Strategic Linkages and Institutional Learning in India’s STI Response to COVID-19: A Case Study of the Genome Valley Life Sciences Cluster

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a new challenge for the world. While India, along with numerous other nations faced significant health and economic disruptions, a new opportunity emerged for Indian firms and research organisations to address the challenges and position themselves as key global players, particularly in vaccine development, diagnostic tools, and protective gear. This study is situated within this broader context. India, despite its structural limitations in its science, technology, and innovation (STI) ecosystem, responded in various ways to deal with the challenges created by this pandemic. The paper investigates India’s pandemic response by highlighting key mitigation measures that had a major impact on pandemic containment. Further, it examines in depth the case of Genome Valley, focusing on the Indian firm Bharat Biotech, which developed the vaccine Covaxin. Using the analytical lens of the ‘Triple Helix framework’, the study highlights the importance of synergetic linkages among government, academia, and industry in enabling coordination, knowledge co-production, and innovation that led to successful innovations under these challenging conditions. The study also highlights the key role played by two specialised clusters, the Tiruppur textile cluster and the biopharma cluster Genome Valley, in meeting the pandemic challenges. Government emerges as a key facilitator in bridging funding gaps, addressing regulatory challenges, and fostering collaborative platforms. Key policy lessons that emerge from this study are the need to create and strengthen institutional mechanisms that can enable strong linkages among different stakeholders, including triple helix linkages for strengthening innovation ecosystems, building absorptive capacity, and ensure policy directionality.