Enterprise · Sub-pillar 5.3

Innovation and technology

Startups, research commercialisation, and the adoption of technology and AI by Indian businesses.

What is innovation and technology?

Innovation and technology is sub-pillar 5.3 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the third of five sub-pillars under the Enterprise pillar. It asks whether India's startups and firms turn ideas into products, whether research in its universities and labs becomes companies and patents, and how readily Indian businesses adopt technology and artificial intelligence.

Why it matters for 2047

Countries become rich by making things others cannot, or making them better and cheaper. That depends on how much they invest in research, how quickly ideas move from lab to market, and how fast ordinary firms adopt the tools that raise productivity. India exports software to the world; whether it also invents for the world is the question for 2047.

Patents are a rough but useful measure of who is inventing. For most of its history, most patents granted in India went to foreign firms. That is changing, and the share held by Indian applicants is a number worth watching year by year.

Artificial intelligence raises the stakes. Firms and workers who adopt it will pull away from those who do not. For India the question is whether its small firms, farmers and clinics gain from AI or only its largest companies.

Where India stands

  • 38th

    of 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2025, with a stronger rank on innovation outputs (32nd) than inputs (52nd). India ranks 1st in the world for ICT services exports and 22nd for knowledge and technology outputs, but 54th on human capital and research and 64th on business sophistication.[1]

  • 61.79%

    of the 1,10,375 patent applications filed in India in 2024-25 came from Indian applicants (68,201), up from 55.96% the year before; five years earlier total filings were 58,503.[2]

  • 50,848

    of the 2,30,480 patents in force in India on 1 April 2025 were held by Indian patentees, about 22%. In 2024-25 the office granted 33,504 patents, 10,682 of them to Indian applicants, after a record 1,03,057 grants in 2023-24.[2]

  • 0.64%

    of GDP was India's gross expenditure on research and development in 2020-21, a share that has fallen since 2009-10; India ranks 56th on this measure and 80th on researchers per million people in the Global Innovation Index 2025.[1][3]

India punches above its inputs. It ranks 38th overall but 32nd on innovation outputs, is first in the world for ICT services exports, and is among the top five for late-stage venture deals and the top 15 for unicorn valuations. [1] Patent filings have nearly doubled in five years and, for the first time, Indian applicants file the clear majority. [2] The startup system has produced more than 120 unicorns and Atal Tinkering Labs now reach schools in 733 districts. [4]

The inputs are thin. Research spending is well under 1% of GDP and falling as a share, researchers per million people rank 80th, and the patent office examined only 15,726 applications in 2024-25 as it trained new examiners, so grants fell sharply from the previous year's record. [1][2][3] Indian holders still own barely a fifth of patents in force in India. [2] Business sophistication, the pillar that captures how firms use knowledge, is India's weakest at 64th. [1]

A note on the numbers: the Global Innovation Index is compiled by a UN agency from many underlying sources and its ranks shift as other countries change; patent counts measure filings, not the value of inventions; the R&D figure is from 2020-21, the latest in official statistics; there is no official national measure yet of how many Indian firms use AI, and 47 BH will add one when a credible survey exists.

On the 47 BH report card

Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:

  • Global Innovation Index rank, and input and output sub-index ranks (WIPO).
  • Patent applications and grants to Indian applicants, and share of patents in force held by Indians (Office of the Controller General of Patents).
  • Gross expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP and researchers per million (Department of Science and Technology).
  • Share of firms adopting digital tools and AI (to be added when an official survey exists).

Two lenses on innovation and technology

City and village

47 BH asks whether invention happens only in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune or also in the engineering colleges and industrial clusters of smaller cities. The patent office reports Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra as the top filing states; the spread beyond them is the number to watch.

Learn, avoid, protect

Learn
What can India learn from countries whose universities routinely spin out companies, whose governments buy from their own startups, and whose small manufacturers adopted automation and software early?
Avoid
Which mistakes should it avoid, such as counting startups and patents rather than products and productivity, letting research funding stagnate while celebrating rankings, or leaving AI adoption to a handful of large firms?
Protect
What of its own should it protect, such as the public digital infrastructure that lets startups build on identity, payments and data at near-zero cost, the frugal engineering tradition that makes products for a billion budgets, and the open-source and services talent that the world already relies on?

What this sub-pillar does not cover

Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:

Questions about innovation and technology

Where does India rank on innovation?

38th of 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2025, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, ranking 32nd on innovation outputs and 52nd on inputs. It is 1st in the world for ICT services exports. [1]

How many patents does India grant?

33,504 in 2024-25, of which 10,682 went to Indian applicants, after a record 1,03,057 grants in 2023-24; examinations fell to 15,726 while new examiners were trained. Of 2,30,480 patents in force on 1 April 2025, Indian patentees held 50,848, according to the patent office's annual report. [2]

How many patent applications do Indians file?

68,201 in 2024-25, or 61.79% of all 1,10,375 applications filed in India, up from 55.96% the previous year. Total filings were 58,503 in 2020-21. [2]

How much does India spend on research?

About 0.64% of GDP in 2020-21, the latest year in the Department of Science and Technology's statistics, a share that has fallen since 2009-10. India ranks 56th on this measure in the Global Innovation Index 2025. [1][3]

Why is innovation a development question?

Because a country that only adopts others' inventions pays rent on them forever. A developed Bharat invents for itself and for the world, and that requires research money, a working patent system and firms that use new technology rather than fear it.

Sources

  1. World Intellectual Property Organization, "Global Innovation Index 2025: India" economy profile, September 2025. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/gii-ranking/2025/in.pdf
  2. Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Geographical Indications, "Annual Report 2024-25", December 2025. https://ipindia.gov.in/storage/uploads/docs-operator/7a8f0ca4-5a8e-416e-b8d4-5647ec352bb9.pdf
  3. PRS Legislative Research, "Demand for Grants 2024-25 Analysis: Science and Technology", citing Department of Science and Technology R&D statistics, 2024. https://prsindia.org/budgets/parliament/demand-for-grants-2024-25-analysis-science-and-technology
  4. Press Information Bureau, "A Decade of Startup India" backgrounder, 15 January 2026. https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2026/jan/doc2026115757801.pdf

47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.

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