Where Are The Subject Matter Specialists?

If Indian economy aspires to compete with China and South Korea, we need to develop our regulatory bodies and institutions by including subject matter specialists in them.

If India’s economy has to grow, it has to quickly transition from an agriculture-based economy to a combination of innovation-driven, manufacturing-driven and service-driven economy. After all, even today, close to 50% of our workforce is still employed in the agriculture sector, which accounts for only about 14% of our GDP. That is bad news.

A combination of events such as the economic liberalization initiated in 1991, C-DOT’s telecom revolution in the late 80s and years of middle class investment in education etc helped us to build a USD 150 billion High-Tech/SW exports industry, employing millions of youths, many of whom, like me, happen to have a rural agricultural background. Since I grew up in a village in Tamil Nadu, I can relate to the aforesaid events and the importance of policy changes. These paved the way for rural agricultural workforce’s participation in the present new age economy.

To sustain this momentum and reach our full potential, we need to initiate another set of reforms for competing with economies such as China and South Korea. Our strategy, policy formulation and skill development has to be well-coordinated and completely tuned with our economic aspirations. Unfortunately, an absence of coordinated strategy, policy formulations lacking subject matter expertise and not upgrading our skill-sets are limiting our potential, while our Asian counterparts like South Korea and China are moving ahead.

Not only in infrastructure, China has had a systematic approach when it comes to building regulatory bodies and institutions, which, in turn, has started playing a key role in economic growth. Similarly, Taiwan’s methodical development of Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) has played a vital role in making it, the “future electronics manufacturing hub” in recent years.

While our Indian ruling establishment and intellectuals are unified in their goal, which is, of achieving economic progress at par with China and doing even better, we fail to recognize the importance of key regulatory bodies and institutions. Traditionally, we have always given importance to the selection of the RBI Governor and other RBI board members and for the right reasons. After all, the RBI is entirely responsible for our fiscal policies.

The RBI Governor’s appointment is widely discussed in various quarters, the recruitment of the RBI staff has separate procedures and their incentives are structured to attract the best talent. While we traditionally took care and recognized the importance of filling institutions like RBI with critical talent, we fail to extend the same importance to other significant regulatory bodies like Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) or institutions like Telecom Development Board (TDB) in Department of Science & Technology or Controller General of General Patents Designs and Trademarks, which have an equal role to play in the new age global economy.

Realising the importance and the needs of today’s tech-driven economy, China has appointed Dr. Shen Changyu as their head of State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), the apex body for IP framework and enforcement. Dr Changyu is an accomplished scientist with an impressive academic background. Unlike the Chinese approach, India’s IPR think tank did not give sufficient representation to the R&D community, predominantly located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.

In today’s technology-driven world, where multi-billion lawsuits like Apple vs. Samsung are becoming common, IP regulatory body has a vital role to play and it has to be business-oriented in global terms. After all, China, which was known for its notorious IP infringement, quickly transformed it into a global business approach. Similarly, Singapore, which is known for its business-oriented approach, included several professionals from an industry background in EDBI (equivalent of our TDB). EDBI goes well beyond funding tech start-ups and plays a wider role in transforming eco system, connecting universities and tech industry.

To expedite privatization of defence R&D, Dr. Arati Prabhakar, an Indian American scientist with a private equity background was brought in to head Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States. Dr. Prabhakar brought in significant changes, leveraged university network and brought in accountability to tax spending.

If the Indian economy aspires to compete with nations like China and South Korea, we need to look beyond RBI and systematically build regulatory bodies and institutions (TDB) with subject matter experts. Global business is the need of the hour, and well-strategized planning and execution the key to success.