Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw calls for incentive scheme for research

India needs to incentivize industries to invest more in academic research for creating a better ecosystem of research and innovation, Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a book launch event organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), Mazumdar-Shaw further said as the government has come up with incentives for production, it should also come up with incentives for research.

"India needs to incentivize industries to invest more in academic research to create a better ecosystem of research and innovation," she said.

Speaking at the event, former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said due to economic reforms India's growth accelerated from 3 per cent (before liberalisation) to 7-8 per cent.

Former deputy chairman of erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the difference between 1991 and now is that in 1991, there was a global consensus on what to do.

"We (India) were the only odd guys out. But today, that consensus has more or less disappeared," Ahluwalia said.

He said there is this view that digitalisation is creating so much power on the part of the big guys to mine data, that the whole idea that markets lead to rational allocations in the light of consumer decision-making is totally undermined.