Achilles Heels of India’s R&D: Import Dependency of Scientific Instruments

Innovation is the key to India’s civilizational well-being and economic growth, as underscored by the pandemic, and most recently, by the Russia-Ukraine War.

The Russia-Ukraine War of 2022 has exposed several fault lines within the global comity of nations. The war is a calamity on the lives of commoners who suffer the blow directly affecting their lives and probably leaving marks for generations to come. However, it is dangerous to be simplistic in assuming that such calamities transpire from kinetic military actions only. There is far less understanding about ‘Wars by Other Means’ and how they keep bringing calamities occasionally. There is less understanding about such non-military acts because the collective mindset is often numb and denies to fathom the vast spectrum of warfare possible. Such a numb mindset is unable to take necessary actions to counter this warfare. This numbness needs to be thwarted for national security reasons, especially when attempts to weaponise nearly all possible social and economic pursuits are being made.

India is an ancient civilisation but a new country. Today’s India strives to come out of the shadows of imperialistic colonisation and reclaim the rightful place it enjoyed in antiquity. Since Independence, and as evident from various socio-economic indices, India has grown from being an under-developed economy to a newly-industrialised economy touted to be the second largest on the planet in the next 10 years. For various reasons, not many countries have been able to possess a growth trajectory like India, and therefore India has no models to follow but many to offer. This can be the closest interpretation of the freely used term ‘Vishwa Guru’. In such a scenario, we Indians are unaware of several dangers ahead. However, what we accomplish may prove to be a model for many developing nations across the planet.

In the coming years of Amrit Kaal, the one kind of human activity that will be vital for India’s progress and warding off any threats will be scientific research and development (R&D). From spawning agricultural technologies to the digitisation of urban governance, from preparing for contagious diseases, creating robust finance technologies, taking Indian vyomanauts to the Moon and Mars, and developing the next-generation directed energy weapon systems, these and more will depend on R&D activities and the fidelity of these activities.

India’s Dire Dependency on Import of Scientific Instruments

Apart from good scientists and finance, which India has plenty, the foundation of cutting-edge science lies in scientific instruments. Spectroscopy, spectrometry, microscopy, chromatography, thermal analysis, tribometers, electrochemical analysis, DNA sequencers, magnetometers, accelerometers, and calorimeters are some of the most widely used instruments across various scientific laboratories. These instrument types are necessary to characterize samples, materials, and analytes. They are essential to measure, quantify, detect, analyse matter and materials and generate vast scientific data. Modern science cannot be carried out without these scientific instruments, and their centrality to R&D makes the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of these instruments indispensable to economic security.

The trade of scientific instruments is easily decipherable on the import-export database, managed by the Ministry of Commerce. These instruments are classified under the Harmonic Systems Code 9018 to 9034. India’s import statistics of these instruments exceed our export tremendously, indicating that India’s industry has yet not reached a stage where it could manufacture these extremely high-tech, precision-driven instruments domestically. The imported instruments are used in hospitals, medical research centres, chemical/ biological/ physical/ atomic/ space industries, pharmaceuticals, health diagnostic laboratories and more. They are imported across India’s commercial, civilian, and military R&D laboratories. It is estimated that 80-90% of India’s analytical instruments are imported.

Over the past eight years, India has steadily reduced overseas dependency on its top 10 imports. The government’s emphasis on supporting cleaner passenger transportation with renewable energy and clean fuels reduces the high imports of petroleum products. Likewise, to minimise the import-dependency on consumer electronics, India recently has begun working on Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes for semiconductors, electronics, and mobile phones. The Indian government’s National Steel Policy aims to domestically meet all the demands of high-grade automotive steel, special steel, electrical steel, and alloys for strategic applications. The policy projects increasing India’s steel manufacturing capacity from the current ~140 million tonnes (MT) to 300 million tonnes by 2030. Having taken steadfast reforms to reduce overseas dependencies on petroleum, electronics, and steel imports, India somehow has missed formulating strategies to lessen the massive imports of analytical instruments.

Since independence, India has imported scientific instruments from OEMs based in Japan, the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. These instruments were imported via license dealers, and most of the customer base consisted of public and private R&D institutions and universities. These instruments form the bulk of capital expenditure where publicly-funded institutions can avail waivers for paying import duties; private entities do not have similar respite while procuring them. The OEMs have created domestic employment, especially in sales, maintenance, repair, and overhaul services, but none have set up manufacturing units on Indian soil. Such units could have reduced the cost of import, but there has been no thought given to this dire dependency.

Import dependency in a world fraught with wars

The fecund financial sanctions and business cancellations from the Russia-Ukraine War are dangerous and short-sighted reactions. The myopic abuse-friendly steps taken by big-technology social media companies have created immense turbulence in the global economy and have reduced confidence about the world-view possessed by the big-tech companies. Although not many countries are prepared to go on a kinetic war, many are ready to wage economic, digital, and information wars. The readiness for such conflicts is a significant threat for import-dependent R&D ecosystems.

Nations home to scientific instrument OEMs with adversarial sentiments may target import-dependent ecosystems by implementing stringent export controls or tariff escalations as a method of conflict escalation. Such export control may amount to a prohibition on international sales of scientific instruments. In another scenario, such OEMs might also be asked by their home country's government to stop providing MRO (Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul) services to customers in the ecosystem being targeted. Both these scenarios are likely to cripple R&D activities of all kinds, thereby arresting scientific progress across domains and leading to economic losses and even political disorder.

In the past two years, we have learned how conflicts and pandemic-related lockdowns in manufacturing hubs can send the global technology supply chains into economic turbulence. Turbulence may not affect developed economies much; however, the developing economies could be more vulnerable. And their vulnerability can also rupture the already fragile global peace.

How can India reduce import dependency?

India must strategise to reduce import dependency on scientific instruments to prepare for such ominous scenarios. We must formulate strategies to accommodate scientific instrument OEMs to set up manufacturing plants in India and make India the base for further sales to South, South-East, West Asia, Africa, and the Indian Ocean Region. Secondly, India must begin to raise domestic OEM players in this domain and assist them in getting their product portfolio at par with the dominant OEMs in the market. Thirdly, India must formulate intelligent policies that will make manufacturing in India a better proposition than exporting to India. The Indian government is already encouraging R&D institutions to increasingly use Make in India products in their laboratories. Additionally, they must provide more encouraging benefits to institutions actively collaborating with Indian scientific instrument OEMs with their product development. These benefits can include providing closer accessibility to research grants, additional personal fellowships, and flexible royalty sharing with the innovator.

India has often looked at science to attain global amity and peace. However, in the increasingly multipolar world, weaponisation of all aspects of human aptitude is fast becoming a reality. The weaponisation of science is not fiction anymore. Therefore, India needs to protect the nation's ability to uninhibitedly do science. To that end, a sound strategy to not let the import dependency on scientific instruments become India’s Achilles Heels is a must. Innovation is key to India’s civilizational well-being, economic growth, and environmental sustainability practices. Any attempt to interrupt India’s innovation capacities must be neutralised pre-emptively.

This blog was published in the March 2022 edition of Science India magazine published by Vijnana Bharati.