Towards a knowledge-based economy.

Research in any developed economy is directed towards generating useful knowledge which is exploited for economic gains, which then fuels further research. In these knowledge-based economies, academia, Research Institutes (RIs) develop expertise in their fields of interest and this expertise is offered up in the open market. Firms collaborate with RIs and academia which helps to off-set research costs and cut development time of end products. For instance, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT and Princeton are world renowned institutes with expertise in specific fields and they collaborate with market firms to generate new processes and products.

Knowledge in scientific terms is something new and should be differentiated from know-how, which is generally information pertaining to existing processes and products, and at best pertains to specific information about scientific principles involved in the working of an existing product and its trouble-shooting.

Knowledge is something original which does not exist before, in the world and market, and ultimately leads to innovation. Jet engines, integrated circuits, facsimiles were innovations at their time as they were underpinned by new knowledge. However, knowledge repositories are not built overnight, but are a result of decades of research done by firms, institutes and universities. These kernels of knowledge help to develop breakthrough technologies which change and shape our lives.

In a developing country such as ours, there is confusion between know-how and knowledge. There are generally three steps which we need to take to move towards a knowledge-based economy. In the first step, we have to understand know-how of technologies underlying existing products; and understand if we have the scientific knowledge to understand and troubleshoot the existing processes and products...