Assessing the ICT innovative position of India based on patent data and research publications

Most of the developing countries are characterized by capital deficit economies. This usually leaves their professional economists unprepared to evolve policies, to fight constraints, to deal with the most pressing economic problems of the hour. These economies, therefore naturally pick up sectors requiring less capital. One such recognized sector is Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Use of ICT for research subjects has lately evolved for enhanced designs in many sectors - computer aided drawings for civil structures, simulation software drug designs are a few examples. This research paper aims to investigate quantitative training patents and research publications data to explore the picture of a developing economy, ie India, where the ICT sector has witnessed a path of continuous growth. The analysis of the said data has been carried out to visualize the innovative strength of India by calculating its 'Relative Specialization Strength', 'Horizontal Specialization Strength' and 'Vertical Specialization Strength'. The results show that India is comparatively strong in Vertical Specialization, possibly due to collaboration in providing R&D with other problem-oriented solutions in advanced countries.