The Rationale for Indian Science Services

A possible Indian Science Services will be required to sustain the Government of India’s PLI Schemes designed to catapult the country’s socio-economic indices

Priorities are an essential constituent of any individual or collective effort. Why do we prioritise efforts? First, it could be practiced merely as a to-do. Second, it could be to achieve some parts of the targeted end. And third, it could be undertaken to become champions of the prioritised domains. The Government of India’s (GoIs) ongoing effort for indigenisation is congruent with prioritising. India has chosen the more challenging but reaping path of identifying priority domains that can cultivate manufacturing champions. This pursuit is known as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes, part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat aspiration.

The Landscape of PLI Schemes

The PLI Schemes landscape spans from light-emitting diodes to electronics, processed food to textiles, automobile components, white goods, energy storage and photovoltaics, medical devices to information technology hardware, specialty steel to niche drugs, and pharmaceutical ingredients. The GoI has prioritised this array of products mainly due to the general aversion for their indigenous research and development (R&D), which makes our country heavily rely on their imports. With the PLI Schemes, the focus will be to provide financial incentives and reliefs to those manufacturers who can produce these products on a mass scale. Of course, one goal of the PLI Schemes will be to reduce import dependency by spawning their large-scale manufacturing, including creating supply chains. But the other goal is to cultivate national manufacturing champions. How does creating a champion help?

Firstly, India is an enormous domestic market. A market with traits quite different from the developed economies. The impetus on cost-effectiveness, robust product quality, reliable repair and overhaul services, capturing downstream and upstream profits, reducing production costs makes it possible for India to produce on a vast scale for the domestic market and create the same export-grade products.

In contemporary times, the single-biggest benefactor of basic science research and development (R&D), after governmental grants, is the industry. And the ability of the industry to finance R&D grows if it has a hardy monetary ledger. PLI is the Indian government’s potion to make manufacturing champions who can, in the long-run, support R&D.

The 13 domains currently supported by the PLI Schemes appear prominently in global patent statistics maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). According to 2019 WIPO statistics, India ranks 8th in the world in terms of resident intellectual property activity but concurrently receives almost 64% non-resident filings. However, in the past few years, the rate of resident filings has been steadily increasing in India, perhaps owing to Make in India, Startup India, and their sister GoI initiatives. Additionally, in its attempt to enter the 5-10 trillion-dollar economy space, India will also have to focus on improving its resident patent applications per gross domestic product (GDP) ratio.

The Significance of R&D Leadership

Suppose India has to increase its resident intellectual property and earn long-term strategic dividends. In that case, its industry will have to take the R&D leadership mantle, which can happen only through the creation of manufacturing champions via the PLI Schemes.

Another question that arises is, what made GoI choose these 13 domains? One cannot precisely fathom the rationale behind the choice. Still, the same WIPO statistics, 2008 onwards, show that computer technologies, electrical and energy machinery, digital communications, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, food chemistry, medical devices, textiles rank highly in the total share of published patent applications. The numerous patent applications from these domains will come from synergistic public and privately funded R&D. Here, too, the PLI Schemes will give the Indian private sector the ‘skin-in-the-game and make R&D indispensable so that they emerge as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). The marque called OEM will be synonymous with becoming a manufacturing champion.

One needs to be conscious that the goods targeted for the PLI Scheme are not rudimentary products but are outputs of decades of constant R&D. These products have evolved from the embryo of basic science to gradually grow through the nine technology-readiness levels and eventually attain commercial readiness, the last mile before reaching mass manufacturing. India’s dream of nurturing OEM champions is possible in the nurseries of R&D laboratories. The nurseries demand an agile science and technology diplomacy.

Natural science is usually known to remain dormant like a spore for long periods. However, just like the breaking of the spore leads to faster growth of the organism it was eventually supposed to evolve into, the transition of natural to applied science also brings in new challenges, mainly of the economic and commercial nature. OEM manufacturers have to abide by technology standards or set them if they happen to reach the pinnacle of becoming technology pioneers. They have to promote this intellectual property across international technology standards bodies and make sure that profits are accrued well within the short shelf life of the standard and before the next-generation standards kick in.

The OEM also has to develop long tentacles that plug it into academia — be it universities or state laboratories — harvesting basic science projects well before they hatch into low-TRL applied science. Their tentacles must touch the startup world and identify those that can supply the components that will rejig their original equipment and make it ready for the next generation. Their tentacles must also be prepared to cultivate a focused in-house R&D infrastructure that continuously upgrades their equipment.

The Need for Indian Science Services

While it does all this, the champions will need a bevy of scientifically-sound technocrats that will upkeep the strategic interests of the OEM and the customers it serves. India’s PLI Scheme will eventually need a collegium of technocrats that can work on the domestic interface of the government-industry-academia-consumer base. Internationally this collegium will be required to represent Indian OEM in various countries, plug into their industry bodies, keep vigil about the competitors, acquire overseas R&D assets, and tactically maneuver the vertical and horizontal integration of the PLI Scheme’s OEM champions.

The PLI Scheme in the coming years of this decade of 2020s will become a massive catapult for India’s socio-economic indices. Its sustenance will depend on creating a cadre of scientifically-minded technocrats that can be called the Indian Science Services (ISS) at par with other cadres like Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and Indian Foreign Service.

India can become the second or even the largest economy on the planet by the year 2070. Well-known emerging markets investor Mark Mobius of the Mobius Emerging Markets Fund asserts, “India is on a 50-year rally.” John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, proclaimed, “If I have to bet on one country in Asia, it is India. I would bet on India twice.” Back home, ace Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is confident when he says, “We are in the middle of a bull phase which will last for a very, very long time.” Now all these statements may appear to be coming from Indophiles. India has always been upheld as the next bright spot of the global economy and with massive potential to captain the global economy. R&D is most likely the missing link that can make India go ‘kinetic’ from its steady-state potential. To that end, a wise R&D strategy emanating from the PLI Schemes and creating a new Indian Science Services cadre will be necessary.

​Name of PLI Scheme	Concerned Ministry	Target Manufacturing Goods	Budgetary Outlay (crores)
​Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)	​Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers	​04 fermentation based KSMs/DIs; 10 niche fermentation based KSMs/DIs/APIs; 04 Key chemical synthesis based KSMs/DIs; 23 chemical synthesis based KSMs/DIs/APIs	​6,940
​Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing	Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology	​Mobile phones; surface-mount technology components; discrete semiconductor devices including thyristors, diodes, transistors; passive components like resistors, capacitors; printed circuit boards (PCBs), PCB laminates, prepregs, PCB printing inks; photopolymer films; sensors, transducers, actuators, crystals; system-in-package (SIP); microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS); Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units	​40,951
​Manufacturing of Medical Devices	Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers	​Implantable electronic devices (cochlear, pacemakers); anesthetics and cardio-respiratory medical devices (catheters for cardio-respiratory and renal care); radiology, imaging (ionizing and non-ionizing radiation) devices and nuclear imaging devices; cancer-care/radiotherapy medical devices	​3,420
​Information Technology Hardware	Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology	​PCB Assembly, battery packs, power adapters, switched mode power supply, cabinet/chassis/enclosure for laptops, desktops, servers	​7,325
​Pharmaceuticals	​Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers	​Bio-pharmaceuticals; complex generic drugs; patented drugs or drugs nearing patent expiry; cell based/gene therapy drugs; orphan drugs; special empty HPMC; Pullulan; enteric capsules; complex excipients; phyto-pharmaceuticals; repurposed drugs; auto-immune; anti-cancer; anti-diabetic; anti-infective drugs; cardiovascular drugs; psychotropic drugs; anti-retroviral drugs; invitro diagnostic devices; other drugs as approved and other drugs not manufactured in India	​15,000
​Telecom & Networking Products	​Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications	​Enterprise equipment: switches, routers; Access and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE); Internet of Things (IoT); Access Devices and other Wireless Equipment; 4G/5G, Next-Generation Radio Access Network and Wireless Equipment; Core Transmission Equipment	​12,195
​Food Products	​Ministry of Food Processing Industries	​Ready-to-Cook/Ready-to-Eat including millet-based foods; processed foods and vegetables; marine products; mozzarella cheese	​10,900
​White Goods	​Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry	​Air conditioners and their high value (copper tubes, aluminum foils, compressors) and low value (PCB Assembly for controllers; service valves, cross flow fans, motors) intermediates; LED lighting products (LED chip packaging, resisters, integrated chips, fuses, LED drivers, LED engines, mechanicals, packaging, modules, wire-wound inductors and other components)	​6,238
​High-Efficiency Solar Photovoltaic Modules	​Ministry of New and Renewable Energy	​Stage-1: Manufacturing of Polysilicon from outsourced (imported/domestic) M.G. Silica + Stage-2: Manufacturing of Ingots-Wafers from Stage-1 Polysilicon + Stage-3: Manufacturing of solar cells from Stage-2 Wafers + Stage-4: Manufacturing of Modules from Stage-3 Solar Cells or Fully integrated manufacturing of Thin Film plant or fully integrated plant of any other technology Within 3 years from date of sanction Stage-2: Manufacturing of Ingots-Wafers from outsourced Polysilicon + Stage-3: Manufacturing of solar cells from Stage-2 Wafers + Stage-4: Manufacturing of Modules from Stage-3 Solar Cells or similar level of integration of any other technology Within 2 years from date of sanction Stage-3: Manufacturing of solar cells from outsourced Wafers + Stage-4: Manufacturing of Modules from Stage-3 Solar Cells or similar level of integration of any other technology	​4,500
​Automobiles & Auto Components	​Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises	​OEM in 2/3 wheelers; passenger/commercial vehicles, tractors; military automobile, advanced automotive technology vehicle (battery electric/hydrogen fuel cell)	​25,938
​Advance Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery	​Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises	​50 GWh (gigawatt hour) ACC capacity; 5 GWh niche (high-performance) ACC with minimum threshold capacity of 500 MWh	​18,100
Textile Products: MMF segment and technical textiles	​Ministry of Textiles	​Apparels; geo-textiles; agro-textiles; medical/hygiene textiles; defence textiles; mobile-textiles; sports textiles; protective textiles; construction textiles; specialty fibres and composites; smart textiles	​10,683
​Specialty Steel	​Ministry of Steel	​Coated/plated steel products; high strength/wear resistant steel; specialty rails; allow steel products and steel wires; electrical steel	​6,322

This blog was published in the November 2021 edition of Science India magazine published by Vijnana Bharati.