India Inc's expenditure on R&D declines to lowest level in six years

Expenditure on research and development (R&D) by Indian companies has declined to its lowest level in six years.

Of the S&P BSE 500 companies, an analysis of 98 firms (for which continuous data is available over the last decade) shows that their R&D expenditure, on average, came in at 0.54 per cent of net sales.

This is the lowest since 2012-13. The absolute value of R&D expenditure showed a 2.7 per cent fall in FY19, the first decline since at least FY11.

Lower expenditure by pharmaceutical companies may be a key reason for the fall.

ICRA analyst Gaurav Jain said in FY19 major Indian