Impact of international cooperation and science and innovation strategies on S&T output: a comparative study of India and China

India and China have made sizeable growth in publishing science and engineering research papers in co-authorship with international institutions and patents granted in collaboration with foreign inventors during the period 1997–2012. However, the growth in case of China is much higher in comparison to India. The pace of growth in publishing research papers in co-authorship with international and domestic institutions is more or less the same in case of China, whereas India has shown higher growth in publishing research papers in co-authorship with international institutions in comparison to those with domestic institutions. The share of India and China to research papers published in co-authorship with international institutions increased from 1.8% and 4.1% respectively, in 1997 to 3.5% and 14.7% respectively in 2012. China's share to patents granted in collaboration with foreign inventors increased from 0.94% in 1997 to 13.68% in 2012, compared to an increase of 0.56% to 7.39% in case of India. The analysis shows that China has harnessed the fruit of its international cooperation in S&T to its advantage, as reflected by significant increase in research papers co-authored with international institutions and patents granted in collaboration with foreign inventors in comparison to India.