India has edged past the United Kingdom by delivering more cutting-edge critical technology research during the period between 2019 and 2023, data published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on Wednesday (August 28) showed. 

The institute updated its critical technology tracker this week by focusing on high-impact research or 10 per cent of the most highly cited papers, as a “leading indicator of a country’s research performance, strategic intent, and potential future science and technology capability”. 

The tracker covers 64 critical technologies and crucial fields spanning defence, space, energy, the environment, artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, robotics, cyber, computing, advanced materials, and key quantum technology areas. 

1. India has edged past the United Kingdom in critical technologies research. It now ranks among the top five countries for 45 of 64 critical technologies against the UK’s 36. For the period between 2018 and 2022, the UK was among the top five countries for 44 of 64 critical technologies while India was among the top five nations for 37 of 64 critical technologies. This represents enormous gains from 2003-2007 in which India was placed among the top five countries for only four technologies. 

2. While more Indian research papers in critical technologies are being cited by researchers worldwide, overall, few India-based institutions appear in the top 20 rankings across any period between 2003-2023. But for the period between 2019 and 2023, two Indian institutions — Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (10) and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (14) — feature among the top 20 institutions for critical technology research. The rest of the institutions in the top 20 list are all based in China. 

3. New Delhi-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is ranked fifth in the world as an institute with the highest quality research in Biofuels, the ASPI critical technology tracker showed. 

4. When one considers the contribution of a particular institution in a single critical technology research area, India lacks standout institutional performers. Even though India is doing well at the national level (top 5 in 45 technologies), “the country’s research expertise in critical technologies is highly fragmented”, the ASPI report notes. “The lack of standout institutional performers may be limiting India’s ability to attract foreign research talent and motivate prominent Indian scientists and technologists to stay at, or come back to, Indian institutions,” the report notes further. 

5. As a country, India finds it difficult to retain early-career critical technologies researchers who after leaving the country, go on to conduct high-impact research “primarily in the US and Europe”, the data by ASPI talent tracker, which tracks the flow of global talent in these critical technologies, showed.

6. India has displaced the United States as the second-ranked country in two new technologies (biological manufacturing and distributed ledgers) to rank second in seven of 64 critical technologies. 

7. The ASPI tracker showed that while India does not yet lead in any of the 64 critical technologies — only the United States and China lead in any of the 64 technologies — it still is a strong performer across a range of technologies, especially in biofuels and high-specification machining processes, “making major gains since 2019”. 

8. The report forecasts that India is poised to overtake China in its publication rate in biofuels within the next few years. “This is significant and would mark the only technology in which the lead country is not the United States or China,” it added.

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9. Up from 14th in the 2003-2007 period, India in the 2019-2023 period is ranked third in the world after China and the United States in terms of delivering cutting-edge critical technologies research.