A webinar on India’s role in frugal innovations in health-related technologies to deal with COVID-19, Opportunities and constraints was presented by Professor Sunil Mani over CISCO Webex Meetings on Tuesday, the 5th of May 2020, 3 PM through 4.30 PM. It was the first seminar in the series on Current Issues in India’s Economy and Society for 2020-21.The paper accompanying the seminar will soon be published on our website.
Abstract : There are a number of instances of successful frugal innovations in India’s health-related technology industry consisting of vaccines, drugs and medical devices of various types. COVID-19 offers an opportunity for these domestic technological capabilities to be expressed systematically as it will be immensely useful not just for India but for the world at large in managing or even getting rid of the pandemic itself. However, it also raises the role of the state in supporting this research and manufacturing activity by designing financial instruments for financing the innovation and manufacturing activities and removing the barriers imposed by a very restrictive and stifling patent regime and by reducing lack of coordination between government policies and agencies.
