Why India Have to depend on foreign technology? A view based on data

When every Indian boycotting Chinese products, my younger brother asked me a very simple question, Why India Have to depend on foreign technology? Probably, everyone knows it, but while giving him an answer, I realized there may be many people who might have a similar question. Then I decided to research a bit. When my small research work was done, I gave him the answer which includes the following. But I find every fact is equally essential for the totality of the whole matter, thus the text became a bit lengthy, that’s why it has been divided into several paragraphs for the sake of readability. 

Background:

If we need something and which is not available in our house, we simply go to the market to get it in exchange for money. In our country, the scenario is similar. We have a huge demand in the field of technology as India is one of the countries which has been considered ‘developing market economy’. In case you don’t know, in FY2019-20 India's international business is as follows: 

Pic: percentage of imports, Ministry of commerce data

The contribution of the electronic industry to GDP, for example, 15.5% to GDP in Taiwan, 15.1% in South Korea, and 12.7% in China. All the above-mentioned countries do have a very good share of electronic goods export in GDP and are known to be the best countries for the production of electronic goods, especially semiconductor devices, printed circuit boards, telecommunication equipment. But in India, on an average, this proportion is only 1.7% in the previous years

But isn’t a bit strange that India can communicate with a satellite rotating around Moon and mars but India can’t manufacture equipment for cellular communication? Not only that, but India is also one of the countries which have very good antenna systems developed for various kinds of RADARs which are used for surveillance and astronomical studies. With these examples, it is understandable that India is capable of making equipment for telecommunication as well as health care. 

Analysis of the situation:

Now, let’s one by one tries to analyze different aspects of science and Technology (S&T) implementation in India. 

    1.      With more than 300 universities India produces 4,50,000 S&T personal per annum. The maximum of the universities doesn’t have a world-class facility required for research & development work. However, DST has several funds like ‘FIST’ that allows Indian universities to develop their infrastructure through several boards like ‘SERB’. But due to the frequent change in administration & financial policies, sometimes it becomes very difficult to get proper equipment in time. As a result, an S&T personal has to suffer much to get a world-class facility within his reach. There is a distinct gap between the policies and their implementation at the destined locations.

      2.      The government of India (GoI) also has adopted several schemes to bring together academic institutions & industrial farms. Many of the Indian industries does sponsor many research projects that are being done by students & research personals at various universities. But, the number of such scholarships is very low as compared to no. of S&T personals graduates per year. Academic projects at the university level don’t advertise properly, as a result, most of the research project doesn’t get funds to be implemented at the industry level. The number of participation of students in ‘tech-fair’ is not up to the mark. Indian Govt. has several policies for R&D but has very fewer policies to send the project for industrialization. So, there exists a gap between industry & academia. 

     3.      The manufacture of some of the key products that India imports such as semiconductors, displays, and other very capital-intensive electrical equipment may not be possible soon as manufacturing these require large, stable sources of clean water and electricity. They also need a high degree of policy certainty as these require high upfront investments. The Indian industry faces much higher costs in inputs such as electricity and much higher logistics costs than Chinese firms. Due to the FDI and other foreign policies of the government, many foreign technology companies have started their business here in India. This somewhat ‘solved’ the unemployment, but created a competition for the existing solely Indian companies who has lesser experience in the market like consumer electronics & telecommunication. 

    4.      The semiconductor industry is such an industry which requires cutting edge technological development and requires a very high upfront cost. Some govt. laboratories do allow semiconductor fabrication on a small scale for only R&D purposes for organizations like ISRO & DRDO. GoI has a policy for transferring technology from govt. & autonomous labs to the industrial usage, for example, Antrix for ISRO; C-Tech for DRDO. Antrix and C-tech are some examples of govt. of India research organization. Other educational autonomous bodies have technology transfer cells, for example, CSIC of IIS-Bengaluru, IRCC for IIT-Bombay, FITT for IIT-Delhi, SRIC for IIT-Kharagpur, etc. But, proper knowledge of this facility & the scope of these facilities is limited. Govt. involvement in this matter should be increased and govt. should set policies in such a way, efficient, hustle free tech transfer can happen between government & educational labs and industry & most importantly they should be up to the mark of world standards.

Conclusion:

In this short time research, I have explored some of the important aspects of the dependability of Indian consumers upon imported goods, especially in consumer electronics. This topic itself can take an entire year of research to study clearly, in the small scope of gossip we can consider a few things. That exactly what I have done here. We have seen that there is a gap still exists between industry and academia, due to non-favorable govt. policies (both central & state) the industry faces huge start-up issues, there exists a psychological barrier between Indian investors. Considering all these burdens if an industry starts a business, due to political biasing they don’t sustain for a long time. Now, it might be clear a little bit that India has to rely on imports for more few years until the people of India wake up and start educating the right things to them.

References:

1. Ministry of Commerce
2. financialexpress.com
3. National Research Council 2010. S&T Strategies of Six Countries: Implications for the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12920.
4. Department of S&T GoI
5. ISRO
6. DRDO 

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