Introduction

The research ecosystem in India presents a significant opportunity for multinational corporations across the world due to its intellectual capital available in the country. Legions of Indian engineers working across the globe highlight the highly trained manpower available at competitive costs. Consequently, several MNCs have shifted or are shifting their research and development (R&D) base to India. These R&D bases either develop products to serve the local market or help the parent company overseas deliver new innovative generation of products faster to the markets across the world.

Market Size

Overall India-based R&D Globalization and R&D Services market reached US $20 billion@ in 2015, up by 9.9 per cent over 2014. R&D Services market stood at US $7.76 billion and R&D Globalisation market (Captives) stood at US $12.25 billion. India’s R&D globalisation and services market is set to almost double by 2020 to US $38 billion.

According to the study, India-based R&D services companies, which account for almost 22 per cent of the global addressed market, grew much faster at 12.67 per cent. The market for Engineering R&D (ER&D) companies in India is mainly structured across pure play PES companies such as Cyient, QuEST, eInfochips and the larger IT companies with a PES play such as Wipro, TCS, HCL. India's ER&D services market is expected to reach US $15-17 billion by 2020 and North America continues to be the largest market contributing to 55 per cent of revenues.

Recent Investments and developments

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is taking steps towards developing its own reusable rocket using a Winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), whose tech demo is expected to be conducted in February 2016.
• German automotive firm Bosch Gmbh has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore with a view to strengthen Bosch’s research and development in areas including mobility and healthcare thereby driving innovation for India-centric requirements.
• Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei has launched a Research and Development (R&D) campus in Bengaluru with an investment of US $170 million. The campus, the first by any Chinese company, has a capacity to accommodate 5,000 engineers and is the largest R&D centre of Huawei outside China. At present 2,700 people are working here, with 98 per cent being local workers.
• Kellogg plans to set up its R&D centre in India in 2015. Besides developing products spCSIfically for India, Kellogg aim to make its India R&D unit a lead centre for creating products for other emerging markets where Kellogg is present.
• Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has signed the lease for its R&D centre in Bengaluru, which is expected to be launched later in 2015. Xiaomi has leased a 20,000 square feet building space for their R&D centre in Cessna Business Park in Bengaluru.
• American chipmaker Broadcom is betting big on developing solutions tailored to India and other emerging nations from its Bengaluru R&D unit. The key opportunities focused on are in the areas of Internet of Things and wearables market in India. Out of Broadcom’s global headcount of about 11,000 people, the India R&D centre has about 1,500 people.
• Dell is looking towards strengthening its engineering team in India and increasing the number of patent applications filed from India. The country has already become the largest contributor to software patents for Dell.
• SpCSIalty chemicals maker BASF SE is setting up an innovation campus in Navi Mumbai at a total investment of Rs 360 crore (US $54 million). The innovation campus is in addition to the R&D centers in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
• Twitter Inc is planning to set up its first facility outside the US in the form of an R&D centre in Bengaluru to grow faster and accelerate user adoption in emerging markets. Twitter plans to use Bengaluru-based mobile marketing and analytics companyZipDial Mobile Solutions Pvt.Ltd’s team to build this new R&D facility.
• French three-dimensional design software firm DassaultSystemes has dCSIded to extend its 'Living Heart' research initiative to India, a move that will give surgeons in India’s top cardiac institutes, access to the company's 3D heart simulation platform.
• California based Cohesity, a start-up involved in secondary storage space, has recently launched operations in India and is expected to invest US $10 million in the country over the next two years in research and development.
• Sequoia Capital will invest US $120 million in Bengaluru’s MedGenome, a genomics based diagnositcs and research firm that uses DNA sequencing and data analytics to conduct genetic testing for cancer and other rare diseases.

Government Initiatives

The Government of India has taken several steps to promote the R&D sector in India. In the Union Budget 2015-16, the government announced plans to establish National Institution to Transforming India (NITI) to increase involvement of entrepreneurs, researchers to foster scientific innovations.

India’s steel minister Mr Narendra Singh Tomar has announced creating a fund of Rs 100 crore (US $15 million) to help setting up R&D units with the participation from industries and the government to overcome the technological gaps. Mr Tomar said “It is under the active consideration of the government to infuse more funds in this initiative to utilise locally available cheap raw material, to remain competitive in the world market.

A team of scientists from India and Bangladesh will conduct for the first time, joint marine research within Bangladesh’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is expected to help in understanding climate change and monsoon patterns in India.

Road Ahead

With the government’s support, the R&D sector in India is all set to witness some robust growth in the coming years. According to a study by management consulting firm Zinnov, engineering R&D market in India is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 14 per cent to reach US $42 billion by 2020.

India is also expected to witness strong growth in its agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors as the government is investing large sums to set up dedicated research centres for R&D in these sectors. The Indian IT industry is also expected to add to the development of the R&D sector.

Exchange Rate used: INR 1 = US $0.015 as on December 17, 2015

References: Media Reports, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Innovation Council of India, Union Budget 2015-16, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)

Disclaimer: Council for Start-up India is not responsible for any errors in the information