The neoliberal transformation of academia–industry relationships in India: A critical assessment

Abstract

The nature of commercial interaction between academia and industry in India has transformed over time. This transformation is a result of several macro changes in the political-economic sphere. Dividing the postindependent Indian history into three different time periods, this article argues that the nature of interaction between 1947 and 1991 – the period after Independence and before economic liberalization – is of a different kind compared to the nature of interaction after liberalization. It is further argued that the interaction before economic liberalization is more of demand-driven in nature, while the one after liberalization is neoliberal in character. This neoliberal characterization is because of the implementation of supply-side measures such as oversupply of patents with a disproportionately lower demand, focus on entrepreneurship, and replacement of the academic value system with corporate value system. The neoliberal period is in turn characterized as conquest of innovation period and coercive innovation period. While the changes during the conquest of innovation period reflect the implementation of supply-side measures, the coercive innovation period depicts the normalization of this process through coercive measures.