India attracts USD 24 billion as R&D investment in 2015 from North America and Europe based MNCs

Asia becomes the top region for corporate R&D spend, according to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 Study, from Strategy&, PwC’s Strategy Consulting Business. 
Report highlights:

•  In 2015, R&D spending by the Global Innovation 1000 increased 5.1% to $680 billion.
• Globalization increasingly becomes the norm , 94% of firms conduct R&D beyond just their home country,
•  Asia has become the top destination for corporate R&D spend in 2015, accounting for 35% of total in-region R&D, including both domestic and imported R&D. This places Asia ahead of North America and Europe, who dropped to third, in a complete reversal from 2007 when Europe was the previous leader.
• The U.S. remains the largest spender of in-country corporate R&D, with in-country (domestic & imported) R&D spend at $145 billion in 2015, up 34% since 2007. Imported R&D spend to the U.S., mostly coming from Europe, in 2015 is $53 billion, up 23% from 2007. Exported R&D spend in 2015 is $121 billion, up 51% from 2007, predominantly going to Asia where previously in 2007 it was going to Europe.
• The three largest industries for R&D Spend in 2015 are computing and electronics (C&E), healthcare and auto. In particular, healthcare is on track to pass C&E as the largest industry by R&D spend by 2019.
• The largest spenders by region have remained the same, but where they spend their R&D has changed . In 2015, almost half of all R&D spend came from North American companies, but only about a third of all R&D was actually done in North America. 
• R&D ( domestic and MNCs) in China increased by 120% (2007 to 2015) to $billion surpassing Japan's R&D spending of $50 billion. India's R&D spend at $28 Billion is higher than Southkorea $ 13 Billion, and Taiwan's $ 6 Billion.
• China’s imports of R&D from multinationals headquartered in other countries were $44 billion in 2015. The U.S. led in exports of R&D to China in 2015, accounting for 39 percent of inflow, followed by Japan (20 percent) and Germany (10 percent). Survey respondents cited proximity to a high-growth market as the top reason for moving R&D to China (71 percent), followed by proximity to key manufacturing sites (59 percent), proximity to key suppliers (54 percent), and lower development costs (53 percent). 
• Total corporate R&D conducted in India increased 115 percent between 2007 and 2015, to $28 billion. The growth was powered by R&D spending from other countries, which grew 116 percent. India, not surprisingly, is the largest global destination for software R&D. Multinationals that have moved R&D to India cite a variety of reasons for the move, and cost is often not the most important. “Our tech center in India gives us an around-the-clock capability to accelerate development work due to the time difference with the U.S'.  “The highest priority was access to technical talent that was in close proximity to regional customers. The fact that some of the labor is lower-cost was nice to have, but not a primary driver".
• USA based MNCs spent 43% of their R&D budget at home, another 15% in India, 15% in China, 9% in UK.

Insights from GE research

Gopichand Katragadda, in his book `SMASH' talks of hand to mind barrier. Many analysts referred to our aversion to dirty hands leaving us a nation of million spectators always struggling to find 11 to soil in the field. Bright engineers for decades shunned shop floor jobs and reserachers lived in ivory tower unconnected to market. Gopichand also ( probably for the first time from any MNC) shares his insights on what makes GE and MNC R&D units such a productive places. The activities highlighted:

1. GECR-B Signature Programs: The idea is to have a branding and instill pride in the programs being worked by the team.

2.Learning Environment: A culture of learning and growth is maintained through technology specific and industry specific conferences organised by JFWTC.

3.Innovation Department: A constant focus on innovation is maintained through a variety of activities such as Business program Manager Challengers, innovation workshops by external experts, innovation process sharing with external companies, TRIZ training, tools, pilot projects, internal technical career path trainimng on innovation, innovation portal and idea management systems.

4.Customer connectivity: The indian session T (T for technology) held in 2006 broght together close to 100 GE customers and GE engineering, research, sales and marketing teams.

5. Cross JFWTC collaboration

A must read for all CSIR scientists.