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India is at the cusp of leaping into the league of developed countries. During the past two decades, India witnessed spectacular GDP growth rates. To become a developed country India needs a technological capability in all the high technology areas. One such area where India needs to focus on is Renewable Energy Technologies. The review of literature drew significant conclusions on gaps in technological capabilities in the area of renewable energy amongst developed and developing countries. The developing countries have several detached links in the technological value chain which lead to several issues like lack of good infrastructure despite good human resource and little networking in high technology global networks. Gaps in technology diffusion because of the inaccessibility of critical technologies due to patent regimes remained a fundamental problem for developing countries. The literature gave little empirical evidence, which showed the magnitude or measure of these technological gaps. This became the base for the first objective, i.e., Formulations of a Renewable Energy Technology Index (RETI) for India, China, Germany, and the USA (Selected countries). A total of 11 indicators were carefully selected based on the previous studies. A multivariate analysis was done for all the indicators where all the variables have shown a strong positive influence on each other. The significance of each indicator was based on the experts’ opinion.
Results for the Index provided the glimpse of technology value chain in renewable energy at each of its three levels. The input sub-index comprises of Enrolments at Tertiary Level (Higher education level), PhD enrolments, R&D Manpower and finances in the renewable energy area. The results show that though India has one of the largest tertiary education systems in the world, it lacks research-oriented human resource; and also renewable finance is not as good as China or USA. The creation sub-index comprises of patents and publications in renewable energy area gives an essential inference that though we are good at producing the knowledge (papers) we are not good at converting that knowledge to the product (patents). Policymakers need to think over this so that the society should be benefited from the research. Technology Output (diffusion) sub-index comprises variables like Company Revenues, Renewable Energy Market Volumes/Values and Policy and Governance Indicators. An inference was drawn based on the various parameters of diffusion that India lacks a good eco-system for the technology diffusion to the society and industry in the area of renewable energy.
The second objective, i.e., Identification of constraints in technology diffusion through stakeholder perceptions, required a closer and more in-depth understanding and therefore a detailed sample survey was designed, and 332 stakeholders from Academia, Industry, R&D Institutes, NGOs were approached through emails for survey questionnaires out of which 92 responses were collected. A significant constraint identified through stakeholders’ viewpoint for the diffusion of technologies was due to a lack of skilled workforce and higher installation costs followed by a few international collaborations. Also, patents are an obstacle when it comes to access to technology to developing countries. Indian companies invest little in R&D and whatever R&D they do never get to the markets because of low success rates. Therefore most companies rely on the import of technologies. There is a general feeling among the experts that this is the best time to invest in the new technologies as the government is very supportive of the creation of a renewable energy eco-system. As far as academia is concerned, teaching methods/syllabus /courses are inappropriate with a lack of adequate infrastructure to teach newer courses in renewable energy. Skill development is one of the most critical links for a thriving ecosystem of renewable technology implementation. Skilling of sizeable unskilled workforce present in India is a massive challenge as most of the jobs in the renewable sector require specialised skills.
The outcome of this work will be useful for various stakeholders in the field of renewable energy technologies. The outcome would aid policymakers and government ministries to understand strengths, weakness, and gaps in renewable technologies. The results will be helpful for R&D and Academia as it has provided an analysis of collaborative networks based on SNA Platform for researchers and Institutions, which would be beneficial in the creation of better collaborative research. Also, this work will be beneficial for the educational and training institutes to identify the emerging requirements to upgrade the course curriculum. For the industry, the thesis has provided a glimpse of emerging technologies from the patent analysis; the report also offered the constraints of diffusion of specific technologies in the Indian context. It might work for the industry to focus on particular technologies will have the potential of diffusion.
Renewable Energy Technology Index (RETI) was designed keeping in mind indicators from renewable energy technology value chain. However, this algorithm can be used for other technology platforms such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It would provide a testing platform for other technologies for future students of TERI-SAS. RETI can also be modified to include more countries for comparisons in future as the algorithm would accommodate more countries. Finally, RETI may be used as a tool in the classroom for students of International Studies, Global Governance and Technology Management.
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