Technological Dynamism and Technological Content of Collaboration: Are Indian Firms Missing Opportunities?

Concern for reducing the foreign exchange outflows associated with technology imports has had a constant and pervasive influence on the principles and administration of Indian technology policy. More recently, debates about technology import policy have focused on the role of technical collaboration...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic and political weekly 1985-11, Vol.20 (45/47), p.1991-2004
Main Authors: Don Scott-Kemmis, Bell, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Design engineering
Emerging technology
Foreign Technology Suppliers' View of Indian Industry
Importers
Imports
Industrial production
Knowledge acquisition
Pliers
Technology
Technology policy
Technology transfer
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Summary:Concern for reducing the foreign exchange outflows associated with technology imports has had a constant and pervasive influence on the principles and administration of Indian technology policy. More recently, debates about technology import policy have focused on the role of technical collaborations in the technological development of industry. This paper examines the extent to which Indo-British collaboration agreements have contributed to the technological capacities of Indian firms. Several factors have had an influence on the technological content of the agreements. In some infrequent cases the gap between the planned content of the knowledge flows and the potential content was because the Indian firms had already developed substantial technological capacities and 'required' only discrete elements of new knowledge. In others, the technology supplier was unwilling to provide more technical knowledge. In some cases, the technology importers saw no point in developing their technological capacities beyond the level necessary to support basic production objectives. Another reason was government restrictions on royalty rates and duration of agreements. The limited technological dynamism of many Indian technology importing firms is partly a consequence of these prevalent patterns.
ISSN:0012-9976
2349-8846