Foreword
July 2004

R.A. Mashelkar, FRS
Secretary to the Government of India
Department of Scientific & Industrial Research

India has a vision of transforming itself into a developed nation by 2020. Technology will be a powerful tool in achieving this transformation. There is an emergence of a number of Indian firms which are reckoned as world-class. For instance, the Forbes’ list of 200 best, under one-billion dollar companies outside the US has 18 companies from India. A year ago, the Forbes’ listed only 13 Indian companies. With winds of ‘Technoglobalism’ sweeping the country, India is also rapidly becoming a global R&D hub. Computer software, IT consulting, business process outsourcing, semiconductor design, automobiles & auto components, drugs & pharmaceuticals, etc. are some of the areas where India has now made a global impact.

The new Science & Technology and pro-business policies of the Government, continuous infrastructure development, networking and upgradation of educational institutions, internationalization of production and R&D, emerging international, regional and sub-regional frameworks including the WTO, open up new opportunities for technology intensive exports from India. One also sees a marked strategic change that Indian companies have brought about. For instance, the pharma companies are introducing new drug molecules in the global market, the steel companies have acquired capabilities to meet the global demand for specialty steels, and driven by phasing out of textile quotas in 2005, the textile companies are experimenting with new innovative designs. Also, increasing overseas contracts and volume of exports of the engineering companies show a great potential.

The technology intensive exports had a share of around 19 per cent in overall exports of US$52.2 billion during 2002-03. It should be now well within the reach of India to bring about a quantum jump in the share of technology intensive exports in overall exports. The service sector also showed a spectacular growth of 20.8 per cent during 2002-03. India, with services exports of US$25 billion and a share of 1.4 per cent in world export of services during 2003 ranked 20th in the world. Given India’s large pool of high quality human resource, available at a fraction of international costs, there is also a good potential for faster growth in technology driven services sector exports from India.

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) of Government of India has been implementing an International Technology Transfer Programme, which aim at promoting India’s international technology trade and exports of technologies, projects, services and technology intensive products. Comprehensive data on technology exports, in respect of many countries, including India is not readily available. With a view to bridging this gap, DSIR made a beginning in 1995 by presenting the limited data available in the form of a Compendium on Technology Exports from India. Five volumes of the Compendium have been published so far, out of which the last three were brought out in collaboration with Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi.

The present volume for the period 2000-2002 is the sixth volume of the Compendium, presenting data on 377 organizations. Although, the number of organizations covered by the survey has been progressively increasing from 34 in 1994-95 to 377 in 2001-02, the survey cannot be termed comprehensive since it is believed that there are many more technology intensive organizations still outside the ambit of the survey. However, a moderate sized database of technology intensive organizations has been built up for understanding the nature of our technology intensive exports. Out of the 377 organizations covered by the recent survey, 248 organizations have reported technology intensive exports of Rs. 156,849 million during 2001-02 and the remaining organizations have claimed to be in possession of exportable technologies/projects. According to the survey, growth rate of high technology exports is higher compared to medium and low technology exports and average exports of high technology exporting organizations are also higher than medium and low technology exporting organizations. The organizations engaged in high technology exports also have a high R&D intensity. Among the 248 exporting organizations covered by the survey, 94 organizations have foreign collaborations but the survey is inconclusive about the impact of foreign collaborations on exports.

I wish to thank the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi for collaborating with DSIR in bringing out the Compendium. I also appreciate the cooperation received from concerned government departments and agencies, banks and financial institutions, particularly the Reserve Bank of India and EXIM Bank, industrial and consultancy organizations, associations and research institutions, exporting companies, who have provided invaluable inputs in brining out the Compendium.

While inadequacies usually inherent in preparation of such a volume cannot be ruled out, I am encouraged by the fact that compared to the earlier volumes, the sixth volume has information on a large number of exportable technologies and technology intensive products and has been enriched by an in-depth analysis of parameters impinging on technology exports. I hope the presentation of these data will be found useful. Suggestions, if any, to add further value to the Compendium and enrich this data resource would be most welcome


Preface

PROFESSOR & HEAD
CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN TECHNOLOGY
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN TRADE

Sustainability of India’s economic reforms and international competitiveness is substantially dependent on its ability to increase exports, consistent with the country’s need for import of goods, services and technology. To have a sustained export growth, it is imperative that India gears itself for a quantum jump in technology-based goods and services. Unless there is considerable value-addition, continued export expansion with limited growth in agriculture and industrial production will not be feasible. Similarly, services exports, specially technology intensive, must be pushed up. Considering the fact that services today account for more than 50 per cent of GDP and its rate of growth is much faster than the other GDP components, its export potential is beyond doubt. However, new areas involving higher technological and managerial contents may also need to be identified and nurtured, keeping in view the existing capabilities and potential not yet exploited fully.

Over the years, India has achieved a degree of competitiveness in knowledge and technology-intensive products. In contrast the product exports, technology exports are quite often accompanied with export of associated capital goods, material and services. Technology export generates direct or indirect exports on long term basis. Foreign direct investments associated or accompanied with technologies and related services are generally preferred by the host country. Technology exports not only encourage higher value addition and increased foreign exchange earnings but also promote international competitiveness as well as brand image of the country, besides other benefits. The Government of India has recognized this and is continually liberalizing its policies to promote inward and outward Foreign Direct Investments in line with its national objectives and priorities as per WTO requirements.

Many developing countries need technologies and plant & machinery relevant to their development levels. India could be one of the potential suppliers to them. However, these countries usually lack adequate technology information which can help them to make the appropriate technology related decisions.

Against this backdrop, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India has taken an initiative to entrust the responsibility of preparing an annual compendium of exported/exportable technologies from India to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. So far, five editions of the annual Compendium on Technology Exports have been brought out by the Institute with the active support of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. These issues contained data for the period 1994-1995--2001-2002. The present volume of the Compendium on Technology Exports—An illustrative Compilation of Exported & Exportable Technologies from India is the sixth edition. The data show that overall technology exports from India in 2001-02 registered an increase of 18.01 per cent over the previous year from Rs. 38,799 crore to Rs 50, 236 crore.

It is very encouraging that the number of companies/organizations providing information for the Compendium about their exported/exportable technologies has been continuously increasing over the years (377 in 2000-01 & 2001-02, 250 in 1999-2000 and 120 in 1998-99). We are grateful to these organizations and hope that they would continue to cooperate with us in future also.

The present issue of the Compendium has larger coverage in contents and deeper analysis of the data compared to earlier volumes, which is of direct relevance to the trade and industry, as well as reflects logistic approach of DSIR towards promotion of technology intensive exports. This includes database of technology related companies and organizations obtained from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and companies participating in the Technology Pavilion at Pragati Maidan at the Indian International Trade Fairs, etc.; categorization of survey companies by level of technologies, viz. low technology, medium technology and high technology; technological classification of Indian manufacturing industry; characteristic features of responding companies classified according to nature of exports including R&D intensities, sectorwise exports of companies/organizations having foreign collaborations based on technology intensity/services; and companies having foreign collaborations and sectorwise approved overseas investments in Joint Ventures/WOSs, etc.; and classification of exports of exporting companies in terms of technology intensity etc.

The Compendium is widely disseminated to responding companies/organizations foreign embassies in India, Indian missions aboard, apex chamber of commerce & industry, industrial associations, R&D institutions, etc. as a promotional measure to catalyse technology intensive exports from India. The Compendium has received wide appreciation from various quarters and seems to have generated several serious business enquiries and to the Indian exporters.

Shri Prabir Sengupta, Director, IIFT, has encouraged and provided all facilities during the preparation of the Compendium. Dr. A Lahiri, Advisor, DSIR, took personal interest and made valuable suggestions in brining out the Compendium. This Compendium has prepared by a study team comprising Shri G.P. Gandhi and Shri Madan Lal, Research Officers in the Institute under the overall guidance of Dr. S.P.Agarwal, Head, Centre for International Trade in Technology. Shri Ashwani Gupta, Director (Scientist “F”), DSIR has worked very closely with IIFT Study Team and contributed significantly in the preparation of the present volume. Miss Geeta Rawat provided secretarial assistance in preparing the manuscript.

It is hoped that the Compendium would continue to be useful to all those concerned with the international trade directly or indirectly including policy-makers, industry, R&D institutions, etc. Views and suggestions would be welcome and would be considered for future volumes of the publication.