Listed firms spent Rs 36,000 crore on R&D in 6 years, just 0.9% of revenues

Listed companies spent Rs 36,000 crore on research and development (R&D) — just 0.9 per cent of revenues. As a percentage of GDP, R&D spends in India have averaged 0.7 per cent in the past six years, ICICI Securities’s analysis showed. 

India’s R&D spends are “relatively low as compared to other emerging economies (1-1.5 per cent) and significantly lower than developed economies and China (more than 2 per cent),” said Vinod Karki, Siddharth Gupta, and Anagha Deodhar, analysts at the brokerage.