National Innovation System in the Era of Liberalization: Implications for Science and Technology Policy for Developing Economies

The national system of innovations in the recent phase of globalization has undergone dramatic structural transformation. Innovations entails organizational as well as changes in the rules of the game. The history of economic development of the developing and newly industrializing economies shows that national systems of innovation have evolved keeping in view the most pressing requirements of the national economic development. The knowledge generation and transmission are the two essential characteristics of national innovation system that connects the users and producers of knowledge and also allows institutional arrangements to functions as a feedback system. The institutional arrangements are being altered substantially to allow capital to move freely across national borders on the one side and strict trade related intellectual property rights on the other. How these arrangements have affected the national system of innovation both in the developed and developing countries during the recent liberalisation phase of economic development? In this paper an attempt has been made to provide some plausible answers to this question. Input and output indicators have been used with a view to unravel the dramatic structural changes occurring both in the economic and innovation structure of the global economy. The internationalisation of R&D expenditure and its implications for revealed comparative advantage have been examined in order to understand the direction of change during the era of liberalisation. The suitable changes in the science and technology policy have been suggested to strengthen the national system of innovation for generating unique competitive advantage in the developing countries.National system of innovation; structural transformation; input and output measures of innovations; revealed competitive advantage; public policy; internationalisation of R&D; intellectual property rights

Technological Capability, Employment Growth and Industrial Development: A Quantitative Anatomy of Indian Scenario

The recent spurt of economic growth in India has been described as ‘jobless growth’. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the question of when industrial development provides required dynamism for generating desired employment opportunities for labour force and when it does not. An industrial technological capability based approach has been adopted to analyse the Indian Industrial development experience during the period 1980 to 2005, which is a quarter century time period. The main finding that emerged from the empirical evidence is that the medium-high-tech industries have shown dynamism in terms of generating employment growth. The labour market regulation view put forward by various scholars supporting the liberalisation policies could not stand the scrutiny of clear demarcation among job creating and job destroying industries under the same circumstances. The relationship between industrial technological capabilities and employment growth turns out to be ambiguous. This implies that weak technological capabilities adversely affect employment growth and heavy dependence on imported technological know-how from the developed countries is labour displacing. It is thus suggested that developing countries should invest both in institutions and industrial firms to develop technological development that suits to resource endowment, specificities of local conditions and suitable to the stage of industrial development. There is a dire need to explore alternative paths of industrial and technological capability development to sustain economic transformation process for achieving prosperity and reducing the time for catch-up development.Industrial development, jobless growth, technological capabilities, employment elasticities

Rural Household Livelihoods, Non-farm Economy and Landless Workforce: Evidence from the Village Economy of Haryana, India

This paper examines household livelihoods patterns of the landless poor in a village of Haryana by applying sustainable livelihood approach rather than the reductionist approach of income-consumption paradigm. The attempt is made to investigate and analyse the contours of life of landless workers from the multiple perspectives: literacy rate among male and female in each household, education attainment, income-expenditure patterns, rural farm and non-farm occupational choice, housing conditions and the role of social and financial capital. It also explores the desperation and vulnerability among the working class in a village in the context of above indicators. The economic and social environment locates the landless workforce in the brutal and vicious circle of low literacy- unskilled and semi-skilled works- low income- poor living condition which is not pleasant to asset creation. Keeping these actualities in mind, the paper indicates towards the environment created by central planning system, various welfare schemes run by the state and central governments and specifically by economic reforms initiated in the last quarter of twentieth century. As a corollary, landless workforce is doomed to live in vulnerability and desperation

New Technique for Separating Simultaneously Produced Scintillation and Cerenkov Radiation

A fast electronic circuit for separating simultaneously produced scintillation and cerenkov radiations is described. In the design of the circuit, use is made of the fact that the decay time of the pulse of scintillation radiation produced in the plastic scintillator is longer than that of the cerenkov radiation emitted in the radiator or the light guide of a scintillator detector. Different decay times of the two pulse lead to different slopes of their respective trailing edges. The circuit selects one of these pulse by slope comparison and provides an output whenever the selected pulse is present in the radiator

The relationship between DNA double-strand breaks and mutation induction following treatment with X-rays and restriction endonucleases

DNA double-strand breaks (dsb) are thought to be major radiation-induced lesions in biological end-points such as cell lethality and chromosome aberrations. Based on this notion, this project aimed to extend further the investigation of the role of dsb in radiation-induced mutagenesis. The initial part of the project involved optimising conditions for the mutation assay so as to select for 'true' tk-mutants in Chinese hamster cells, following treatment with X-rays. This was important, due to the insufficient previous mutation data involving this locus in Chinese hamster cells. Furthermore, the choice of the tk locus over the more commonly used hprt locus was based on existing evidence of its higher sensitivity, as found in mutation experiments with the L5178Y mouse lymphoma cell line (Evans et al, 1986). An Initial comparative study was carried out to measure the induced mutation frequency following X-ray irradiation in both the parent Chinese hamster Ovary (CHO KI) cell line and its X-ray- sensitive mutant (xrs 5) cell line. This mutant line was chosen because of its characteristic marked deficiency in dsb repair, yet normal ability to rejoin single-strand breaks (Kemp et al, 1984., Costa and Bryant, 1988). This allowed the study of the role of dsb in mutation induction. The enhanced mutation induction observed in xrs 5 over that in CHO KI cells suggested the Importance of dsb in radiation-induction mutagenesis. The next experimental strategy adopted involved the use of the DNA synthesis inhibitor, 9-D-arabinofuranosyladenine (ara A). The choice of this drug was based on previous work by Bryant and Blocher (1982) and Iliakis and Bryant (1983) who, using DNA unwinding and neutral velocity sedimentation, showed ara A to strongly inhibit dsb repair, Plateau-phase CHO KI cells were exposed to X-rays alone or in combination width ara A , the latter treatment showing an increased induction of mutations. This suggested the possible existence of dsb which are fixed as mutations in the absence of DNA polymerization, suggesting a sub-class of dsb which may be critical in the steps leading to the induction of a mutation. XV The third approach was to use restriction endonucleases (RE) which were introduced into cells by electroporation. This method unlike ionising radiation, induced 'pure' dsb. The use of this method was based on the work of Bryant (1984), who used RE to mimic radiation-induced damage in the induction of chromosomal aberrations. Two different types of RE were used: those which produce blunt- and those which produce cohesive-ended dsb. In all mutation experiments with these enzymes, blunt-ended dsb were found to be more effective in generating mutations compared to cohesive-ended dsb. This suggests a possible further resolution of type(s) of dsb that would be induced by radiation in the ability to induce mutations i.e dependent on the end-structure of the induced dsb. Blunt-ended dsb may thus represent the major type of critical pre-mutational lesions which may be fixed as a mutation, as a result of misrepair. Cohesive- ended dsb may be of lesser importance. Finally, a RE (Pvu II) which generates blunt-ended dsb was used to induce mutations at the hprt locus in Chinese hamster (V79) cells. DNA from mutant cells was analysed using Southern blot and PCR analysis of 3 exons in the hprt gene. Some of the mutants (5/15) showed large deletions (representing complete loss of the gene), a change similar to that observed in mutants Induced following treatment with ionising radiation (e.g. Thacker, 1986). However, the percentage of large deletion mutants (70%) observed in radiation- induced mutants was higher than that (~34%) obtained with RE- induced mutation data. This preliminary data on the analysis of RE- induced mutations suggests that blunt-ended dsb mimics radiation- induced pre-mutational lesions, resulting in some large genomic changes (e.g. large deletions). However, a larger number of RE- induced mutants would have to be analysed before a more accurate comparison between RE and ionising mutation data can be made. In summary, this study provides evidence for dsb as a major pre-mutational lesion in cells exposed to ionising radiation, and suggests the existence of a sub-class of dsb in relation to mutation induction. In addition, RE offer the possibility of gaining further understanding of the role of dsb in the origin of mutations such as those caused by deletions

National innovation system in the era of liberalization : implications for science and technology policy for developing economies

MPRA paper no. 15432,Knowledge generation and transmission of knowledge are essential characteristics of national innovation systems, which connect users and producers of knowledge and allow institutional arrangements to function as a feedback system. The paper investigates global trends in research and development (R&D) inputs and outputs of the economic liberalization era. Input and output indicators have been used with a view to unravel the dramatic structural changes occurring both in the economic and innovation structure of the global economy. As well, the paper examines the role of international agencies

National Innovation System in the Era of Liberalization: Implications for Science and Technology Policy for Developing Economies

The national system of innovations in the recent phase of globalization has undergone dramatic structural transformation. Innovations entails organizational as well as changes in the rules of the game. The history of economic development of the developing and newly industrializing economies shows that national systems of innovation have evolved keeping in view the most pressing requirements of the national economic development. The knowledge generation and transmission are the two essential characteristics of national innovation system that connects the users and producers of knowledge and also allows institutional arrangements to functions as a feedback system. The institutional arrangements are being altered substantially to allow capital to move freely across national borders on the one side and strict trade related intellectual property rights on the other. How these arrangements have affected the national system of innovation both in the developed and developing countries during the recent liberalisation phase of economic development? In this paper an attempt has been made to provide some plausible answers to this question. Input and output indicators have been used with a view to unravel the dramatic structural changes occurring both in the economic and innovation structure of the global economy. The internationalisation of R&D expenditure and its implications for revealed comparative advantage have been examined in order to understand the direction of change during the era of liberalisation. The suitable changes in the science and technology policy have been suggested to strengthen the national system of innovation for generating unique competitive advantage in the developing countries

National Innovation System in the Era of Liberalization: Implications for Science and Technology Policy for Developing Economies

The national system of innovations in the recent phase of globalization has undergone dramatic structural transformation. Innovations entails organizational as well as changes in the rules of the game. The history of economic development of the developing and newly industrializing economies shows that national systems of innovation have evolved keeping in view the most pressing requirements of the national economic development. The knowledge generation and transmission are the two essential characteristics of national innovation system that connects the users and producers of knowledge and also allows institutional arrangements to functions as a feedback system. The institutional arrangements are being altered substantially to allow capital to move freely across national borders on the one side and strict trade related intellectual property rights on the other. How these arrangements have affected the national system of innovation both in the developed and developing countries during the recent liberalisation phase of economic development? In this paper an attempt has been made to provide some plausible answers to this question. Input and output indicators have been used with a view to unravel the dramatic structural changes occurring both in the economic and innovation structure of the global economy. The internationalisation of R&D expenditure and its implications for revealed comparative advantage have been examined in order to understand the direction of change during the era of liberalisation. The suitable changes in the science and technology policy have been suggested to strengthen the national system of innovation for generating unique competitive advantage in the developing countries