Innovation Report "Understanding Innovation: Indian National Innovation Survey with Special Focus on MSMEs"

Understanding Innovation: Indian National Innovation Survey with Special Focus on MSMEs

Edited by Pradosh Nath, N. Mrinalini and G.D. Sandhya; CSIR-NISTADS, New Delhi, 2014.

Foreword (by K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi)
National Science Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been continuously engaged in the evidence generation and analysis on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) resources for evidence based policy planning for S&T sector in the country. As a part of the new initiative Science, Technology, Innovation and Creation of Knowledge (STICK), a National Innovation Survey framework has been conceptualized and designed through in-depth discussions with the national and international experts for launching the National Innovation Survey. As a step forward, a national report entitled "Understanding Innovation: Indian National Innovation Survey" with special focus on MSMEs has been brought out recently by DST. The national report, first of its kind, benchmarks innovation potentiality of Indian firms in terms of innovation activities, sources of innovation, linkages, human resource, effects and factors affecting innovation activities. The report is based on the  analysis of sample survey of 9001 firms, largely MSMEs, spread across 26 states and 5 Union Territories across various industrial sectors in the country. A commendable effort has been made by the DST and CSIR-NISTADS project team to put together fundamental issues related to innovations in the context of developing economies to make this report useful to policy makers, planners and the scientific community. I hope the report, as a unique initiative, would provide required impetus in devising evidence based policy prescriptions or recommendations for strengthening the innovation infrastructure and growth of MSMEs in the country.

About the survey
Over the last few years NSTMIS, DST had involved various stakeholders in evolving an appropriate framework to measure the innovation and knowledge creation capabilities in Indian context. The NSTMIS framework draws upon the inputs of the pilot innovation survey, sectoral innovation studies, and interactions with the national and international experts while adapting the internationally accepted concepts and definitions on the measurement of innovation to launch the National Innovation Survey. The survey is not about identification of innovations that is happening in Indian industries. It is about understanding the process that makes innovation happen or constraints innovation from happening. The understanding is through developing and examining a set of indicators that would help promoting and monitoring innovation in Indian production system.

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