In the exclusive interview with SME Times, Rahul Agarwalla, CEO & Co-Founder, Knimbus, a one-stop shop for research said India definitely has the potential to become a key R&D hub, not only in software for which it has gained recognition globally, but also in other verticals such as science, medicine, aerospace, automotive and defense.

                                                                                   Excerpts of the interview...

What kind of services are you providing?
Rahul Agarwalla: Knimbus was co-founded by Tarun Arora & Rahul Agarwalla in November 2010. Knimbus is a one-stop research hub for users in the Scientific, Technical & Medical fields to discover and share knowledge. Knimbus offers a single window for real-time discovery across millions of articles, books, patents; facility to share content and the opportunity to create shared projects and build peer networks. Knimbus is a leader in the India market with the most comprehensive and scalable technology platform.  The Knimbus platform has been enabled in over 650 Academic and Research institutions like IITs, IISERs, CSIR Labs, CDOT, CDAC and various State and Central  Universities.

The platform delivers higher research productivity and provides the following advantages: Discover knowledge faster with single window access to over 95% of the world's scientific information from renowned publishers, web resources and open access content. Personalize search and content access for more effective and noise free experience. Securely collaborate, share insights and do joint projects with over 60,000 researchers on the Knimbus platform Increase visibility of research and build collective intelligence by tagging and commenting on relevant research content Improve utilization of institutional resources with seamless integration of all library subscriptions and tools for effective information dissemination.

Do you think India is rising as an R&D hub these days?
Rahul Agarwalla: India definitely has the potential to become a key R&D hub, not only in software for which it has gained recognition globally, but also in other verticals such as science, medicine, aerospace, automotive and defense. While we have trailed China, India's research output has been rising sharply. A study done by market advisory firm Zinnov, 'Global R&D Benchmarking Study: FY2011' says India has become a key contributor in global research and of growth in the Asia-Pacific region, playing host to one-third of top 1000 R&D spenders in the world.

What is the reason for low penetration of research & development (R&D) in India?
Rahul Agarwalla: R&D is not an isolated task but the result of a research ecosystem. India's research ecosystem has some challenges which hobble the progress of R&D in India:

* Quality and quantity of research: India lacks in the quality and quantity of research, the number of people coming into the field. Students of sciences for e.g. shift to other careers after education primarily owing to poor prospects (Lack of attractive salaries compared to the private sector has created a void).

* Low public-private collaborations and academia-industry partnerships: There is a need to significantly increase interaction between publicly owned S&T institutions and industry. This is a proven model of R&D success and needs to be replicated.

* Quality of Funding: Most funding for research is from public sources. Corruption and bureaucracy prove to be hurdles in converting this funding into innovation. More private funding would see better capital allocation and conversion of research into real products.

However, there are encouraging signs. Recently, India has jumped to the second position in the Global Innovation Efficiency Index 2012, from its 9th position last year. Though this is a great move for the country, the report cites a need for the BRIC countries (Brazil, the Russia, India, and China) to invest further in their innovation capabilities to live up to their expected potential. It also says that "...both China and India have weaknesses in their innovation infrastructure and environment," The study has put us in the group of "innovation learners"; clearly we have a long way to go. (We are not there in the Top 10 Leaders in the Global Innovation Index. The Global Innovation Efficiency Index shows which countries are best in transforming given innovation inputs into innovation outputs. Countries which are strong in producing innovation outputs despite a weaker innovation environment and innovation inputs are poised to rank high in this "efficiency" index).

What is the idea behind starting up with such a unique business model and how successful it is in India?
Rahul Agarwalla: The need for a platform like Knimbus can be measured from the response we have received. With over 60,000 researchers at 650+ major Academic and Research institutions, we are the leading STM platform in India. The STM information industry is massive--over $29 billion globally. With the growing focus on increasing the knowledge intensity of economies and the consequent rise of the value of intellectual property, this market has seen substantial and steady growth, despite adverse economic conditions. More importantly, the trend of openness in science promises to bring a tsunami of change. Governments and funding agencies are mandating that research funded by them be freely accessible as it is ultimately for the public good. As more content becomes more accessible, the challenge that arises is of sifting through this massive sea of information. Thus the criticality of a platform like Knimbus which helps to pin point relevant information and provide tools like collaborative filtering.

Being a start up, do you feel Indian government is doing enough for boosting the growth of SMEs in the country? Are you aware of the schemes provided by the Ministry of MSME? Have you availed any of the schemes till date?
Rahul Agarwalla:  We have not availed of any such schemes.

Knimbus is a social media platform for researchers; do you think social networking is a better way of communication for promoting research?
Rahul Agarwalla: Knimbus believes the time has come to bring the two together - search + social. In the context of R&D the synergy created through collective intelligence creates a whole much greater than the sum of the parts. What people search for, read, tag, comment on and share creates an information signal leading to better information discovery. It is a virtuous cycle which makes R&D more effective & productive. Knimbus supports all phases of research by bringing together the Content, Community and Collaboration. Combining these aspects is not the only differentiation but tailoring them to suit the researchers' workflow is a key value addition.

What are your business expansion plans as of now?
Rahul Agarwalla: Our key focus was to establish a wide presence for Knimbus in India. And within the first year we have achieved this objective by establishing Knimbus as a leading STM information service provider. We at Knimbus have the widest access to global STM content and top creators and users of this knowledge in India which adds to our strengths in the industry.

With an increasing influence in India we decided to venture out and outlined our growth strategy in international markets through alliances. Knimbus has inked strategic reseller agreements with two STM (Scientific, Technical and Medical) information market majors---WTCox in US and SAM (Standards and More) in EU. These alliances enhance the reach of the Knimbus platform and make the service available to users in South Asia, USA and Europe now. Knimbus will now be able to address over 50% of world's researchers and a market worth over $22 bn.

Running simultaneously with our growth plans is our absolute focus on our users. Our users are the biggest asset we have. And the year 2013 will see us expanding to 1 million researchers via viral/social marketing.

As Knimbus grows, we envisage it as a platform for new kinds of applications and value added services which leverage the community and the content on Knimbus. Some of these futuristic and new elements are being developed with our technology partners who possess expertise in scientific apps and library tools:

* Plagiarism Control: it is nearly impossible to catch all cases of plagiarism. Software tools can make the task more manageable by comparing each line against all published research.

* Trend analysis: which area should we be doing research.

* Crowdsourcing projects: smaller companies do not have budgets for large R&D teams and need help on specific challenges. We expect these features to enhance user experience as well as create industry benchmarks in the year 2013.

(Namrata Kath Hazarika can be contacted at namratakh@tradeindia.com)