Report on Evaluation of Innovation Excellence Indicators of Public Funded R&D Organisations

 

A quality report but wrongly titled as talk of  innovation excellence is pre-mature.

A total of 193 R&D labs were considered for this report from out of 660 listed in DST directory. A  majority 70% have either not responded or do not have details for analysis, strange considering this is an initiate of Office of Principal Scientific Adviser. Innovation Excellence is covered under the pillar Science, Technology & Innovation Excellence' which measured Scholarly Research Output, Development and Innovation Output , Commercialisation of Technologies,  Revenue Generation and Collaborative Research. The findings:

• The patent filings have slowed from 657 in 2017-18 to around 605 in 2019-20. The patents filed for by the 193 labs account for around 2 percent of the total patents filed within India and outside India by Indian residents. In terms of patents granted, the 193 labs accounted for around 8 percent of the total patents granted within India and outside India to residents in India.
• A total of 1513 new products and 1480 new services were introduced in the period under consideration. Of the 193 labs, there were 46 labs that did not introduce a single new product or service in any of the three years.
• The labs earned over Rs 5300 Cr over the three year period, with the main contribution coming from earnings through consultancy fees. The earnings through consultancy fees through non-government is however driven by a small number of labs that are also engaged in providing services to specific sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure and healthcare whereas the government consultancy earnings are driven by sectors such as electronics and infrastructure among others. Earning from commercialization (2019-20) was Rs 31 crores from government sources and Rs 36 crores from no- government sources. Extra mural funding from government sources was Rs 3959 crores from government sources and  Rs 259 crores from non-government sources.

The labs reported 1192 technologies in 2019-20 alone as TRL 5 and above targeted towards SDGs. Their  meaning is not clear to me.

Micro level data

Volume II has lab level data, two taken for illustration.

CEERI

Engineering is the bugbear of CSIR labs. This lab in electronics and statistics for 10 crore spend in 2019-20.

• number of patented filed- 0
• number of patents licensed out-0
• contribution to standards , regulation-0
• new products/ services introduced-0.23
• earnings from government sources- 0.02
• earnings from non- government sources-0.14

Institute of Nano Science and Technology

Some labs are always in the news, riding the hype curve.

• Number of PhDs, Masters and Graduate degrees awarded by the lab or awarded through collaboration with a University (per 100 scientific staff)- 13.92
• Whether the PhDs have been examined by one or more foreign assessors as an organisation policy- NIL
• Number of national awards and recognitions and fellowships received by members of the lab (per 100 scientific staff) -0
• Number of international awards and recognitions and fellowships received by members of the lab (per 100 scientific staff)-0
• Number of publications in quality peer reviewed journals (per 100 scientific staff-115
• Number of citations received by papers published in the preceding three calendar years (per 100 scientific staff)-1690
• Percentage of publications in top 10% journals-8.33
• Number of commissioned technology development/ design/project reports prepared (per 100 scientific staff)-0
• Number of IPRs filed (per Rs.10 Cr spent)-0.47

Recommendations

The present study reveals that there has been an increase in international technology transfers from14 in 2017-18 to 20 in 2019-20, but a gradual decline in the numbers of domestic technology transfers, from 636 in 2017-18 to 613 in 2019-20.

• Allocation of certain financial resources to all labs which can be mobilized additionally for translational research, pilot plant trials and scale-up. of the technologies developed in the labs for their improvement in ‘Technology Readiness Levels’. 
• In order to encourage the scientists to enhance the volume and value of IPRs and subsequent technology transfer, it may be useful to have provisions for definitive career interventions like financial incentives (cash awards, additional increments etc.) and preferential promotional rules.

Draft paper on national policy for the medical devices- reduce imports from 80% to 30% in next 10 years.

 

The department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) has released a draft paper on national policy for the medical devices, inviting feedback and remarks of the industry and stakeholders, till the 25 March. The efforts of the government is to reduce import dependence from 80% to below 30% in next 10 years and ensure self-reliance quotient of 80% in Med-Tech by ensuring Make in India with SMART milestones.The report envisaged that by 2047, 

1. India will be one amongst Top 5 Global manufacturing hubs in terms of value and technology for Medical Devices. 
2. India will be home to 25 MedTech $Bn companies and home & originator to 25 high end futuristic technologies in MedTech. 
3. India will emerge as Champion in critical components, cancer diagnostics, medical imaging, ultrasonic scans, molecular imaging, & PCR technologies .India will achieve 10-12% of Global Market Share of Medical Devices Sector to arrive at a $100-300 Bn industry.
4. India will have about 50 Medical Devices Clusters across India for faster clinical testing of Medical Devices to boost product development and innovation.

The Government has allowed 100% foreign direct investments (FDI) in medical devices sector while prescribing that domestically sourced components must contribute to 25-50 per cent of the cost of medical devices to qualify for public tenders and also has notified 135 in-vitro diagnostic medical devices and 19 medical devices where there is sufficient local capacity and local competition available in the country.

Recognizing the need for higher levels of investments for the creation of testing and laboratory facilities, the sub-scheme “Assistance to Medical Device Industry for Common Facility Centre” has been revised and renamed as “Promotion of Medical Device Parks” which has been approved by the Government of India on 20th March 2020. The parks will provide common testing and laboratory facilities/centre at one place reducing the manufacturing cost significantly and will help in creating a robust ecosystem for medical device manufacturing in the country. The total financial outlay of the scheme is ₹ 400 crore and the maximum assistance under the scheme for one Medical Device Park would be limited to ₹ 100 crore. The model is Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, India’s first exclusive medical device manufacturing park result of MoU signed between the state government and Association of Indian Medical Devices Industry (AiMeD), the Foundation Stone of the 270-acre exclusive manufacturing park was laid on August 19, 2016 at Nadupur village of Pedda Gantyada Mandal in Vishakhapatnam by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu.