| | NOVEMBER 20218Consultants ReviewIndia still ranks low when it comes to innovation and research. What pulls it back even when the government has several initiatives in place? Today, India is a destination for building R&D centers due to technology talent and growing efforts for ease of do-ing business. Though earlier, India had been known as a leader in the IT services sector, not for product design and development. In recent years, we have seen a shift in this trend, as innovation in India has received a stronger impe-tus, from the Government of India as well as the industry at large. Today, the country is home to over 1450+ Global MNCs, contributing and driving the global digital transfor-mation mandates from the R&D centers in India. However, in comparison, home grown innovation is still not matured and has a long way to go. India's expenditure on R&D continues to be as low as 0.6 percent - 0.7 percent of the GDP, which is much lower than South Korea, Israel and Japan. With more government incentives and active participation from Indian corporates, India can very well le-verage the existing talent and resources to become a global innovation hub. How can the industry and academia work to fix this gap and make India a leading innovation and research centre of the world?Collaboration between industry and academia is one of the most important imperatives for building a robust technol-ogy ecosystem. The industry can infer what the current and future technology trends are going to look like and work with academia to ensure the future talent workforce is well equipped with the necessary skills. This can be done through multiple ways - by setting up incubation centers, workplace exposure through Intern-ships, live projects, corporate interactions, emphasis on skill-based education that can provide the necessary hands on training and working with academia to co-create the curriculum suitable for today's evolving industry needs. An engaging partnership will enable a more able young INDIA TO BECOME A GLOBAL INNOVATION HUBIn an interaction with SiliconIndia, Balajee Sowrirajan, Managing Director, Samsung Semiconductor R&D (SSIR) shares his views on India's innovation and research potentialBalajee SowrirajanIN MY OPINION
< Page 7 | Page 9 >