Last month we celebrated the World IP Day on April 26 with most rejoicing India’s innovation on the ever-increasing number of patents filed. But is the number of filed patents right metrics for measuring innovation? Unfortunately, the answer is ‘No’, and we need to analyse the numbers more deeply to where are we heading as a country on innovation, taking patent filing and grant numbers as preliminary metrics.
Is India becoming more innovative or just more active?
During FY26, India filed over 140K patents continuing a 9-year growth streak, however, the grant numbers witnessed continuous decline over the last two years to reach only 21K in FY26. This highlights a significant gap in real innovation.
Source: Nasscom’s “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
Are we seeing a rise of democratized innovation in India?
The growth in patent filings in India is primarily led by resident applicants which accounted for nearly 70% of all filings in FY26, with SMEs and Start-Ups, Educational institutions and Individuals leading the growth in filings. Further, their share has witnessed continuous increase over the last few years.
Source: Nasscom’s “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
The Conversion Crisis – The problem isn’t Ideation its conversion
Though, there is a consistent rise in patent filing by resident filers, the share in total grants continues to be dominated by MNCs.
- MNCs accounted for more than half of patent grants in FY26, while they filed less than one-third of all patents, highlighting their focus on core innovation and strategic filing
- Indian educational institutes accounted for ~40% of all filing while their share in grants was only around 10%, reflecting a lack of academic research translation into high-quality grant worthy patents
The average grant ratio* for MNCs stood at ~90% for MNCs compared to just ~4% by educational institutes.
Source: Nasscom’s “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
What’s breaking the system?
Lack of sufficient examiners at the India Patent Office remains a major challenge that needs to be solved urgently to maintain the improving efficiency of the Office, as continues to lag behind compared to its leading global counterparts.
Additionally, there are gaps in patent quality and drafting; weak commercial pathways, academic research lacks strategic depth to translate into market-ready IP.
Source: Nasscom’s “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
What’s Needed? – A real shift from filing to value
India needs to move from a “filing-driven” approach to “value-focused” patent ecosystem, where quality of patent, grant rates, commercialisation define the innovation success; and this requires all stakeholders to work together in this direction. The nasscom report highlights key ecosystem levers and priorities that can act as a starting point for stakeholders to charter their growth trajectory on the innovation pathway.
Source: Nasscom’s “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
The Opportunity Ahead
The above framework highlights India is well positioned to become the innovation powerhouse if it’s able to fix the last mile.
“The next decade won’t be defined by how many ideas India generates—but how many it converts into impact.”
References:
Nasscom Report – “Patent Pulse 2026 Filing Surge, Grant Slowdown: Quantifying India’s Innovation Gap”
Note: *Is calculated by dividing the total grants by total filings as received by MNCs and Educational Institutions, respectively over the FY24-FY26 period
