India’s R&D efforts not up to mark: President

by Jan 20, 2013

Kolkata, Jan 20 (IANS) Pointing out that India’s efforts on research and development (R&D) activities are “not up to the mark”, President Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said the country will have to give more importance to them to bridge the gap with advanced countries quickly.

“Efforts on R&D are not up to the mark. An example of this is the number of patent applications, which is an indicator of innovation. Patents filed by Indian scientists are far less than Germany, Japan, China and the US,” Mukherjee said while speaking on the occasion of National Test House’s centenary celebration here.

The president said the country should have to give big importance to R&D as it was lagging on this front.

Mukherjee said there was a necessity to improve substantially the quality of products produced in India in order to successfully battle competition and the National Test House has a huge role in this respect.

Increased efforts on research and development were necessary for India’s growth, he stressed.

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