubs, Grand Challenges, Start-up businesses and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology driven areas.
AIM has been launched to create an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in India by establishing new incubation centres, scaling up established incubation centres and setting up Atal Tinkering Labs in schools. The vision of Atal Tinkering Lab initiative is to Cultivate 1 Million children in India as “Neoteric Innovators‟. The objective of this scheme is to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mind-set, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing, rapid calculations, measurements etc. These ATLs are equipped with latest emerging technologies such as electronics, IoT, 3D printing, Robotics, etc.
As on July 2021, a total of 8706 schools were funded for ATLs across India.
In addition to the above, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has recognized In-house Research and Development established by the Corporate Industries. The schemes are described below:
Recognition of In-house R&D Units (RDI)
The in-house R&D units applying for recognition to DSIR are expected to be engaged in innovative research & development activities related to the line of business of the firm, such as, development of new technologies, design & engineering, process/product/design improvements, developing new methods of analysis & testing; research for increased efficiency in use of resources, such as, capital equipment, materials & energy; pollution control, effluent treatment & recycling of waste products or any other areas of research.
This is the only scheme in the entire government set-up for benchmarking the industrial R&D. Government of India has announced a number of fiscal incentives for research and development by industry from time to time and many of these incentives are implemented through DSIR. In-house R&D units recognized by DSIR are not only eligible for these incentives (wherever applicable) but also for receiving funds for R&D from other government departments and agencies such as Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Technology Development Board (TDB), where recognition to the in-house R&D centre by DSIR is a requirement.
Common Research and Technology Development Hubs (CRTDHs)
The innovation capacity of the Indian industry depends not only on large enterprises having access to financial and other resources, but crucially on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises targeting radical innovation and new product development. Micro and Small enterprises (MSEs) particularly, even though steered by talented individuals, often find it difficult to invest in R&D and technology development due to lack of access to suitable equipment, skill-sets, instruments, and other such resources.
Keeping this in view, DSIR had initiated a programme aimed at creation of Common Research and Technology Development Hubs (CRTDHs) to encourage research and technology development activities by MSEs. Partial financial support was provided to eligible institutions as grant-in aid to establish CRTDHs for enabling MSEs conduct industrial R&D and innovation activities. These hubs facilitate MSEs to undertake new/improved product/process development and skill enhancement activities. The collaborating institutions extend hands-on training, skill development and research information facilities to the MSEs, apart from research and technology development infrastructure. Creation of these CRTDHs is expected to enhance productivity, increase the innovative skills of the MSEs and help them become globally competitive, and also generate more employment.
For the purpose of commercializing the innovations and patents the PACE scheme is launched, details of which are:
Patent Acquisition and Collaborative Research and Technology Development (Pace)
The PACE scheme provides catalytic support to industries and institutions for development and demonstration of innovative product and process technologies, traversing the journey from proof of concept or laboratory stage to pilot stage, so that they can be launched for commercialization.
The scheme supports ingenious work and assists in development of new technologies or creative/innovative application of the existing technologies to solve unmet needs of industry. The scheme also strengthens the interface between industry, R&D establishments and academic institutions by supporting collaborative proposals. The scheme supports industry to develop and demonstrate the technology (either acquired technology or its own indigenous in-house technology) alone or in collaboration with R&D organizations/ academic institutions/ universities. The scheme also participates in initiatives of other Ministries / Departments for technology development and demonstration e.g. under the IMPRINT initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the department supports proposals of institutions of national importance, such as IITs, IISc etc. jointly with MHRD. The features of this scheme are:
- Industries can submit proposals directly to DSIR either on its own or in collaboration with R&D organizations/academic institutions/universities.
- For projects of industry alone, support up to 50% of the project cost is provided to industry in the form of secured loan.
- For projects of industry in collaboration with R&D organization/ academic institution/ university, support up to 100% of the component of project cost, estimated to be incurred at R&D organization/ academic institution/ university (Public Funded Research Institutions – PFRIs) is provided in the form of grants-in-aid and support up to 50% of the component of project cost, estimated to be incurred at industry is provided in the form of secured loan. Grant-in-aid will not exceed the amount provided towards loan.
- For projects of R&D organization/ academic institution/ university alone, support up to 50% of the total project cost in collaboration with other Ministries/ Departments e.g. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), is provided under the IMPRINT initiative. The proposal needs to be submitted to collaborating ministry/department.
- All proposals are peer reviewed and considered by an expert committee which recommends the proposals for support. The companies are required to commercialize the product/process after the completion of the project.
NIDHI is another such initiative by the Government of India to harness innovations.
National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI)
National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship division [National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB)], Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups. The programme works in line with the national priorities and goals and its focus is to build an innovation driven entrepreneurial ecosystem with an objective of socioeconomic development through wealth and job creation. NIDHI aims to nurture start-ups through scouting, supporting and scaling of innovations. The key stakeholders of NIDHI include various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists and private sectors.
NSTEDB is the funding agency and the NIDHI programmes are implemented through Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) available around the country.
National Innovation Foundation (NIF)
The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India was set up in March 2000 with the assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It is India’s national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators.
NIF scouts, supports and spawns grassroots innovations developed by individuals and local communities in any technological field, helping in human survival without any help from formal sector. NIF helps grassroots innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders get due recognition, respect and reward for their innovations. It also tries to ensure that such innovations diffuse widely through commercial and/or non-commercial channels, generating material or non-material incentives for them and others involved in the value chain.
NIF has pooled a database of over 3,25,000 technological ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices (not all unique, not all distinct) from over 625 districts of the country. NIF has till date recognised 1093 grassroots innovators and school students at the national level in its various National Biennial Grassroots Innovation Award Functions and annual Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Ignite Children Award functions. In collaboration with various research & development (R&D) and academic institutions, agricultural & veterinary universities and others institutions, NIF has helped in getting several hundred grassroots technologies validated and/or value added.
NIF has also set up an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) for product development and strengthening in-house research. NIF has filed about 1244 patents, including eight filed in the USA and 28 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, on behalf of the innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders. Of these, 271 patents have been granted in India and 5 in the USA. NIF has filed 24 Design registrations (of which 20 are granted) for innovations of the grassroots and student innovators. In addition to this, 11 trade mark applications have also been filed, of which 7 have been granted.
In conclusion, the infrastructure development for promoting innovation and R&D is now strengthening. Based on which, the entire Innovation Ecosystem needs to be further developed and linkages need to be formed among all its stakeholders, especially the MSMEs.
