Key Details
The Outlook brings together indicators from different years and sources to assess research investment, talent, innovation and industrial capability. Its latest recorded expenditure is for 2023–24; the subsequent expenditure ratios are estimates.
Indicator | Reported Position |
|---|---|
R&D expenditure | ₹2,44,768 crore in 2023–24, up from ₹60,197 crore in 2010–11 |
R&D share of GDP | 0.84% in 2023–24; estimated at 0.87% in 2024–25 and 0.90% in 2025–26 |
Private-sector financing | 51.85% of national R&D expenditure in 2023–24, up from 36.4% in 2020–21 |
STEM enrolment | 1.01 crore students in 2023–24; women accounted for 44%, up from 39.9% in 2016–17 |
Patents | 1,05,157 applications in 2024; resident applicants made nearly 60% of filings |
Innovation ranking | 38th of 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2026; 25th for innovation outputs |
Industry Now Finances a Larger Share of Research
India’s gross expenditure on research and development has increased substantially since 2010–11. The more notable recent change is who finances it: private-sector spending overtook public-sector spending as a share of national R&D expenditure in 2023–24. Business enterprise R&D expenditure, which includes public and private industry, also more than doubled between 2020–21 and 2023–24.
That shift could connect research more closely to industrial needs. It does not, by itself, show that more technologies have reached production or that firms across the economy can adopt them. The Outlook therefore treats research-to-market translation as the next test of India’s expanding investment.
Scientific Output Is Growing, but Innovation Capacity Is Unevenly Distributed
India’s large STEM enrolment base is accompanied by more research publications and patent filings. Resident applicants’ rising share of patents points to greater domestic participation in intellectual-property creation. These measures capture different stages of innovation: a publication or patent is not yet a tested product, a viable business or a manufacturing capability.
The geography is uneven too. The Outlook reports that more than half of recognised startups emerge from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, yet startup accelerators remain concentrated in a few states and Delhi. A wider spread of new firms therefore does not necessarily mean equally widespread access to mentoring, investors and routes to market.
Missions and Partnerships Must Build Lasting Capabilities
The report maps national efforts in AI, quantum technologies, semiconductors, biotechnology, green hydrogen and other fields alongside India’s international research partnerships. Its distinctive contribution is to bring institutions, capabilities, missions and points of contact into one resource intended to help organisations identify collaborators.
The ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund is one mechanism intended to draw more private capital into technology development. The Outlook argues that progress across such initiatives should ultimately be judged by working prototypes, technology transfer, industrial adoption and wider benefits—not funding announcements or research output alone. International partnerships face a similar test: whether they strengthen India’s ability to co-develop and produce technologies, beyond exchanging knowledge.
Policy Relevance
The Outlook offers a baseline for connecting parts of India’s innovation system that are often assessed separately. ANRF, research institutions, industry and technology missions have a shared interest in whether promising research can obtain the testing, finance and industrial partnerships needed to reach practical use. The concentration of accelerators also makes access to that support outside established hubs worth tracking.
As the resource is updated, evidence on prototypes adopted by firms, technology transfers and products brought to market would make it easier to distinguish growing innovation activity from lasting technological capability.
Follow the Full Report Here: India Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2026