Innovation policy instruments at firm level, Review of India fs policy with respect to R&D tax incentives and Intellectual Property Rights

Right through her independence, India has been trying to achieve economic growth with technological self-reliance. In order to achieve this goal, the country has been adopting a mix of industrial and innovation policies. During the period up to and including the early 1990s, the state attempted to give shape to this goal by intervening directly by generating a whole host of industrial technologies through state-owned undertakings and other public research institutes. During the period since the 1990s, coinciding with the economic liberalization policies the state has replaced this with incentivizing the innovation system of the country. This is because the state wants the private sector enterprises to be at the core of the innovation system. Key to incentivizing the private sector was two specific policies, namely the R&D tax policy and the policy on Intellectual Property Rights. The paper undertakes a critical review of the very recent changes to these two policy instruments.