Asia IP

NEW DELHI – The ability of any company to compete can be measured by its ability to innovate, said Dhanpat Ram Agarwal, founding director of Kolkata-based ITAG Business Solutions, speaking during the inaugural session of the 8th Global IP Convention here. “Innovation has become a buzzword that is visible every time you open a newspaper. Companies that fail to recognize the importance of innovation will fail to keep pace with their competitors."

WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2015 shows that leading countries spend more on innovation, but that India’s spending continues to lag behind, said Agarwal. The GII indicates that India spent less than 1% of its GDP on research and development, compared to 2% for China and 2.81% for the US and 3.47% for Japan. But with 1.3 billion people, India needs to recognize its human resource as an economic resource, and boost spending on innovation.

There has to be a bridge between invention and innovation, and now more so with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India and Make in India initiatives, where the underlying themes are innovation. National and global policies on innovation that are seamless and unified will benefit all of society, Agarwal said.