Australia-India ECTA (Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement)

 India unhappy with many Free Trade Agreements (FTA) it signed, walked out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Australia is one of the 15 countries that signed RCEP. Now India signed separate bilateral agreement with Australia. Many of India's concerns appear to have been addressed in this ECTA.

SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES

        Where certification is required for trade in a product, the importing Party shall ensure that such certification is applied, in meeting its SPS objectives, only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health. The importing Party shall accept certificates issued by the competent authorities of the exporting Party that are in compliance with the regulatory requirements of the importing Party. Import checks, conducted in accordance with the importing Party’s laws, regulations, and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, shall be based on the sanitary and phytosanitary risk associated with importations. The import checks shall be carried out in a manner that is least trade-restrictive and without undue delay.

TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE

        Where technical regulations are required and relevant international standards exist or their completion is imminent, each Party shall use them, or relevant parts of them, as a basis for its technical regulations except when such international standards or relevant parts would be an ineffective or inappropriate means for the fulfilment of the legitimate objectives pursued, for instance because of fundamental climatic or geographical factors or fundamental technological problems. Where a Party does not use such international standards, or their relevant parts, as a basis for its technical regulations and these may have a significant effect on its trade with the other Party, it shall, upon request of the other Party, explain the reasons therefore.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

       Each Party shall encourage the mutual recognition of the relevant qualifications, licensing or certification requirements, including in regulated or licensed occupations under various industry and business sectors. Each Party shall encourage its relevant bodies to organise or facilitate bilateral discussions on occupational skill sets and standards in specific regulated or licensed occupations, based on the request of the other Party. The Parties shall endeavour to work towards sharing of information on the skill shortage and skill sets desirable for those occupations.

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.

Draft `India Data Accessibility and Use’ policy 2022

The draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy was published on MeitY website on February 21, 2022. Since its publication, MeitY has been receiving several comments and suggestions on the draft policy. It’s also observed that there is a need to bring in some more clarity with regard to some of the clauses in the draft policy so that the objectives of the Data Accessibility policy to enable better services is made amply clear. These clauses will be finalized after getting inputs of stakeholders in the consultation process Accordingly the draft policy document for consultations is being shared here.

The inputs/feedback may be sent to Ms. Kavita Bhatia, Scientist F at the email kbhatia[at]gov[dot]in and pmu [dot] etech [at] meity [dot] gov [dot]in.

The last date of submission for inputs/feedback is March 18, 2022.

NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

To cater next-generation digital manufacturing and mitigate immediate disabilities of local industries, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, Communications & Railways and Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship released “National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing” on 24th February 2022.

Main recommendation was establishment of National Additive Manufacturing Centre and strengthening technology leadership.

Innovation Strategy- India and UK: Wish list Vs Pragmatism

The draft Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, 2020 is a non-starter as a policy on innovation and went into a limbo. When authorities try to give a new avatar the team can benefit from UK policy paper `UK Innovation Strategy: leading the future by creating it'

A recap of India's draft:

Broad vision- To double the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) researchers, Gross Dimestic Expenditture on R&D (GERD) and private sector contribution to the GERD every 5 years. Open Data Policy for Publicly Funded Research: All data used in and generated from public-funded research will be available to everyone (larger scientific community and public) under FAIR3 (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) terms. Wherever applicable, exceptions will be made on grounds of privacy, national security and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Transforming existing R&D institutions to research universities. This will foster better linkages between research and education and also enable effective utilization of research infrastructure. Foreign MultiNational Companies (MNCs): Foreign MNCs play an integral role in boosting India’s economy. To gainfully measure and assess the contributions made by foreign MNCs in the STI financing landscape, innovative methods to capture them will be developed. Boosting fiscal incentives for industries investing in STI through incremental R&D based tax incentives, tax credit for investing in facilities for commercialization, tax holidays, tax waivers, target-based tax incentive for specific domains, tax deduction, expatriate tax regimes, remodelling of patent box regime etc. There will be a reassessment of the possibility of reviving weighted deduction provisions (of expenditure incurred on in-house R&D).Flexible mechanism for supplier development programmes for public procurement in all sectors (especially earmarked for Small & Medium Enterprises - SMEs and Start-ups).Reassessment of regulatory control on STI landscape to promote innovative enterprises. It is recommended that the Central Government re-examine and widen the scope of R&D expenditure. Further, the government may determine the right mix of loan, equity and grants to assist Indian industries for technology up-gradation and commercialization. Further, to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in STI, reduction in corporate tax rates for foreign MNCs, fast track clearances, easing land acquisitions, adequate means for incorporating FDI etc. will be explored on a need basis. To undertake efficient governing mechanisms for the STI funding landscape, a national STI Financing Authority will be created.Modification/waiver of General Financial Rules, for large scale mission mode programmes and projects of national importance will be explored. A new model for funding, implementation and monitoring of such programmes will be developed, either as an overarching mechanism or through obtaining cabinet approvals in respect of individual programmes. In addition, certain GFRs will be required to be amended for funding of R&D projects to facilitate ease of doing research.

Summery: A great compilation of wish list. There is something for every stakeholder.  STI Financing Authority , modification/ waiver of GFR are radical proposals in Indian context.

UK Policy paper focus is comparitively narrow, pragmatic and more likely will be acted upon.  They talk of innovation by business which is diffrent from business innovation , favouraite of Unicorns.

Vision is for the UK to be a global hub for innovation. Strategy set out plans against 4 key pillars, which will support the achievement of that vision:

• Pillar 1: Unleashing business – we will fuel businesses who want to innovate
• Pillar 2: People - we will make the UK the most exciting place for innovation talent
• Pillar 3: Institutions and places - we will ensure our research, development and innovation institutions serve the needs of businesses and places across the UK
• Pillar 4: Missions and technologies – we will stimulate innovation to tackle major challenges faced by the UK and the world and drive capability in key technologies

Indian draft is for ease of doing research by government funded researchers of government funded institutes where as thrust of UK policy paper is on innovation by commercial enterprises.

Innovation-public policy interface

Learning from the book: 

Impact of public policy instruments on supply and demand of innovation are conditioned by competition and contagion conditions the firms face. How much competition is appropriate to create an an optimal mix of invention, innovation and diffusion? One study quoted by the author says that an increase in competition leads to a significant increase in R&D investment by `neck and neck’ firms i.e firms that operate at the same technological level.However, increased competition decreases R&D investments by firms that are lagging behind, in particular if the time horizon is short. This explains Indian firms strong R&D in Pharma and weak R&D in electronic sector. Large technology gap discourages innovation efforts in the presence of import based competition.

The contagion effect (imitation potential) increases with large pools (supply) of knowledge to learn from and firms may undertake technological activity to benefit from these contagion effects. Innovative regions like Silicon valley create both competition and contagion effects. Firms in clusters often get locked into specific products and technologies and policies aim at bringing technological dynamism with global value chains. Location of MNC R&D centers in India is not only used for its low cost of operation but also for developing technologies for markets like India. Both for performing R&D and for solving research problems these MNC R&D centres seek more support from their global business units than local units thereby limiting knowledge spill over and contagion effect.

The challenge for the policymakers in the globalized world of open and distributed knowledge networks is the need to identify a policy package that can simultaneously facilitate international linkages for accessing knowledge, incentivize domestic intramural R&D to build absorptive as well as inventive capacity and help create domestic networks for knowledge accumulation and diffusion.

This book by eminent author provides theological inputs and conceptual clarity on contents of my book on `Demand side innovation policy'

UK Innovation Strategy- call of surge in Business led Innovation.

UK Government in its policy document UK Innovation Strategy: leading the future by creating it, terms innovation  as the “lifeblood of business” and sees procurement as a vital component of innovation. The document calls for surge in Buisness led Innovation with focus on public procurement, regulations and standards.

Read the strategy paper to understand how UK is planning to survive divorce from EU.

India has many innovations and they are not jugaad.

Jugaad creations fascinated media, nationalists took affront at India's innovation / patent ranking with the argument that innovations do exist in plenty only they are missed out , while consultants floated a new business line of jugaad/ frugal innovation model. While happy with positive references to India many cautioned on Irrational exuberance on innovation front. Japan developed Technology Absorption model, Korea had Creative Imitaion and China-Secondary innovations as articulated models to move up in the value chain. Once it became clear India needs systematic innovation , India adopted Demand side innovation framework.

Author, Journalist, Dinesh Sharma also takes the view that jugaad is not innovation. He lists 100 innovations, including those in Governance, Public Utilities and Law. In digital age we will be seeing many more innovations in this space.

Buy the book from Amazon

FSSAI’s proposed draft regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) & Engineered Food

 

(Source: Economic Times)

India, at present, does not allow GM food in the country. The FSSAI released the draft regulations in November 2021, proposing that food products or food ingredients derived from GMOs may be sold in the country after obtaining prior approval. It laid down the procedure for prior approval as well as safety assessment and labelling norms. It specified norms that labs will need to adhere for testing GM foods.

 The last date for sending objections or suggestions has been extended till 05.02.2022

Gandhi's call for swadeshi was backed by 100 Indian brands

 

Call for Swadeshi coupled with boycott of imported goods was one of historic movements during the freedom struggle. The foreign goods including clothing, sugar, salt and various other luxury items were not only boycotted, but they were also burned.A similar call- Atmanirbhar in free India did not move people. One reason is availability of substitutes- soaps, beauty products, biscuits, tonics etc. Now, Electronic imports are major concern but call for Atmanirbhar has not seen any frenzied activity like boycotting Chinese products by middle class consumers.

Ramya Ramamurthy captures stories of various Indian brands , promoted by industrialists and freedom fighters during per-independence period. 

Vision Document for the electronics sector today, titled “$300 bn Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing & Exports by 2026

 

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in association with ICEA, released a 5-year roadmap and Vision Document for the electronics sector today, titled “$300 bn Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing & Exports by 2026.” This roadmap is the second volume of a two-part Vision Document – the first of which titled “Increasing India’s Electronics Exports and Share in GVCs” was released in November 2021. This report provides a year-wise break-up and production projections for the various products that will lead India’s transformation into a US$300 billion electronics manufacturing powerhouse, from the current US$75 billion. Amongst the key products that are expected to lead India’s growth in electronics manufacturing include Mobile Phones, IT Hardware (laptops, tablets), Consumer electronics (TV and audio), Industrial electronics, Auto electronics, Electronic components, LED Lighting, Strategic electronics, PCBA, Wearables and hearables, and Telecom equipment. Mobile manufacturing that is expected to cross US$100 billion annual production - up from the current US$30 billion - is expected to constitute nearly 40% of this ambitious growth.

 Scale up of domestic manufacture by 2.2X in 5 years appear realistic with PLI schemes but can India increase exports by 10.3X in 5 years?

Revised Consolidated Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) Promulgated) Promulgated by Ministry of Power

 

The Union Ministry of Power has promulgated the revised consolidated Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) on 14th January,2022. The objective is to enable a faster adoption of electric vehicles in India by ensuring safe, reliable, accessible and affordable Charging Infrastructure and eco-system. This would also promote energy security and reduction of emission intensity of the country by promotion of entire EV ecosystem.

These guidelines are exhaustive and include provisions for a) individual owners of Electric Vehicles: b) for Public Charging Stations (PCS). In a significant step, Owners may charge their Electric Vehicles at their residence/offices using their existing electricity connections.  Infrastructure requirements for Public Charging Infrastructure as well as for Public Charging Infrastructure for long range EVs and/or heavy duty EVs have been outlined.

Any individual/entity is free to set up public charging stations without the requirement of a license provided that, such stations meet the technical, safety as well as performance standards and protocols laid down  under the guidelines as well as norms/ standards/ specifications laid down by Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Central Electricity Authority (CEA) from time to time. An exhaustive list of compliance requirements for Public Charging Station (PCS) have also been outlined. These include norms for “appropriate” infrastructure  for civil, electricity and safety requirements .

Technology agnostic Charging Standards: The guidelines have been made further technology agnostic by providing for not only the prevailing international charging standards available in the market but also the new Indian charging standards.

Journey of an innovator from Innovation fair onwards

Indian Innovators Association (IIA) organised GYSC ( Global Young Scientists Challenge ) in 2018 at Visakhapatnam. Saif Seas exibited their rescuse device.  Inventor Alisgar Calcuttawala explained their innovation to AP Innovation Society and other visitors. The startup is mentored by IIA founder member GV Ramana. The startup is now a reliable supplier to Indian navy and others.

CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2021

Every year CII selects top 25 innovative companies and winners in different catagories. For assessment Enterprise Innovation Maturity Model is used. This year winners include Tata Steel and Wipro assessed by me. Tata Steel has 506 patents with R&D strength of 280 which includes 68 with PhD working in 7 Technoology Leadership Areas. The firm fine tuned processes to optimise utilisation of low quality raw materials,  adopt technology to capture Co2 from flue gas and bet huge on Graphine with 45 patents. WIPRO's huge learning platform  is based on challenge architecture , IP gateway, Pragati portal and open innoavation. Every year some of the challenges get funded to scale up to pilot. The firm is one of the few that works both on software and hardware. 

Anuradha attempts to fill great void in the Telugu people history- their journey to South East Asia

Telugu is one of classical languages of India , Battiprolu eddit is dated back to 400 BCE. Telugu langauge characher is unique with consonent modifiers and vowel modifiers. Despite the long history, very little is known about Telugus's history in textbooks sparring reference to Acharya Nagarjuna and Satavahana period. 

Journalist Anuradha travelled to SriLanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and narrates story of telugu people's journey to these distance lands in the form of a fictional story. 

Buy the book: https://www.telugubooks.in/products/jagamunelina-telugu

50 Global Hubs for Top AI Talent - Bangalore is in top 5.

In this article, HBR highlights the 50 cities with the largest AI talent pools worldwide and evaluate them using a framework that we have developed at Digital Planet: TIDE (for Talent pool; Investments; Diversity of talent; Evolution of the country’s digital foundations). These factors collectively give companies a way to prioritize their AI talent sourcing choices by scoring the different locations on the concentration, quality and diversity of the AI talent pool. The diversity measure combines several factors: the proportion of female AI workers, racial diversity and migrant acceptance along with the cost of living in a city. 

pepsi potato patent and Gujarat farmers

Pepsi got an USA patent for potato cultivator 2027. IP protection granted in USA under Patents and Plant Variety Protection (PVPA).  In India patent protection is not available but Plant Variety Protection avaiable. Pepsi registered this 2027 variety in 2016 and promptly sued farmers in Gujarat growing this without license. 

Now, Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Authority, rules Pepsi registration under Plant Variety Protection as invalid.

More information: www.motguru.com

World’s First COVID-19 DNA vaccine developed in partnership with DBT-BIRAC under Mission COVID Suraksha

 

The ZyCoV-D is the world’s first and India’s indigenously developed
DNA based vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans
including children and adults 12 years and above. This vaccine has
been developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology
(DBT), Government of India under the ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’ and
implemented by BIRAC, a PSU of DBT. This 3 dose vaccine which when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a  vital role in protection from disease as well as viral clearance.Vaccine Technology Centre (VTC), vaccine research centre of the
Zydus group, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute
(THSTI), an autonomous institute of the DBT and Interactive Research
School for Health Affairs (IRSHA), Pune, GCLP Lab set up under the
DBT- National Biopharma Mission (NBM) also played a vital role in this
success story. The plug and play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring.

Read about the amazing journey: DBT publication

Technologies on offer from ICMR

 

ICMR regularly posts technologies available from its institutes for collaboration with Industry.

Patents 2020

WIPO report analyzes IP activity around the globe. Drawing on 2020 filing, registration and renewals statistics from national and regional IP offices. India received 56,771 patent applications, ot of which 23,141 were from India, 10,478 from USA, 4826 from Japan, 3775 from China, 2682 from Korea and 2525 from Japan.Resident grants for India grew by 5.5% whereas that of non-residents grew at 6.3%. Non-Resident share of patents granted by Indian Patent Office were pegged at 81.1%. The situation was different for Industrial Designs where out of 12,793, resident applicants were 8962 and non-residents 3,831.India does not grant utility patents and is not a member of International Union for Protection of New Variety of Plants. Publishing industry data covered under Creative Economy do not have Indian data.

Institutions that shaped modern India- DRDO

Ravi kumar Gupta , the author, served at DRDO as a DRDS Scientist for over 35 years and superannuated in May 2015 as Scientist G and Director Public Interface at the DRDO headquarters. The book was written with the aim of presenting a holistic picture , the manner and scenario under which it was formed , its visionary leaders, the eventful journey and how it shaped the defence infrastructure and ecosystem in the country.

Catching up:

Development in weapon system in advanced countries have been invariably driven by innovativeness of their defence scientists and the ability of such scientists to think well beyond the existing systems and technologies. Here, in India, TDE ( Technical Development Establishments , earlier called Inspectorates) and others insisted that development work by the DRDO should be taken up for only after the services had laid their requirements in the form of Qualitative Requirements/ Operational Requirements (Qrs/Ors). The Qrs/Ors were invariably based on the products already available abroad.

Technology Transfer

Import and produce under license is a powerful lobby favouring big ticket imports and killing all local efforts to develop technologies. Air guided anti tank missile was one early example. Initial goal post was range of 1.5km, when that was reached, QRs increased operating range to 4km and finally product imported from France. Myth of Technology transfer resulted in component to component development with no design capability.

Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)

The appointment of DR VS Arunachalam as the SA to RM and Secretary DDR&D in 1982 was the turning point. During his leadership, several programmes were launched including IGMDP, LCA, UAV,Sonars, Torpedoes etc. His initiatives were supported by R Venkataraman, Defence Minister. Dr Kalam took command of the organisation in 1992 when DRDO enetered the development of mega systems. The rest is history.

Book available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/INSTITUTIONS-THAT-SHAPED-MODERN-INDIA/dp/9390356725

Global Innovation Index 2021- India status

 In the GII 2021 India is ranked 46 and moved 2 levels high. Five Asian economies feature among the top 15 – the Republic of Korea (5th) and Singapore (8th) are in the top 10, followed by China (12th), Japan (13th) and Hong Kong, China (14th).

India ranking by pillars:

Institutions-62

-Political environment -66

-Regulatory environment-71

-Business environment-62

Human Capital and Research-54

-Education-102

-Tertiary education-64

-Research and development (R&D)-35

Infrastructure-81

-Information and communication technologies (ICTs)-86

-General infrastructure-52

-Ecological sustainability-98

Market sophistication-28

-credit-56

-investment-45

-Trade, diversification, and market scale-7

Business sophistication-52

-Knowledge workers-83

-Innovation linkages-50

-Knowledge absorption-34

Knowledge and technology outputs-29

-Knowledge creation-51

-knowledge impact-51

-knowledge diffusion-13

Creative outputs-68

-intangible assets-61

-Creative goods and services-55

-online creativity-105

India's best

Graduates in science and engineering, %-12

Global corporate R&D investors, top 3, mn US$-15

QS university ranking, top 3*-23

Government online service-24

E Participation-29

Gross capital formation, % GDP-28

Ease of getting credit*-23

Microfinance gross loans, % GDP-25

Market capitalization, % GDP-19

Ease of protecting minority investors*-13

Domestic industry diversification-12

Domestic market scale, bn PPP$-3

Joint venture/strategic alliance deals/bn PPP$ GDP-35

Intellectual property payments, % total trade-27

High-tech imports, % total trade-26

Citable documents H-index-21

Labor productivity growth, %-17

ICT services exports, % total trade-1

Global brand value, top 5,000, % GDP-28

Cultural and creative services exports, % total trade-18

Creative goods exports, % total trade-24

Tokyo–Yokohama is the top performing S&T cluster once again, followed by Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou, Beijing, Seoul and San Jose–San Francisco. The U.S. continues to host the highest number of clusters, followed by China, Germany, and Japan. Bengaluru is ranked 62 in the S&T cluster, downgraded by 2 ranks in 2021.

The top five R&D spending economies in 2019 were the United States (+10.9 percent), followed by China (+11.1 percent), Japan (−0.4 percent), Germany (+2.3 percent) and the Republic of Korea (+4.8 percent). These five economies have consistently been the world’s major R&D spenders since 2011. Business R&D expenditure – the largest component of total global R&D – grew by 7.2 percent in 2019, up from 4.6 percent in 2018. 

Technologies available with MCCIA, Pune

 Innovation and Technology Transfer Cell in Pune supported by the Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology Commission  identified few technology/processes that are ripe for commercial exploitation: 

Technologies available with MCCIA –

• Solar plant for drying of fruits and vegetables
• Just sip nutritious dehydrated vegetables drink 
• Cottage level manufacturing technology of Santa barfi
• Hatchery technology for quality seed of mud crab 
• Milk chilling plant with energy optimised heat-based refrigeration
• Vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging of fresh fish
• Processing technology for turmeric, onion, garlic and ginger
• Pilot scale demonstration of fish and fishery Based
• Value added products from Acetes meat
• Value added fish products
• Nutritious supplementary foods from edible food wastes
• Nutritionally balanced and healthy value added emulsion products from fish 

CAN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE FEED THE WORLD?

As per a policy decision by the Sri Lankan Government the country is moving toward an eco-friendly sustainable agricultural system by promoting organic farming within the country. Going with this decision the government issued the Gazette Extraordinary No. 2226/48 of May 6, 2021, banning the importation of chemical fertilizers and pesticides with immediate effect. As a country which relies heavily on agriculture this decision came as a surprise and discussions, arguments and debates began surfacing over the good and bad sides of it. Group of Agricultural Scientists and Professionals representing universities, research stations, and other Agriculture related organizations formulated a special report and forwarded it to His Excellency the President Gotabhaya Rajapakse urging the government to rethink the strategy towards an eco-friendly sustainable agriculture as these sudden decisions could lead to catastrophic situations in Sri Lankan Agricultural sector. 

There is much criticism globally on this organic only policy of SL. Many countries have suffered food shortages due to idealistic pro-organic policies. But analyzing the situation as it unfolds exposes precisely what goes wrong when governments make decisions based on bad ideology and ignore evidence. 

Recommend this paper Organic Agriculture, FoodSecurity, and the Environment for informed discussion on this vital subject. There are several areas that deserve more research to further improve our understanding of the effects of organic agriculture. 

First, many of the available studies on yield performance and environmental effects refer to developed countries. Additional studies under typical conditions in developing countries would be very useful. 

Second, many of the existing studies with farm survey data have not properly controlled for selection bias. More rigorous empirical studies are needed. 

Third, while several studies showed that organic farming can be profitable with the existing support through subsidies and development projects, it is less clear whether organic farming could also be profitable without such external support. 

Fourth, the net food price effects of organic agriculture are not sufficiently understood. Although it is clear that organic foods are more expensive than conventional foods, it is less clear how much of the price markup is attributable to differences in farming practices as opposed to other factors such as scale effects, market structure, and efficiency. 

Finally, it would be interesting to analyze how the productivity, environmental, and profitability effects of organic farming might change through slight adjustments in the definition of what is allowed and disallowed in certified organic production.

What happened to India's Smart Cities Mission?

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched on 25 June 2015, is a joint effort of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and all state and union territory (UT) governments. It initially aimed to be completed by 2019-20, but has since been extended. One hundred cities and towns in different states and UTs of India have been selected under the SCM—they are home to more than one-third of the country’s population . The Mission aims “to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to smart outcomes,” and ensure that these cities are “liveable, inclusive, sustainable, (and) have thriving economies that offer multiple opportunities to people to pursue their diverse interests.” In other words, according to MoHUA, “smart cities are cities that work for the people.”

Report by ORF makes few pertinent observations:

The progress of the Mission has been best in the states of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, and Surat and Rajkot in Gujarat, figure repeatedly among the best performers on different criteria.

An India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) has been organised every year since 2018 to recognise the best performing cities. A special award was also instituted at the third edition of the contest in 2020 to recognise the most innovative responses to the COVID-19 crisis. The winners of this prize, announced at the fourth edition on 25 June 2021 were Chennai (Round 1), Kalyan-Dombivali and Varanasi (Round 2), Bengaluru (Round 3) and Saharanpur (Round 4).

During the current monsoon season in 2021, it has been seen that drainage systems in many of the selected smart cities have still not ensured proper management of rainwater.