India R&D ecosystem set to become stronger

BANGALORE, INDIA: The economic downturn and the maturity attained by India Research and Development (R&D) offshoring industry has resulted in India taking on a more central and strategic role than ever before, states the Zinnov Management Consulting's vision for India's R&D industry by 2019.

The vision was released here at the “Congruence 2009: Inspire the future”, a one-day annual R&D confluence, which also says that by 2019, most MNC R&D centers in India will operate with 'Strategic independence' or as global strategic partners of their headquarters. Additionally, these MNC centers will create competencies through acquisition of world-class start ups and India will be the headquarters  for services, support, emerging market business and other global functions.

Pari Natarajan, chief executive officer, Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt Ltd, said that during 2007-2008,  India R&D offshoring industry witnessed a shift in key focus areas.

“The R&D offshoring, which initially started only for cost savings and access to talent pool, has undergone a paradigm shift towards innovating and local market focus. Now there is an increased focus on competency creation, organizational alignment, product/business ownership and productivity initiatives,” the CEO added.

Natarajan said that the innovation and value generation is indeed the future. “We believe that for the ecosystem to evolve, a true congruence of MNC R&D leaders and product development providers is needed and this confluence will make way for the next generation of global advantage for India.”

He said while there are exciting opportunities for growth in years to come, there are, at the same time, challenges facing the industry that are compelling each one of us to think out-of-the box , and thereby innovate.