This hit hard. Thank you for putting it out. Maybe it’ll spark some change somewhere. There have been some encouraging policy decisions in the past 2 years but I don’t know how much has happened on the ground. Hope things change. They must change if we want to get close to the Viksit Bharat dream.
I've been thinking about the problem of Indian technological sovereignty. For an economy that has a stunning excess of human capital, India's economy is chiefly built upon the service industry and exporting capital to maintain the back-offices of the global economy. AI is going to eat into that advantage for sure. Even otherwise, as tariffs have shown, we are a vassal state at the mercy of other global powers.
To remedy that, like you write in this article, India needs to develop "first-in-the-world" and "best-in-the-world" products – developing its own design philosophy, and a culture of original fundamental research that is sorely lacking. I was researching why such a culture isn't present already, and what specific factors are holding India back. This article was a gold mine! Thanks for writing about these problems through the lens of the pharma industry in such stunning detail. This was a long read, but it was worth the time I spent on it.
So from what you write, the complicated machinery of bureaucracy and the lack of support for fledgling startups (which are already at a high risk of failure) seem to be the key deterrents. It reminded me of an interview in which somebody asked Lee Kuan Yew what holds India back from becoming like Singapore. He gave two opinions:
1. India is very fragmented in terms of linguistic and cultural diversity. There is no single language or mode of communication that can be used to express a unified national mandate which reaches every segment of the population. This divides administrative energy even if the mandate is clear at the top.
2. The way funds are distributed from the federal to state to local governments isn't simple. e.g It's possible for the center to redesign Mumbai as an autonomous special economic zone like Shanghai, but this would mean the state of Maharashtra voluntarily giving up the funds from Mumbai needed to supply the rest of the state or the center restructuring the government, which would need a constitutional amendment with a 2/3rds majority. (I'm not very savvy on how the center-state funds flow works, maybe something worth looking into)
A lot of it also seems to come down to a trust problem. Like how you write about the excessive guardrails and oversights from the government, accounting for every dime spent, when more leeway can be given to innovators. Scientists are being treated like grifters instead of stars. Maybe these rules made sense in a low-trust society where the risk of exploiting beneficient schemes was high, but now with eKYC, surely a better system of accountability can be designed that makes India a more attractive destination for all the frustrated scientists in the US?
After reading Ashlee Vance's article on Boom Supersonic, my co-founder and I were wondering why there aren't ambitious projects of that scale in India. Finally got an answer to that! Thanks for writing this article. Feel like there are multiple articles to be written drawn from this one.
Some other resources that you might find interesting:
1. How Asia works – A book review that reinforces some of your points, that a fledgling economy transitioning to an industrial one needs to manufacture products not just for its local economy but should also compete at the global level (like the Chaebols of South Korea). https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-how-asia-works
An extremely well researched and thoughtful piece-the author deserves much credit for assembling his thoughts and marshalling the facts in such a comprehensive manner. I was unaware of the onerous and self-defeating regulations surrounding Indian Biotech. Really need a complete mindset change here to establish a viable innovation ecosystem. It will take a huge effort to axe the bureaucracy that stymies growth.
Very long but important piece, Highlighting the importance of R&D and innovation and its correlation to becoming a richer country. I hope this message gets conveyed to the necessary authorities and i hope they make the much needed changes.
Superb piece, thank you for writing
This hit hard. Thank you for putting it out. Maybe it’ll spark some change somewhere. There have been some encouraging policy decisions in the past 2 years but I don’t know how much has happened on the ground. Hope things change. They must change if we want to get close to the Viksit Bharat dream.
I've been thinking about the problem of Indian technological sovereignty. For an economy that has a stunning excess of human capital, India's economy is chiefly built upon the service industry and exporting capital to maintain the back-offices of the global economy. AI is going to eat into that advantage for sure. Even otherwise, as tariffs have shown, we are a vassal state at the mercy of other global powers.
To remedy that, like you write in this article, India needs to develop "first-in-the-world" and "best-in-the-world" products – developing its own design philosophy, and a culture of original fundamental research that is sorely lacking. I was researching why such a culture isn't present already, and what specific factors are holding India back. This article was a gold mine! Thanks for writing about these problems through the lens of the pharma industry in such stunning detail. This was a long read, but it was worth the time I spent on it.
So from what you write, the complicated machinery of bureaucracy and the lack of support for fledgling startups (which are already at a high risk of failure) seem to be the key deterrents. It reminded me of an interview in which somebody asked Lee Kuan Yew what holds India back from becoming like Singapore. He gave two opinions:
1. India is very fragmented in terms of linguistic and cultural diversity. There is no single language or mode of communication that can be used to express a unified national mandate which reaches every segment of the population. This divides administrative energy even if the mandate is clear at the top.
2. The way funds are distributed from the federal to state to local governments isn't simple. e.g It's possible for the center to redesign Mumbai as an autonomous special economic zone like Shanghai, but this would mean the state of Maharashtra voluntarily giving up the funds from Mumbai needed to supply the rest of the state or the center restructuring the government, which would need a constitutional amendment with a 2/3rds majority. (I'm not very savvy on how the center-state funds flow works, maybe something worth looking into)
A lot of it also seems to come down to a trust problem. Like how you write about the excessive guardrails and oversights from the government, accounting for every dime spent, when more leeway can be given to innovators. Scientists are being treated like grifters instead of stars. Maybe these rules made sense in a low-trust society where the risk of exploiting beneficient schemes was high, but now with eKYC, surely a better system of accountability can be designed that makes India a more attractive destination for all the frustrated scientists in the US?
After reading Ashlee Vance's article on Boom Supersonic, my co-founder and I were wondering why there aren't ambitious projects of that scale in India. Finally got an answer to that! Thanks for writing this article. Feel like there are multiple articles to be written drawn from this one.
Some other resources that you might find interesting:
1. How Asia works – A book review that reinforces some of your points, that a fledgling economy transitioning to an industrial one needs to manufacture products not just for its local economy but should also compete at the global level (like the Chaebols of South Korea). https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-how-asia-works
2. The machine India didn't build by Chor Pharn: https://thecuttingfloor.substack.com/p/the-machine-india-didnt-build
The Indian babus will Never give up control under guise of protecting national interests.
Very well written, thank you for the facts and the truths, brilliant piece..
Fantastic piece, Soham. Has me in a tizzy of the possibilities. Thank you.
Phenomenal piece
An extremely well researched and thoughtful piece-the author deserves much credit for assembling his thoughts and marshalling the facts in such a comprehensive manner. I was unaware of the onerous and self-defeating regulations surrounding Indian Biotech. Really need a complete mindset change here to establish a viable innovation ecosystem. It will take a huge effort to axe the bureaucracy that stymies growth.
We certainly need people like you in top government where you can have things in line of control than circle of influence which you are trying.
I hope someone from big shots of Modi team get a notice on this and it makes some thinking ok adopting few of the ideas.
Banger
Very long but important piece, Highlighting the importance of R&D and innovation and its correlation to becoming a richer country. I hope this message gets conveyed to the necessary authorities and i hope they make the much needed changes.