Indian companies top investment in Research and Development globally

20 February, 2013

A study by European Commission has revealed that Indian companies are the leaders among the various international companies, when it comes to investment in Research and Development activities. The Indian companies have left their European and US counterparts far behind in this domain.

The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard report shows that in the list of top 1500 companies across the world in terms of their absolute annual R & D investments, there were fourteen Indian companies. The largest overall increase in R&D investment was reported by companies based in India with the highest of 35.1 per cent, followed by China at 28.1 per cent.

Sectors such as Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), automobiles and auto components, industrial engineering, electronics and pharmaceuticals in India have registered highest R&D investment, a report by ANI said.

However, Indian firms rank far below when it comes to absolute R&D investments made by them and the top-ranked company from the country, IT major Infosys, is ranked at 329th place globally. Infosys is the top-ranked Indian company at 329th place, followed by Reliance Industries (507th), Dr Reddy's (776th), Tata Steel, M&M at (888), Lupin (916), Ashok Leyland (1136), ONGC (1,222), BHEL (1,230), Cipla (1,275), Cadila Healthcare(1,313), Glenmark Pharma (1,314), Sun Pharma (1,336) and Wockhardt at 1,472nd place globally.

The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard report shows that the R&D investment of US-based companies grew by 9 per cent, while that of companies from the EU rose by 8.9 per cent. Recovering from the earthquake, the associated nuclear disaster, the Thai floods and a strong Yen in 2011-12, the R&D growth rate for Japanese companies was also low at 1.6 per cent

Swiss companies increased their R&D investments by only a modest 1.4 per cent. Notably, the Swiss companies accounted for the largest number of entities on the top-1500 list.