R&D Financial News

Lava International expects to capture 10 per cent market share in under Rs 30,000-priced smartphone segment on account of up to Rs 600 crore investment in product development and marketing in the next two years, a senior company official said. Lava International President Sunil Raina told PTI that at a time when several Indian mobile phone companies succumbed to the pressure of aggressive pricing of foreign players around 2016-17 coupled with challenges posed by demonetisation and GST implementation, Lava focussed on its core strength and re-worked on the growth strategy. The company relaunched its smartphone business with a small pause with focus on customer experience around devices and providing repair service at home, Raina said.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked for industry opinion on ways to encourage and better the research and development ecosystem for telecom, broadcasting and information and communication technology (ICT) in the country in a new discussion paper released Friday. Issues like the role of telecom operators in facilitating R&D in the country, steps to improve government-industry-academia dynamics, simplifying patent application and encouraging private sector R&D through incentives are among those raised in the paper titled 'Encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting and IT (ICT) Sectors'. «The consultation paper is aimed at understanding the present ecosystem of R&D in India, identify and learn from practices adopted by R&D leaders across the globe and account for issues to be consulted with the stakeholders for enhancing the R&D scenario in India,» Trai said in the paper. Trai also asked for industry opinion on why multinational companies focus on software rather than hardware in India, and the measures that could be taken to promote basic/applied research by MNCs strengthening the current R&D efforts in software and improving R&D efforts in hardware. «How can awareness about IPR be increased among the researchers and industry in ICT sector? Is there a need to reduce the cost of filing patents in India? If yes, how can it be done?» the sector regulator asked.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked for industry opinion on ways to encourage and better the research and development ecosystem for telecom, broadcasting and information and communication technology (ICT) in the country in a new discussion paper released Friday. Issues like the role of telecom operators in facilitating R&D in the country, steps to improve government-industry-academia dynamics, simplifying patent application and encouraging private sector R&D through incentives are among those raised in the paper titled «Encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting, and IT (ICT) Sectors». “The consultation paper is aimed at understanding the present ecosystem of R&D in India, identify and learn from practices adopted by R&D leaders across the globe and account for issues to be consulted with the stakeholders for enhancing the R&D scenario in India,” Trai said in the paper. Trai also asked for industry opinion on why multinational companies (MNCs) focus on software rather than hardware in India and the measures that could be taken to promote basic/applied research by MNCs strengthening the current R&D efforts in software and improving R&D efforts in hardware. “How can awareness about IPR be increased among the researchers and industry in ICT sector?.. Is there a need to reduce the cost of filing patents in India? If yes, how can it be done?” the sector regulator asked.

Rajnath Singh on Tuesday called upon domestic defence companies to invest more in research and development for India to keep pace with the evolving world. Addressing the North-Tech Symposium, jointly organised by the army's Northern Command, the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and IIT-Jammu, Singh described the country's defence manufacturing sector as «imaginative, innovative, dynamic and progressive». «Though research and development (R&D) is a risky venture as it requires out-of-the-box thinking and sometimes does not give desired results, it still remains one of the basic elements for the development of any country,» he said.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd aims to spend 7-8 per cent of its sales in the current fiscal on research and development activities as it looks to further strengthen its product portfolio across therapeutic segments, a senior company official said on Monday. Addressing shareholders during the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi said the company did well in all its geographies last fiscal, recording double-digit growth. «Our R&D spending is expected to be 7-8 per cent of sales in 2023-24 with an increasing share of spending in specialty (drug segment) R&D,» Shanghvi said. The Mumbai-based drug maker had reported a global consolidated revenue of Rs 433 billion in FY23. The Mumbai-based drug major spent about Rs 2,400 crore on R&D in 2022-23, which accounted for about 5.5 per cent of the sales as it continued to invest product pipeline for both global generics and specialty businesses.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCL technologies, said in the national capital on Saturday. Speaking at a B20 panel on technology, innovation and R&D, she said, “One of the issues with global technology and skilling is that innovation is very specific to countries,” adding that the challenge is taking solutions to scale. Nadar-Malhotra, who also co-chairs the B20 Taskforce on Digital Transformation, said the B20 Task Force on Technology, Innovation and R&D’s recommendation for such a digital platform aligns with that of her own task force’s focus on bridging the digital divide, addressing digital literacy and the skills gap, enterprise transformation of MSMEs with a digital toolkit, and fostering digital trust. Developing future skills will be key and has boded India well since it invested in R&D in information technology since the 1970s, she said. This attracted international companies to come and leverage its capabilities.

NEW DELHI : India’s first national policy on research and development in pharmaceuticals and medical technology sets out to create a ‘new drug discovery mission’, a move that would focus on Indian ailments and plug a gap in the world’s biggest manufacturer of generics. The policy also pushes the promotion of R&D in animal health care as about 70% of infectious diseases in the last three decades globally have originated in animals.

NEW DELHI : The government should give incentives for research and development projects on advanced battery technology, said a CII report on Sunday. The report on battery manufacturing and its ecosystem released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), suggested that incentives be given from a dedicated fund for the development of the battery technology ecosystem.

N S Boseraju on Saturday said a state-level research foundation will be formed to conduct research and development in startups and industries. Speaking at the valedictory session of the Indian StartUp Festival-2023 at Sathya Sai Village, Boseraju said it is imperative for constant research and development in the field of science and technology that is fundamental to the startup ecosystem.

₹50,000-crore fund, with a sizeable contribution from the private sector, to "seed, grow and promote" research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India's universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories. It seeks to set up different funds - the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Fund, for the financing of activities under the Act; the Innovation Fund for supporting outstanding creativity in the areas supported by the foundation; the Science and Engineering Research Fund for the continuation of the projects and programmes initiated under the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008; and one or more special-purpose funds for any specific project or research.

Lok Sabha on Friday by Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill-2023 seeks to set up a Rs 50,000-crore fund, with a sizeable contribution from the private sector, to «seed, grow and promote» research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India's universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which designs but doesn’t manufacture its own chips, will invest about $400 million in India over the next five years to expand research, development and engineering operations in the South Asian nation, Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and chief technology officer said on Friday. “I am pleased to announce that AMD will invest approximately $400 million in India over the next five years," he said. Making the announcement at the Semicon India 2023 conference, the top executive said that AMD will build a new campus in Bengaluru which will be AMD’s largest R&D facility in the world.

AST SpaceMobile, the Texas- headquartered company on Monday announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) services hub and space technology development centre in Hyderabad. The company is building a space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones. The state-of-the-art facility will focus on next-generation hardware, software, space-related technologies and operations, AST SpaceMobile said in a release.

₹5,000 crore for a period of 5 years, i.e., from 2023-24 to 2027-28. Despite India is known for its supplies of accessible and affordable generic drugs to the world, the expenditure in research and development particularly in the pharma sector is very low. The R&D sector accounts for only 7% of the overall expenditure by the Indian pharma industry, compared to over 35% spending in R&D in the developed countries.

The consortia will define the ‘problem’ or gap and fund research on the same at institutes, centres at institutes and groups of institutes, sources in the know said. Industry-academia collaboration and limited institutional level research spread are the key missing piece in India’s R&D ecosystem. The NRF hopes to address it through a multipronged strategy that will facilitate industry ownership of R&D initiatives and drive it down to the states. Critical to it is the funding plan that will be detailed in the Bill. The upcoming Bill proposes to set up NRF—an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research in the country— at a total estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore during five years (2023-28).

New Delhi: The union ministry of new and renewable energy on Wednesday released the draft roadmap for research and development of green hydrogen manufacturing and storage. As per the draft roadmap, the plans to develop efficient, safe, and cost-effective hydrogen storage methods that enable high-density storage, reduce leakage, and allow for easy and quick refueling.

US-based semiconductor company Microchip Technology has announced a $300 million investment plan to expand its operations in India, just days after similar moves from industry players Micron, Applied Materials, and Lam Research. To strengthen its presence in India, the company has inaugurated a new research and development (R&D) facility at One Golden Mile Office Tower in Hyderabad.

S Jaishankar said on Monday. Interacting with the students of NIT Delhi as part of the BJP's mega public outreach to mark nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Jaishankar advised them to understand local and global developments.

The new R&D law has overly broad language that states “any and all” software development must be amortized over five years if the development took place in the United States, or over 15 years if the work was done overseas. The change doesn’t sound so bad on its surface; some argue it might even create more tech jobs in the U.S.

Thailand based metaverse startup Translucia Global Innovation has partnered with the Australian software development firm Two Bulls and set aside an initial budget of $100 million to build a Metaverse Research and Development Center (MRDC) in Melbourne.