| Role | Assistant Professor of Economics |
| Institution | Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi |
| Tenure | December 2005 – December 2008 |
| Focus | Indian multinationals, outward FDI & pharmaceutical-SME internationalisation |
| Highlights | 2 books (2008) · 14 ISID working papers · a DSIR pharma-SME project · 11 talks |
My three years at ISID were where my research on Indian multinationals took shape. It was my first faculty position, and ISID — a leading centre for the study of India’s industrial development — was the ideal place to pursue the questions that would define much of my later work: how Indian firms were beginning to invest abroad, why pharmaceutical and other SMEs were going global, and what that outward push meant for development. The period was prolific, and unusually visible in its workings: ideas were circulated first as working papers, sharpened into journal articles and chapters, and finally consolidated into two books.
Two books
The period’s headline outputs were two monographs, both published in 2008 by Bookwell:
- Indian Multinationals in the World Economy: Implications for Development — a comprehensive account of the rise of Indian outward FDI and what it means for the home economy and for development more broadly.
- Transnationalization of Indian Pharmaceutical SMEs (with P. P. Sahu) — a close study of how small and medium pharmaceutical firms internationalise. [Add link to the book’s post on this site.]
The research project behind the pharma book
Much of the second book grew out of a sponsored study: Defining the Role of Government in Transnationalization Efforts of Indian SMEs: A Case Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (May 2007 – January 2008), funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Ministry of Science and Technology) and co-directed with Partha Pratim Sahu. It examined how policy could better support small pharmaceutical firms reaching for global markets.
Articles and chapters
Seven peer-reviewed pieces appeared during this period — four journal articles and three book chapters:
| Year | Article / chapter | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Trends and Patterns of Technology Acquisition in Indian Organized Manufacturing (with S. Puttaswamaiah) | Indian Journal of Economics, 89(353) |
| 2008 | The Evolution of Indian Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Changing Trends and Patterns | Int. J. of Technology and Globalisation, 4(1) |
| 2007 | Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights Globally: Impact on India’s Pharmaceutical Exports | Singapore Economic Review, 52(2) |
| 2006 | How Does Trade, Foreign Investment, and Technology Affect Employment Patterns in Organized Indian Manufacturing? | Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 49(2) |
| 2007 | Outward Foreign Direct Investment by SMEs from India | in Global Players from Emerging Markets (UNCTAD) |
| 2007 | Knowledge-based Exports from India: Recent Trends, Patterns, and Implications (with N. Kumar) | in International Competitiveness & Knowledge-based Industries |
| 2007 | Knowledge-based Exports from India: A Firm-level Analysis of Determinants (with N. Kumar) | in International Competitiveness & Knowledge-based Industries |
A prolific working-paper output
ISID was also where I was most active as a writer of working papers — fourteen in all, spanning Indian multinationals and their global operations, cross-border acquisitions, pharmaceutical competitiveness, technology acquisition, and South–South investment. Several of them later matured into the articles, chapters, and books above.
See the full list of 14 ISID working papers (2006–2008)
Outward FDI and Knowledge Flows: A Study of the Indian Automotive Sector (with Neelam Singh), WP2008/10, November 2008 South-South Investment in Infrastructure: The Operation of Indian Firms in Developing Countries, WP2008/09, August 2008 Indian Direct Investment in Developing Countries: Emerging Trends and Development Impacts, WP2008/08, June 2008 Trends and Patterns of Overseas Acquisitions by Indian Multinationals, WP2007/10, October 2007 National Innovation System and the Emergence of Indian Information and Software Technology Multinationals, WP2007/09, May 2007 How Do Indian Multinationals Affect Exports from the Home Country?, WP2007/07, April 2007 Growth of Indian Multinationals in the World Economy: Implications for Development, WP2007/04, March 2007 Tata Steel’s Romance with Orissa: Minerals-based Underdevelopment and Federal Politics in India, WP2007/03, February 2007 New Policy Regime and Small Pharmaceutical Firms in India, WP2007/02, January 2007 Quality of Foreign Direct Investment, Knowledge Spillovers and Host Country Productivity, WP2006/11, December 2006 Export-Orientation of Foreign Manufacturing Affiliates in India: Factors, Tendencies and Implications (with K. Das and M. Paul), WP2006/08, August 2006 Overseas Acquisition versus Greenfield Foreign Investment: Which Internationalization Strategy is Better for Indian Pharmaceutical Enterprises? (with A. Alakshendra), WP2006/07, August 2006 Global Competitiveness of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: Trends and Strategies, WP2006/05, June 2006 Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights Globally: Impact on India’s Pharmaceutical Exports, WP2006/02, April 2006
Academic engagement
These were active years on the conference circuit — eleven presentations and lectures in all. The international highlights included papers on India’s emerging multinationals in developed markets at conferences in Beijing (2008) and at Copenhagen Business School (2008), and participation as an expert in a UNCTAD meeting on the developmental implications of South–South FDI in Geneva (2007). At home, I lectured on India’s inward and outward FDI at IIM Lucknow, on pharmaceutical-industry internationalisation at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, JNU, and presented at IIT Bombay, the Madras Institute of Development Studies, and the GLOBELICS conference, among others. Within ISID, I served as a member of the Working Paper Committee.
In reflection
The ISID years were foundational. They were where the threads of my research — Indian outward FDI, the internationalisation of pharmaceutical and other SMEs, and the development implications of both — first came together, and where the habit of moving an idea from working paper to article to book became settled practice. Much of what followed at SPIESR and beyond built directly on this groundwork.
Related on this site
- Full academic profile — Who I Am
- The two books from this period: Indian Multinationals in the World Economy · Transnationalization of Indian Pharmaceutical SMEs
- The next chapter: Contributions at SPIESR, Ahmedabad
