Write a note on the annual trends of these collaborations

Collect data on foreign technical and financial collaborations for the past onedecade
and write a note on the annual trends of these collaborations.


Answer. Developing countries like India have been using import of technology through
foreign collaboration as a strategy to bridge the technological gaps in the country, to
expedite economic development.
The number of foreign collaborations has been increasing on a cyclical manner in the
first forty years, from 1951-91, starting with a meager 44 collaboration in the year 1951,
it increased to 592 in the year 1961 and then suddenly to 402 in 1962, the year in
which India faced war with China. The number of collaborations hovered around the
same figure. until 1965, when India faced war with Pakistan, when number dropped
further to 343. This was followed with further decline due to political turmoil and rapid
changes in government policies, marked with stricter regulatory requirements. The
trend continued more or unchanged during 1970s, when the country underwent
dramatic changes is political arena, with the imposition of emergency followed by short
lived Janata Party government at the Centre. Eighties, however, saw the return to the
rising trend, which became steeper and steeper in the 1990s, Total number of
collaborations in the eighties equaled the total number of collaborations in the three

decades of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The period 1991-2000 saw total number of
collaborations in the decade surpassing the total number of all the collaborations in the
4 decades preceding it. Indeed, the total number collaborations in the 9 years of postliberalization
(1992-2000) period is observed to be 17810, while in the 41 years of preliberalization
(1951-91), there were only 15105 foreign collaborations. India is thus
banking on expert technological support for goods and services at an accelerated pace
than in the pre-liberation era. The rise in number is substantial in the post liberalization
era, 10-fold compared to the decade of 1950s, 5- fold compared to the decades of
1960s and 1970s and 2-fold compared to the decade of 1980s.

An interesting development is observed in terms of number of countries with whom
India has foreign collaborations.

In the 41 years of pre-liberalization era, the foreign collaborations were limited to 25
countries only. In the post liberalization era, the number of countries, with whom India
has entered into foreign collaboration, swelled to 112, a dramatic over 4-fold rise
indeed. It would be noticed from the table 2 that the number of countries with whom
India has very large number of collaborations (more than 1000 each) during the 41
years of preliberalisation era (1951-91) and the 9 years of post- liberalization era
(1992-2000) has not changed substantially, except that NRIs have engaged in a big
way in the post liberalization era.

The approvals of foreign collaborations have been classified in two classes; namely
technological (without foreign equity participation) and financial (having Foreign equity
participation).