Outlook: India

There are several very good articles in this special feature in Nature:

The classic image of India that most people can conjure has cows, beggars, small children and sari-clad women all jostling for space on crowded streets. That image still reflects reality — but with palpable differences.

Along some of those streets now are gleaming, modern buildings where men and women churn out medicines for poor countries. Many children are being immunized with affordable vaccines produced by India's own biotechnology industry. And if the country continues to prosper as it has for the past decade, there soon may not be many beggars left.

Since 1991, when India discarded its socialist past and instituted broad reforms, its economy has been growing rapidly. By 2032, India's economy could be larger than those of all but the United States and China, according to an estimate by the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

In the following pages, we look at what effect these changes have had on India's life sciences. Indian biotechnology companies have been remarkably successful, but they have made most of their money copying patented drugs. To sustain growth, they will have to become more innovative. The same is true of basic-research institutes, which have only recently begun to be globally competitive.

More here.  [Thanks to Lara Inis.]