What ails R&D in India? Is it lack of government support? Or is industry not interested, preferring to focus on acquiring technology from somewhere and modifying it for the conditions here?
Both are partly true. For industry to focus on R&D it requires government policy to give them a leg up. Governments have other priorities more so in a diverse country like India with enormous deficits, inequalities and expectations.
But Dr Aparna Gupta believes there is no time like the present for India to change course. From her perch in the Anusandhan Research Foundation, Gupta, a professor of quantitative finance is working on ways to bridge technology gaps through R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The foundation set up by the government three years back, has research as its focus, and is working with industry to ensure it does its bit. Dr Gupta is also trying to bring in lessons learned in the US where industry began investing in R&D and innovation long before government moved in.
“The government funding for research is really 25% of the total research investment in the US R&D,” she said, “So that’s really a culmination of how industry identified the need for being innovative, and leading by innovation in creating new products, and technologies, and services.”
India has its advantages, she underscored. “India is definitely a talent-generating engine. The question is where it has been applying its talent or where the talent is getting applied. And of course, the multinationals have always tapped into India the way they have felt is useful for how their objectives are served.”
Talent aside, the government is prioritising quantum computing, computing in general, AI and information technology with the goal of making Indian industry globally competitive.
“So there’s a lot of energy both needed and being applied to keep up and really push forward in the ways that quantum computing technologies and quantum systems are shape taking shape. And again, as I said, that solution is not just the far computing end, but more in systems and chip design and semiconductor innovations sense as well.”
Tune in for more in this conversation with Dr Aparna Gupta of the Anusandhan Research Foundation.
