Global Firms Outperform Indian Firms For R&D Intensity

Global firms outperformed Indian firms for Research and Development (R&D) intensity by 1.7 times. In proportion of PhD employees, Indian firms match global firms, as per the ‘State of Industry R&D in India’ report by the Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST) India in collaboration with IIFL Securities India. 

Global firms produced 14.1 patents per USD billion revenue and 3.4 times publications per USD Billion revenue as compared to Indian firms. 

The chemical sector forms 7.98 per cent of the Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  It is a heterogeneous sector comprising various types of firms, viz fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, polymers, petrochemicals, and bulk and specialised chemicals. About 1/10 of exports from India consist of chemicals or chemical products.

The report found that a foreign firm named Corteva has the highest R&D intensity at 7.0 per cent, 2.3x the R&D intensity of the second-ranking firm. Of the top five ranked firms, only one, PI Industries, is Indian. PI Industries is in the low-revenue cluster and ranks second amongst all firms in R&D intensity. SRF has the second-highest R&D intensity among Indian firms (1.1 per cent) and ranks seventh. 

PI Industries ranks first in the percentage of PhD employees with 3.4 per cent, ahead of all the other global companies studied, while Corteva ranks second. Coromandel International ranks second among Indian firms with 0.7 per cent PhD employees, with fifth rank overall.

The patents per USD billion revenue parameter is dominated by global firms. LG Chem ranks first with a score 2.6x that of Sika AG, which comes in second place. UPL, which is the highest-ranked Indian firm, is ranked ninth overall.

As per the report, Ecolab ranks first in publications per USD billion revenue with 77 publications by revenue. Tata Chemicals ranks first among Indian firms and fourth overall with 36 publications by revenue. 

Tata Chemicals has 2.0 times more publications by revenue than the second-ranked Indian firm, Solar Industries. Both Tata Chemicals and Solar Industries fall in the low-revenue cluster of Indian firms, the report added.