February 11, 2005—What are the challenges that India faces in entering the Knowledge Economy and how can it leverage its potential to compete further in a global knowledge economy?  This was the focus of a workshop organized jointly by the World Bank and the Confederation of Indian Industries in New Delhi recently.

Carl Dahlman, WBI, Arun Maira of the Confederation of Indian Industries, Michael Carter, Country Director

Carl Dahlman, Program Manager, K4D stressed that “India has tremendous potential in the knowledge economy: it has a critical mass of highly skilled professionals and scientists and engineers, and needs to leverage these assets further to foster growth and improve competitiveness.”  However there is a need to develop cross sectoral coordination and partnerships among government, private sector and civil society.

Role of government is to remove bottlenecks

Media, Carl Dahlman and Anuja Utz of WBI

Speaking on the innovation system in India, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said India is part of the IDCs--innovative developing countries ( as opposed to the LDCs that the world knows of) that includes Brazil and China, and that India has demonstrated its potential in the area of not only high end R&D , but also using public-private partnerships to harness the potential of traditional knowledge to meet health and welfare needs and to reduce poverty.

To improve the efficiency of public research and development (R&D) and to increase private R&D, as well as to encourage greater university-industry linkages, there is a need to strengthen the emerging new model to produce innovations in more cost effective way based on leveraging traditional knowledge with modern science and exploiting public-private partnerships.

Education and training

In the area of education and training, major reform and improvement of formal and informal education were identified as crucial for India’s future. There was recognition that the education system needs to be made more responsive to market needs, and access to education that fosters critical thinking and learning skills is essential for all, not just the elite.

Carl Dahlman talking to the Indian media in New Delhi

India can earn tremendous revenues from continuing to expand the provision of distance services globally. However, high fees garnered from providing foreign IT services pre-empts the application of ICTs to meet domestic needs. In addition, it is important to share successful applications of ICT, as for example, in e-government among different Indian states. This also requires scaling up successful ICT initiatives to bring the benefits of connectivity to rural communities all over the country.

The workshop also stressed the importance of creating a shared vision between government, private sector and civil society on ways to move India forward in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.

Michael Carter, World Bank Country Director for India, wrapped up the workshop by emphasizing the interest of the government  in working with the Bank to scale up telecom linkages and thereby the knowledge economy.  He concluded that “the government wants the World Bank to play a significant role in improving the knowledge economy of India.”