The National Innovation System of India: historical perspective and key characteristics

This chapter presents a brief review of the evolution of the Indian National Innovation System (NIS), from its historical formation to its current challenges from a systemic perspective. Since its independence in 1947, India went through a fast economic development, moving from a rural agricultural-based economy to an industrialised urban economy with a robust high-tech service sector. Indian NIS characteristics qualitatively changed from a fully public-oriented, closed, and inward-oriented system to a mixed open system in which the public sector plays a central role alongside large firms/conglomerates in crucial sectors, resulting in a relatively developed but still heterogeneous and imbalanced innovation structure.