Trends and Patterns of Technology Acquisition in Indian Organized Manufacturing: An Inter-industry Exploration

With liberalization of foreign technology import policy in the 1990s, India has seen declining R&D intensity at national level. This has generated a general concern on how Indian industries are doing in technology accumulation under the new policy regime. The present study has made a preliminary attempt to analyze different modes of technology acquisition including R&D for Indian manufacturing industries by National Industrial Classification (NIC) Revision 1998 at 3-digit level. It has constructed a new technology indicators database for Indian industries at NIC 1998 and also constructed a composite technology index for Indian manufacturing to examine how high-technology industries have performed during the period 1991-2001. The research revealed many interesting facts about the nature and character of technology accumulation in Indian manufacturing, which has important policy implications. GIDR Working Paper 57, 2005