:Indian firms have to be more innovative and need to invest heavily in Research & Development: M Hamid Ansari

Newdelhi:19/7/17:Indian firms have to be more innovative and need to invest heavily in Research & Development (R&D) for boosting economic growth, the country’s Vice President M Hamid Ansari has said.

Speaking at the AIMA-JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award event, Ansari highlighted that India was ranked 66th out of 128 countries in the Global Innovation Index and lagged countries such as China, Russia and South Africa.

“Our dismal show (in the index) is not surprising given our low level of R&D spend (0.63 percent of GDP)”, Ansari said in his address after presenting the AIMA-JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award to Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.

Ansari also said that the domestic investments (in R&D) by the private sector was still “minuscule”.

He cited the examples of Reliance Industries, the country’s largest enterprise by market capitalisation, and engineering behemoth Larsen & Toubro and pointed out that their R&D spend at 0.3 per cent of revenue and 0.36 per cent respectively was lower than companies like Petrobras and Petrochina.

Later, in his JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Lecture, Chandrasekaran said: “We need to believe in the power of aspiration if we want to do extraordinary things”.