Strengthening the Export Competitiveness of firms in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper attempts to identify the factors that determine the export competitiveness of firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Our findings suggest that the competitiveness of firms depends not only on firm specific advantages but also on government fiscal incentives. Among the firm specific factors, own R&D efforts emerged as one of the prime factors influencing export competitiveness. Furthermore, R&D efforts involved in the modification in process technology were more relevant than the introduction of new products, reflecting the importance of the pursuit of improvement in processes in the industry’s technological trajectory. The paper argues that the government should focus on ruthless export promotion in the TRIPs driven environment.