India’s limited progress on intellectual property rights and what he described as “stagnant” research is a worrying trend, a senior official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said on Friday, urging industry and academic institutions to step up their efforts in research and innovation.
Speaking at the International Conference on Composite Materials and Technologies organised by Ahmedabad University in Ahmedabad, Makarand G. Joshi, Director of the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) at DRDO, said Indian industries have largely relied on licensed production rather than developing original technologies.
“It's been licensed production for ages. Similarly, on the academic side, the quality is quite poor,” he said.
Joshi noted that while Indian industries are capable of manufacturing tools and equipment, they lag behind in developing design technologies and processes backed by intellectual property.
“Indian industries are good at certain things like making tools, but when it comes to the technology of design and process development, they hardly have any IPRs worth noting,” he said.
Comparing India’s progress with that of China, he said the neighbouring country had made significant advances in research and innovation over the past two decades.
“In the last 20 years, China has moved to the right and upward. And we have kind of stagnated. We have slightly moved up, but to the left. The amount of money we are spending on research in general is less as a percentage of GDP than it was 15 years back. So, that is a worrisome trend,” he said.
Referring to his tenure as the chairperson of the Aeronautics Research and Development Board panel for about six years, Joshi said he gained a detailed understanding of how research projects were funded across academic institutions.
“The quality, I am sorry to say, is quite poor,” he said.
Joshi appealed to students, researchers and industry leaders to contribute actively to the country’s innovation ecosystem.
“So, I appeal to all youngsters here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a clear goal: India must become Viksit Bharat by 2047. This can happen only if each one of us contributes positively. In this effort, it is not only research organisations like DRDO that matter; the heavy lifting must be done primarily by industry and academic institutions,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Nilesh Desai, Director of the Space Applications Centre under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), acknowledged that the country’s space programme has faced some setbacks recently but said the agency remains determined to overcome them.
“As far as space is concerned, ISRO achieved its peak on August 23, 2023, with the landing of Chandrayaan-3. But in the recent past, right now, we are struggling,” Desai said.
Referring to recent failures involving the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), he said technical issues had affected two launches.
“Last time, there was a failure at the beginning of the third stage. And this time, at the end, it resulted in a failure. And then the vehicle went into ‘tumbling mode’. And although the control system tried to correct it or control it, it didn't work out. And again, we failed,” he said.
“The two failures, I really worry about,” Desai added.
He said investigations revealed issues with the graphite lining used in the solid stage of the rocket, which turned out to be of slightly inferior quality despite coming from the same supplier.
For more objective evaluation, he said, the government has now insisted on a review panel comprising members from academia, industry and other research institutions.
“In ISRO, we don’t get deterred by failure. I am sure we will overcome this, and come out with the help of all the other experts from the industry and academia,” Desai said.
The PSLV-C62 mission in January 2026 failed to place 16 satellites into their intended orbit after encountering an anomaly in the third stage. A similar mission, PSLV-C61, in May 2025 also failed due to a motor pressure issue that caused a drop in chamber pressure.
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