Indian companies need to triple the total investment for in-house research and development (R&D) to Rs 3,000 crore by the end of the century, according to a document prepared jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Union government's department of scientific and industrial research (DSIR). The document was released at the end of a conference on in-house R&D organised by FICCI and DSIR, held in the third week of November in New Delhi. It also called for tax and excise duty exemptions for goods produced entirely through in-house research and for tax waivers on payments made to acquire technology from national scientific laboratories.

Representatives of industry, however, were less enthusiastic when then minister of state for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam reiterated that all industrial products must be levied a "development cess, which would be used to promote indigenous R&D on a significant scale". Confided the managing director of a prominent engineering firm, "Kumaramangalam should have kept in mind that we have told him the idea would not work."

FICCI spokesperson for science and technology B K Bhatnagar was nevertheless at pains to point out that the points of discord between the government and industry were few. According to him, viable action programmes will be developed soon in areas selected for a major in-house R&D thrust. These areas include composite materials and polymers, energy from renewable sources and the development of environmentally clean technologies.