India failed in technological front because

• It is believed that India’s failure is linked to its inability to make use of the market-driven growth opportunities.
  • When India got independence India implemented the five-year plans which were focused on basic needs of people and public sectors.
• India also failed to capitalize post 1991 reform also known as LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) reforms.
• India’s poor achievements in school education is also one of the factors.

Reason for the success of other countries

• An invisible hand of the government has been there to support each of the enterprise and the free market.
• State has been crucial to the introduction of the new generation of technologies, including the computers, Internet, and nanotech industry.
• Public sector funding developed the algorithm that eventually led to success of major IT companies.
  • It also helped discover the molecular antibodies that provided the foundation for biotechnology.
• Governmental agencies were proactive in identifying and supporting the more uncertain phases of the research, which a risk-averse private sector would not have entered into.

• China’s achievements came because they combine the strengths of the public sector, markets and globalization.
• China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were seen as inefficient and bureaucratic. However, rather than privatising them or letting them weaken with neglect, they restructured the SOEs.
• SOEs strengthened their presence in strategically important sectors such as petrochemicals and telecommunication as well as in technologically dynamic industries such as electronics and machinery.

India since 1950 to till today

• India inaugurated planning and industrialisation in the early 1950s. It was possibly the most ambitious of such initiatives in the developing world.
• Space and atomic research and the establishment of institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were among the key initiative of that time.
• The growth of information technology and pharmaceutical industries has been the fastest in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
• After adopting globalization, spending on research and development as a proportion of GDP declined in India from 0.85% in 1990-91 to 0.65% in 2018.

India’s opportunity

• Despite the setbacks, India still possesses favourable supply and demand factors that can propel it into the frontlines of technology.
• The number of persons enrolled for tertiary education in India (35.2 million in 2019) is way ahead of the corresponding numbers in all other countries except China.
• According to UNESCO, graduates from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programmes as a proportion of all graduates was 32.2% for India in 2019, one of the highest among all countries.
• India, that will soon have twice the number of Internet users as in the U.S., is a large market for all kinds of new technologies.

Road ahead

• India needs to sharply increase its public spending to improve the quality of and access to higher education.
• As internet users are increasing day by day, domestic industries should capitalize on the internet market.
• in India’s import bill, electronic goods and components are the second largest item after oil. Thus, india needs to increase manufacturing of electronics items.
• There should be more spending on research and development as part of GDP.
• The ‘Make in India’ initiative will have to go beyond increasing the ‘ease of business’ for private industry.
• PSUs should be valued for their potential long-term contributions to economic growth, the technologies they can create, and the strategic and knowledge assets they can build.
  • A strengthened public sector will create more opportunities for private businesses and widen the entrepreneurial base.
• Indian industry needs to deepen and broaden its technological capabilities.
  • This will happen only if universities and public institutions in the country are strengthened and emboldened to enter areas of technology development for which the private sector may have neither the resources nor the patience.
• Small and medium entrepreneurs will flourish when there are mechanisms for the diffusion of publicly created technologies, along with greater availability of bank credit and other forms of assistance.