Role of Science and Technology in Business Growth

 

Dr. K. S. Gurupanch¹*, Mrs. Shreelekha Virulkar²

¹Principal, M.J. College, Kohka, Bhilai      

 

ABSTRACT:

Innovation performance is a crucial determinant of competitiveness andnational progress. Moreover, innovation is important to help address global challenges, such as climate change and sustainable development. the application of advances in technology, in conjunction with entrepreneurship and innovative approaches to the creation and delivery of goods and services, which translates scientific and technological advances into more productive economic activity. This results in economic growth if market structures and the regulatory environment enable the more productive activities to expand. This said, the innovative effort itself, including formal research and development, remains the sine qua non of growth. Lithuania is a small and catching up economy with a GDP per capita of 52.1 % of EU average. The current level of labor productivity (per person employed) in Lithuania is low, accounting only for 53.2 % of EU 25 average.Lithuania is lagging behind the average of EU countries in terms of gross expenditure on R and D - in 2005 only 0.76% of GDP invested in R and D (EU average is 1,85%) - underestimate expenditure of private companies in RandD?

 

Six subsidiaries in India:

•        Sales and Marketing                                               1990

•        Software Development                                          1999

•        Technical Support                                                  2003

•        Consulting Services                                               2004

•        Research                                                                  2005

•        IT Support                                                                2005

 

This paper makes a review of evolution of industrial growth in India by the support of  Science and Technology.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

India’s economy has a large informal sector, which is generally associated with low labour productivity and poverty in the country. India became the first country to recognize the innovative ability of the informal sector and support it. Grassroots innovations scouted in various parts of India are now provided a complete cycle of support and integrated into the formal sector through networking cooperation with research institutions, businesses and governmental organizations at various levels.  

 

 

This article traces the genesis of the system of support for grassroots innovation in India through the institutionalization of the innovative activity of the informal sector. The specifics of this process can be taken into consideration by countries wishing to unleash the innovative potential of the informal sectorIt is necessary to maintain and develop the capability to create and exploit new technologies, products and services in the context of global competition. Finding effective solutions to the innovation challenges will sometimes require competences and infrastructure that you won’t necessarily have in-house.Future Knowledge-Based nanomaterials will critically depend upon materials characterization methods, from common lab techniques to dedicated large-scale facilities: support facilities and modeling capabilities are needed for the relevant industrial R&D (GENNESYS study,2009).Drivers for such infrastructures: product complexity, risk of financial engagement, market entry,  to be able to integrate various technologies and pool together different  competences…

 

Infrastructures are expensive. We need to know the resources that are available within Europe and that can help us further developing our research, first steps through  market.

 

Lithuania spends 6.2% of GDP on telecommunication, which is almost twice as much as average of EU 25. Share of internet based commerce out of all turnover, for Lithuania this is 5.5 and thus extremely high, only exceeded by Ireland and the UK (EU 25 average is 4%).The level of internet access has increased tremendously between 2004 (16%) and 2006 (43%), UROSTAT) But Lithuania has the second but lowest share of GDP for IT (1.6% compared to 3.0 % as EU 25 average). Annual growth rate of R&D personnel has been 4.5% in 2005 (compared to 1.3% at EU level) and the growth rate of researchers has been 6.5%. (EU 3.0). Lithuania has a good basis of science and technology graduates. Per 1000 population there are 17.5 graduates in S&T, the EU 25 average being just 12.6.

 

Incubation is a dynamic process of business development.

 

 

 

 

 

Incubators nurture young firms, helping them to survive in their early stage.

 

Incubators provide:

·        Infrastructural support i.e. office space, meeting room

·        Platform to do networking

·        Management assistance

·        Other support services, specific to incubators

 

 

Infrastructures play an key role in the advance of knowledge and technology, facilitating technology transfer and innovation. They are in a pivotal position in the science to business path. They are a useful instruments to help looking for solutions to many of the problems society is facing today as the offer unique and essential services to users and adapt technologies to their needs.

 

Networking: It is necessary to establish partnership between research laboratories, universities, industry and the European infrastructures. Moreover, links between all KETs and smart specialisation are necessary. Distinguishing the purpose of such alliances as virtual/real infra is important in providing a strong perspective to a networked infrastructure future.

 

Key terms

For better understanding of the issues, two key terms must be defined.

 

Informal sector

The informal sector includes economic activity outside of government regulation in the form of unregistered enterprises and employment. The OECD excludes from the informal economy the services rendered by household members, volunteer services provided to the community, and nonmarket economic activities (products and services that are not for sale, for example, building a house)because of the inability to measure their cost (revenue, employment and share of GDP). The OECD also does not include the economic activity of the agricultural sector in many developing countries because this sector is too large and difficult to quantify.

In this article, the term ‘informal sector’ extends the concept of the informal economy given by OECD. The informal sector is considered here as the environment in which the activities of individuals and groups of individuals (communities, households), both within enterprises and independently, produce goods and services for the market (sales and profit) and for use within people’s own households or community without material gain. Grassroots innovation There is no universal definition of grassroots innovation. For instance, Hilmi considers GRI an ‘innovative productor process created at the bottom of the pyramid, usually due to necessity, hardship and challenges’. Bhaduri and Kumar define grassroots innovators as ‘individual

innovators, who often undertake innovative efforts to solve localised problems, and generally work outside the realm of formal organisations like business firms’. Chinese experts suggest defining GRI as innovativeactivities of improving products, techniques, and crafts in a random and extensive way by the grassroots people who have grasped the corresponding techniques and skills. They extend it by inclusion of private research institutions and private enterprises as collective innovators. Smith, Fressoli and Thomas consider GRI withingrassroots innovation movements as socially inclusive innovation processes.

 

One of the initial, basic and ongoing activities of HBN is holding expeditions in different parts of India twice a year in search of grassroots innovations (shodh yatra, journey of exploration). The participants are volunteers. The results are technological and non-technological innovations based on traditional knowledge, thus on the creativity of ordinary people. Over several years, HBN collected more than 150,000 ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices (not all unique or distinctive) from over 500 districts throughout the country. HBN became the first brick in the future system of grassroots innovation support. It provided the initial step of scouting and documentation of innovation carried out by persons from the formal sector such as the students who participated in shodh yatras. Innovations that were scouted needed to be validated and verified, so the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) was founded in 1993 with the support of the IIM-A, using its lab infrastructure and human resources. SRISTI’s laboratories performed the primary microbiological, entomological and chemical analysis of materials or products scouted by HBN.

 

CONCLUSION:

Govt. initiatives to develop incubators

·        Public-Private partnerships

·        Some benefits and sops to develop and manage incubators

·        The return in this business (incubators) come after a gap of time, Govt. needs to fill this gap in PPP

 

Indian incubators have to think beyond R&D assistance Networks with VCs and other firms also requiredIn India, the institutionalization of innovations from the informal environment has had specific features:

·        The institutionalization process is built on ‘bottomup’

·        Principles. It is completely conditioned by reality

·        The main function of organizations within this institutional architecture is to provide channeling of internal (within the informal environment) and external (with the formal sector) communication. This ensures the entire chain of processes by enabling innovative product

·        Development (scouting, verification, validation, testing, prototyping, IPR protection, commercialization, technology transfer, social diffusion) and decreases transaction cost at all stages.

 

This type of institutionalization is scalable on the regional, national and international levels.

 

One of the most important results of the institutionalization of innovations from the informal environment in India has been awareness and recognition of the innovative capacity of the informal sector and people who generally were considered as burden on the national economy.

 

REFERENCES:

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National Innovation Foundation. Annual Report 2002–03.

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National Innovation Foundation. Annual Report 2012–13.

West GIAN. Motorcycle Driven Ploughing Machine, 2014.

Vigyan Prasar Science Portal. Innovating and improvising to increase agricultural productivity, 2014.

National Innovation Foundation. Innovation Catalogue, 2013.

Gupta, A. K., Global GIAN: Online and offline incubation of grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge: towards Tianjin Declaration, 2007.