India to slip behind China in business innovation: Study
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 17 May 2007, 19:30 IST
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New Delhi: India will give away its lead over China as an innovative country in the next five years, even though it has emerged as the second best place for the business innovation after the U.S., says a new study. According to the survey of 485 senior executives worldwide carried out by Hong-Kong based Economic Intelligence Unit, Japan has emerged as the world?s most innovative nation in terms of business practices, followed by Switzerland, the U.S. and Sweden. India has been ranked at 58th position, ahead of China?s 59th position in a ranking of 82 economies, based on their level of innovation during 2002-06. According to the study, the top four economies are set to maintain their position during 2007-2011, while China will move up to 54th position overtaking India. In 2011 India would not be rising as much as China and would be ranked at 56th position. The study also found that both India and China were breaking out of their position as members of the underdeveloped world. The U.S. emerged as the country with best conditions for innovation, followed by India at the second position, UK at the third and Japan at the fourth. However, China is likely to have more favorable conditions for innovation than India in the next four years, the study found. Besides, the commercial infrastructure in China is modernizing rapidly and multinational companies are opening research centres there, lured by low salary costs, the business information unit of Economist Group says. With annual expenditure of $136 billion on research and development, China has already become the world?s second largest R&D investors after the U.S.. U.S. have spent $330 billion in R&D in 2006 against Japan $130 billion. While noting that the companies were the ultimate engines of innovation, the study says there is much that the government could do to kick-start the process.

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