Indian companies spend less than 1% of net sales on R&D
While the automobile and pharma sectors continue to have higher R&D spends, analysis shows that the share of pharma and IT in the total spends on research shrunk, and others like ecommerce and electronics lag further behind
Some of India’s largest companies spent over ₹17,300 crore on R&D in FY24, about 23 percent more than what they did in FY22. But this jump has meant little as spending on research and innovation remains less than a meagre 1 percent of the companies’ net sales, a trend unchanged since FY21.
While the automobile and pharma sectors continue to have higher R&D spends, analysis shows that the share of pharma in the total spending on research has shrunk in FY24 to about 12 percent from 19 percent in FY21. The share of IT-software in total R&D spending has declined from 4 percent in FY21 to under 3 percent in FY24. Moreover, companies in sectors such as IT-hardware, textiles, tyres, e-commerce/app-based aggregator, telecom and electronics did not show any R&D investment in FY24.
A slower growth rate and a higher dependence on the public sector in R&D spends has meant that India continues to lag behind most emerging and advanced economies in terms of research spending.
Last Updated :
August 04, 25 12:07:37 PM IST