How India Performed Better Than Expected in UNCTAD Technology & Innovation Report 2023? |
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The Technology and Innovation Report 2023 by UNCTAD highlights the potential economic benefits of green innovation for developing countries, which can spur economic growth and enhance technological capacities. The report assesses the market size and job creation potential of 17 green and frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and electric vehicles. It urges developing countries to invest in complex and greener sectors, boosts technical skills, and scale up investments in technology infrastructure to grow green industries. To support this evolution, the report also calls on the international community to make global trade rules more supportive of emerging green industries in developing economies and reform intellectual property rights to facilitate technology transfer. The knowledge landscape for these technologies is dominated by the United States and China, with a combined 30% share of global publications and almost 70% of patents. Other countries compete in specific categories, notably France, Germany, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom. The report presents the 2023 results of the readiness index that combines indicators for ICT, skills, R&D, industrial capacity, and finance to assess national preparedness to equitably use, adopt, and adapt frontier technologies. |
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UNCTAD Technology and Innovation Report 2023, Frontier Technologies Readiness and India's Position The ranking for 166 countries is dominated by high-income economies, notably the United States, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The second quarter of the list includes emerging economies, notably China at 35, the Russian Federation at 31, India at 46, South Africa at 56, and Brazil at 40. India remains the greatest over performer ranking at 67 positions better than expected, followed by the Philippines at 54 positions better and Vietnam at 44 better. India performs well for R&D and ICT, reflecting their abundant supplies of qualified and highly skilled human resources available at a comparatively low cost. The Philippines and Viet Nam have a high ranking for industry, reflecting high levels of foreign direct investment in high-technology manufacturing, particularly electronics. Governments worldwide are implementing measures to encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly products, such as the use of feed-in tariffs to level the playing field between green energy and fossil fuels. In India, the government has introduced the "Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles" initiative to promote the purchase and deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. India's move toward electric mobility began in 2013 with the " National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020" (NEMMP2020), which aimed to achieve sales of 6-7 million electric vehicles, including 400,000 e-passenger cars, by 2020. The government followed up on this plan with the "F aster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles" (FAME) scheme in 2015, which transitioned to its second phase (FAME-II) two years later. FAME-II, which is set to end in 2022, promotes the purchase and deployment of charging infrastructure and encourages manufacturers to use more environmentally friendly lithium batteries rather than lead-acid variants. India's electric vehicle policy is spread across three levels of authority – national, state, and city – with most laws and regulations implemented at the state or city level. In addition to FAME, the government supports the automobile industry through the "Make in India" program, which offers various incentives to foreign investors such as tax exemptions, concessions, and subsidies. The government also provides tax incentives for research and development and implements the "Phased Manufacturing program" (PMP), which reduces the "basic custom duty" (BCD) for electric vehicles, assemblies, and parts to promote the development of electro-mobility. India's auto component sector has grown faster than the sector for complete vehicles and exports a quarter of its production. In the last three years, it has attracted significant investments from domestic and foreign entities such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation ($1 billion) and Toyota Kirloskar Motors ($624 million) for EV components. |
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Frontier Technologies: Global Readiness and creating equal opportunities The advancement of technology necessitates that all nations have robust digital infrastructure, particularly high-income countries that lead the development and implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies. Patenting for these technologies is highly concentrated in ten countries, with China being the only exception among them. The top ten countries, including China, account for 70% of the global market for exports, while imports are less concentrated, with the top ten countries accounting for only 46% of global imports of these technologies, including China, Mexico, India, and Turkey. However, the adoption of digital technologies varies not only by country but also by sector and industry. Although many countries may not yet have incorporated these technologies, they will inevitably be impacted by them, necessitating that they anticipate the economic and social implications of the fourth industrial revolution. Several latecomer countries have established national strategies, such as India's "Make in India," China's " Made in China 2025," and Brazil's "Industry 4.0 Agenda," for frontier technologies in the manufacturing sector. Nevertheless, developing countries may require international cooperation and a more consistent trading system with the Paris Agreement to capitalise on the green opportunities that these technologies provide.
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North-South Divide: Why the Problem?
Most of the scientific research in fields critical for the global South is carried out in the North. Between 2000 and 2014, more than 85% of affiliations in climate change publications were from OECD countries, less than 10% were from any country in the South, and only 1.1% were from low-income economies. China has experienced significant growth in green patenting since 2000, with more than 6,200 patents granted in the United States Patent Office (USPTO) from 1975 to 2017. However, no other emerging economies have registered many patents, and the gap with the industrialised world is not narrowing. Only 1% of international patents in clean energy were filed in Africa between 1980 and 2009, with 85% of these coming from South Africa. In most lower-middle-income and low-income countries, patenting activities are hardly measurable. Most countries have increased their green official development assistance (ODA) after the Paris Agreement in 2015. In 2016/2017, many large international donors committed at least 40% of their development assistance as green ODA, but the ODA directed towards green innovation urgently needs to increase. Climate finance is still falling far short, and reaching net zero by 2050 will require around $4 trillion in annual investment in clean energy by 2030. The primary instrument of public climate finance for developing countries is ODA. The absolute value of climate-related ODA has increased between 2012 and 2020, but it falls short of the Paris Agreement pledge of $100 billion per year by 2020. |
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Equal Opportunities- International Collaboration International trade should be consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change, and that trade rules should allow developing countries to protect their infant industries so that new green sectors can emerge. Policies such as selective export subsidies, local content requirements, and tariffs on related imports, as well as direct and indirect subsidies, investment measures, and government procurement that promote domestic products over imported ones. Developed countries need to support less technologically capable developing countries to build their technological, innovative, and productive capacities, and cite the Paris Agreement's provisions for technology development and transfer, capacity building, and required finance. The international protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) has historically hindered technological catch-up and innovation in less technologically advanced countries. The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) set a high bar for IPR protection and did not provide for differential IP regimes for countries at different levels of technological capabilities. The TRIPS Article 66.2 obliges developed countries to provide incentives for technology transfer to the least developed countries, but compliance has been low. The international community should align the international protection of IPRs with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities" to tackle the existential threat of climate change. The international IPR system should allow for tailored IP regimes that balance IP regimes to address the needs of different sectors and different stages of development. WTO mechanisms have been used to promote consistency of the trade regime with climate change agreements, such as allowing eligible members to produce and s upply vaccines without the consent of the patent holder to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian leadership in technology and innovation diplomacy in the past few years and its constant push for greater transparency in sustainable practices at home and abroad has given it a leadership role in reducing frontier technology gap, the better than expected performance in the index just reinforces this. |
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