In terms of absolute levels of intangible investment for 2020 (the latest year for which data is available), India ranks 14th in a sample of 26 advanced economies, behind Denmark and ahead of Finland and Portugal, the world’s broadest global investment index. Intangible Investments The report said.
Overall, these figures underline India's significant progress and growing importance in the global intangible assets sector, reflecting its increasing role in the global intangible assets sector. innovation And Intellectual propertyThe data is significant as this is the first time intangible investment information is available for India.
Simply put, intangible assets include research and development, technical know-how, Software and datadesign, Brand and reputation — all assets that arise from or are linked to some form of intellectual property (IP). Industry experts told TOI that despite their intangible nature, such assets have the power to create immense value for companies, economies and societies.
Moreover, the most notable finding of the report is that India's performance in terms of intangible investment intensity (as a share of GDP) is at par with high-income countries like Germany and Japan.
“India has shown the fastest growth in intangible investment, outpacing the growth rates of many developed economies, driven mainly by its strengths in software and data,” Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, head of the economics and data analytics department at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) and one of the authors of the report, told the Times of India.
The biggest drivers of growth in intangible assets in India are rising investments in software and data, new financial products, and household brands.
Excluding the informal sector, intangible investment was more than 10% of India's GDP in 2019, which is on par with the EU-22 average (around 10%) and higher than Japan (around 9%). As a result, India's intangible investment intensity is much higher than expected relative to its level of development, an industry expert said.