Inviting feedback and suggestions on the Report submitted by Committee on Knowledge Systems

The development of a systematic framework to measure the contribution of knowledge and knowledge products to the Indian economy assumes significance in the context of the growing role of knowledge in driving economic activity, productivity and value creation. Towards this, a series of deliberations were initiated with a meeting chaired by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India on 10 February 2025, which provided the initial direction for the exercise. Subsequently, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) constituted a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) in May 2025 under the chairmanship of Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, the then Member, Capacity Building Commission, to guide the development of a measurement framework. As part of its deliberations, the TAG held a brainstorming workshop on 30 September 2025, organised by MoSPI. The suggestions and insights emerging from the workshop, along with those from subsequent expert consultations, guided the preparation of the Base Paper on the Framework for Measuring the Contribution of Knowledge and Knowledge Products to the Indian Economy released in May 2026.

Building on this foundation, MoSPI constituted a Committee on Knowledge Systems on 5 May 2026 under the chairmanship of Shri Ratan P. Watal, former Member Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, with the mandate to prepare an Actionable Policy Paper on the Framework for Measuring the Contribution of Knowledge and Knowledge Products to the Economy.

The said Committee undertook a broader examination of the subject, drawing upon diverse perspectives and evidence, to develop an actionable framework for measuring their contribution to the Indian economy. The Committee has submitted to the Ministry its final report, which contains the Actionable Policy Paper on Framework for Measuring the Contribution of Knowledge and Knowledge Products to the Economy. The report can be accessed here (https://www.mospi.gov.in/announcements).

The Actionable Policy Paper sets out the background and context for this exercise. India’s development aspirations under the Viksit Bharat vision call for sustained improvements in productivity, innovation and the capacity to create economic value. Strengthening the knowledge base, know-how and specialised capabilities required to generate, acquire, absorb, adapt and apply knowledge will increasingly shape the country’s development trajectory. Understanding the contribution of knowledge to the economy is therefore essential for identifying existing strengths, recognising capability gaps and setting priorities to guide India’s future development. This task is becoming increasingly complex as the nature and processes of knowledge creation themselves evolve rapidly, with powerful AI systems generating knowledge and developing solutions in ways that extend beyond conventional models of human knowledge creation.

The Paper establishes the rationale for systematically measuring productive knowledge as a driver of economic growth, productivity, competitiveness and strategic capabilities. It outlines the Knowledge Ecosystem with eight interrelated components: knowledge, capabilities and assets, enabling infrastructure, knowledge creation activities, knowledge products, knowledge-embedded products, knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and knowledge application. It also proposes boundary conditions for identifying knowledge products: knowledge as input, knowledge content, identifiability, codification and economic value. It has been also stated that these boundaries only serve as broad guiding principles rather than rigid criteria, while leaving sufficient flexibility to accommodate the diversity and evolving nature of such products.

Cross-country experience shows that knowledge-related activity and products are typically captured through multiple complementary accounts. Similar efforts are also underway in India to develop a more comprehensive understanding of emerging and knowledge-intensive areas of economic activity. These include the initiation of work on a Culture Satellite Account in 2025, ongoing work to develop a framework for measuring the contribution of the Space Economy to GDP, and a study conducted in 2025 to estimate the contribution of Digital Economy to the GDP for the year 2022–23.

In view of the above, and since comprehensively measuring the knowledge ecosystem simultaneously is infeasible, the Paper recommends that a family of SNA 2025-consistent thematic statistics/accounts may be developed instead of a single aggregate measure for the entire Knowledge Ecosystem in order to facilitate policy-making.  Priorities may be assigned among the major components and sub-components of the ecosystem, based on their contributions to growth, productivity, competitiveness, inclusive growth and livelihoods, future significance and cost-effective measurability. It further recommends to consider developing thematic statistics/accounts in areas like Human Capital, R&D, Creative Economy, AI systems, Data and Databases, High-Tech Products and Frontier Technologies and Digital Economy on a priority basis.

To help build thematic statistics/accounts, the Paper proposes a federated model that distributes responsibilities according to each institution’s mandate and comparative strengths. It would involve three roles: system integrators, which provide the common measurement framework; domain institutions, including sectoral ministries and departments, which measure specialised components; and key partners, including State Governments, regulatory institutions and research and academic institutions.

Feedback and suggestions on the Actionable Policy Paper are invited from all stakeholders and the general public as part of the consultation process. Feedback may be shared with this Ministry on the email ID: rau-2@mospi.gov.in by 12 December 2026.

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Samrat