China, India should establish BRICS Innovation promotion framework

By Prasoon Sharma

The Global Innovation Index 2017 (GII), gave a ranking of ‘22’ to China and ‘60’ to India. GII provides a key tool and a rich database of detailed metrics for economies, which in 2016 encompassed 130 economies, representing 92.8% of the world’s population and 97.9% of global GDP.

BRICS-member nations embrace 42 percent of the world's population and create 18 percent of gross domestic product on a global scale. BRICS -member nations hold 17 percent of the world's investment in research and development and publish 27 percent of the scientific articles on international journals.

In GII 2016 in middle income group of countries, China and India are leaders. As per GII 2017, China is among global top 10 for providing human resources in Maths & science. And India is among global top 10 for providing human resources in Engineering& science. 

As per GII 2017, China is number one in high tech export in knowledge output domain. And India is number one in ICT service exports in knowledge output domain

The State Council of China has issued a national scientific and technological innovation plan in a bid to build China into an innovative country and a scientific and technological power. Based on the idea that innovation is the prime development driving force, the plan is a blueprint designed for technological innovation development during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). China has witnessed major developments in technology improvements, such as manned space flights and lunar probes, manned deep-sea submersible, deep earth exploration, super computers and quantum communication. The plan urged to play the key leading role of scientific and technological innovation in uplifting the industries to the medium- and high-end, developing new growth drivers, expanding new development space, improving development quality and efficiency. The plan called efforts to accelerate the implementation of major national scientific and technological projects and launch the scientific and technological innovation 2030 project. With qualified patents exceeded one million last year, China become the third country after the United States and Japan to join the world's million patent club.

India has had a very strong history and heritage of innovation. India was the pioneer of legendary universities such as Nalanda and Takshashila, which drew people from all over the world. We invented the zero and had a great legacy of innovation in science, art, culture, music, architecture, performing arts and philosophy. In fact, India was the largest economy in the world in the 16th Century.

PwC estimate the need for India to increase its R&D spend to 2.4% of GDP by 2034, and focus on innovation-driven solutions that may account for almost 40% of the 10-trillion-USD Indian economy envisaged by 2034. 

As per the Startup India Action Plan, 500 Tinkering Labs are to be established. NITI Aayog has selected 457 schools for establishing Tinkering Labs. Of the selected, 366 Tinkering Labs have received a Grant-in-Aid of INR 12 Lakh each.

In BRICS summit 2017, Andhra Pradesh-Shenzhen Joint Incubation Centre should initiate BRICS Innovation challenge. BRICS countries are among the most innovative countries in the world. And they should join forces in order to address some of the world’s most pressing innovation challenges.

A woman visits the Isoftstone big data industry center in Yuquan District of Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Aug. 1, 2017. Isoftstone big data industry center was put into operation on Tuesday in Yuquan District to promote the construction of "Smart City" and "Smart tourism". [Photo: Xinhua]

BRICS countries’ Innovation Authority should call early-stage start-ups, research teams and companies, to submit their solutions to challenges in agriculture, water or digital health, ICT etc

The most promising proposals should

• win cross-border mentorship and incubation/acceleration prizes

• an opportunity to participate in an exclusive co-creation summit in India with industry leaders, experts and potential partners

• get market access in BRICS

• get an opportunity to pilot with leading partners in BRICS

In BRICS summit 2017, Initiative like Province Partner for Innovation (PPI) should be launched. For E.g. Guangdong & Andhra Pradesh should work as partners to promote innovation & startups in High tech domain and ICT domain.

On July 18, 2017, BRICS-member nations have set up an action plan to give a boost to science and technology cooperation among them. Ministers of science, technology and innovation of BRICS member nations signed an agreement in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. This also mentions about Action plan for Innovation Cooperation.

At the 5th ministerial meeting on science, technology and innovation BRICS in Hangzhou, Wan Gang China's minister of Science and Technology, stated that 'Hangzhou Declaration' was once again a cooperation among member nations and very important to boost the global economy and support sustainable development.

BRICS Action Plan for Innovation Cooperation 2017-2020 'emphasizes that innovation is one of the key forces for global sustainable development and plays an essential role in furthering economic growth.

This Action Plan for Innovation Cooperation stated that BRICS are committed to expanding innovation cooperation based on existing joint research mechanisms and programs, to encourage collaboration between science parks and to strengthen training for technology transfer.

In June, 2017 at BRICS Media Forum held in Beijing BRICS member nation have stressed the urgency of multimedia innovation and communication transformation.

In his speech Cai Mingzhao, president of Xinhua News Agency and executive chair of the forum, pointed out that participating media organisations all agree to actively explore cooperation in areas such as integrative development, video, new media and social media.

Last year, Xinhua established the cooperative and sharing platform "On-Scene Cloud," which can offer its members media content, channels, technologies and other services. "We are willing to open that platform to BRICS media free of charge," he noted.

"As innovation is transforming media from print to digital, we have to get used to a different kind of business model, Zenariah Barends, Co-chairman of the BRICKS Media and chief of staff in South Africa's Independent Media, told Xinhuanet on the sidelines of the forum.

"In addition, all media across the world are struggling with the same issue -- how technological development affects and forces media to change the way they basically tell the stories, ” she said."Therefore, we can not rely solely on print," she added.

And private media houses like ZEE, India TV from India, Interfax from Russia should also participate actively for Deepening media cooperation among BRICS countries, promoting equity and justice in international media.

In BRICS summit 2017, BRICS Innovation challenge TV show should be launched. This TV show should be broadcasted by all public and private TV channels. This show should invite entrepreneurs like Jack Ma (Alibaba), Robin Li (Baidu), NR Murthy (Infosys), Dr Subhash Chandra (Essel group) and others from all BRICS nations.

(Prasoon Sharma is Fellow at India Global and Visiting Research Fellow at Qianhai Institute of Innovative Research)