India’s global R&D in IoT benefitting Europe, China, US, Korea more, not India: Japanese Survey

ACN EXCLUSIVE. An ongoing survey conducted by Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), New Delhi has revealed that the majority of the institutional co-research projects in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) by Indian companies were carried out in Europe, China, US, South Korea, and other countries resulting in registration of patents there, not in India. The co-research projects between India and Japan in IoT are found to be a negligible number despite the fact that a large number of Japanese companies sitting on piles of patents.

JETRO fears that countries other than India and Japan took advantage of Indian research capability for their own domestic markets or businesses. It is currently conducting an analytical study of global R&D projects in the field of IoT between India and other countries.

“In IoT sector, we deeply surveyed co-research projects, papers and co-patent applications. The tentative results of our study reveal that 34 percent of total co-research was carried out between India and Europe, surprisingly it was 28 percent with China, 24 percent with the US, and 12 percent with South Korea. It seems that Korean companies have huge relations with India institutes. And India’s co-research with Japan is just 2 percent,” said Takashi Suzuki, Chief Director-General, JETRO, New Delhi.

Suzuki said that these patents made between India and other countries were mostly registered in Europe, China, US, Korea, and not in India.

This may mean that the countries other than India and Japan took advantage of Indian research capability for their own domestic markets or businesses in their country. Therefore, something is missing between India and Japan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call saying India’s software and Japan’s hardware can do wonders is not happening big yet,” lamented JETRO’s India chief.

Japan is the 4^th largest investor in the Indian economy with cumulative FDI inflows of USD 38.13 bn (April 2000 to September 2022). The bilateral trade volume between the two nations crossed USD 18.5 bn in the year 2022 (Jan-Nov). Key sectors include automobiles, Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM), Medical Devices, Consumer goods, Textiles, Food processing and Chemicals.

While asking the Indian and Japanese corporate world to look at this global trend carefully, Takashi Suzuki appealed to the large financial institutions to intervene to reverse the situation.

“So, this kind of global trend, we should follow. We have mega banks which huge network with Japanese companies or SMEs. I would like those financial institutions to work on those Japanese companies to understand how other countries are using India for global business,” Suzuki added.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is a Japanese government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. JETRO’s strength also lies in its global network of more than 120 offices, including 49 in Japan and 76 in 55 other countries.