Research Projects

Sponsored research

Resilient Global Value Chains (GVCs) to Promote Fair and Equitable Trade (Sponsored by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India), knowledge partnership under the BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI) during India’s BRICS Presidency 2026.

Team: Nagesh Kumar (Project Director), Reji K. Joseph (Focal Point, coordinating inputs between ISID and the Department of Commerce) and Isha Chawla.

Output: Contribution used in the Chair’s Statement and Outcome Document of the Sixteenth Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers, Jaipur, India, 7 August 2026.

Deepening India-Korea Economic Cooperation, a joint initiative of ISID and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET), Sejong, Korea, to deepen the economic partnership between the two countries through collaborative research and policy advocacy.

Team: Nagesh Kumar (Director, ISID), Namhoon Kwon (President, KIET), Reji K. Joseph (Focal Point, ISID), Byungyul Park (Focal Point, KIET) and faculty members of both institutes.

Outputs: Two policy dialogues/forums involving the embassies of both countries and experts from academia and industry (New Delhi, 2024; Seoul, 2025); two edited books, Reimagining India-Korea Economic Partnership: Pathways to Deeper Integration (2025) and Korea-India Industrial Collaboration: Driving Shared Growth and Future Prosperity (2026); working papers and op-eds.

Sponsored research

Make in India: An Assessment of the Impact of the Programme on Six Manufacturing Sectors (Sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research).

Team: Reji K. Joseph (Project Coordinator; Project Director, Pharmaceutical Sector Study), Anjali Tandon, Beena Saraswathy, Ramaa Arun Kumar, Sangeeta Ghosh and Seenaiah Kale.

Output: Being published as a book by ICSSR and Macmillan.

Coffee Table Book Showcasing the Story of Indian Generic Drugs, as part of India’s G20 Presidency, 2023.

Editorial Committee (constituted by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India): Kamlesh Kumar Pant (Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, and Chairperson of the Committee), Vinod Kotwal (Member Secretary, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority), Sumit Garg (Deputy Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals), Archana Jatkar (Associate Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance), Ashok Madan (Executive Director, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association) and Reji K. Joseph (ISID).

Output: Published by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, as Serving Humanity: Indian Pharmaceutical Sector.

Sponsored research

Strategy for Leveraging ASEAN FTA and Trade Potential with the Middle East Countries for Pharma Sector in India (Sponsored by Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India).

Team: Reji K. Joseph (Project Director) and Dinesh Kumar (Consultant).

Output: A report submitted to the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India.

Sponsored research

Innovation in the Indian Industry: A Macro Scenario (Sponsored by United Nations Industrial Development Organization), as part of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and UNIDO project on National Manufacturing Innovation Survey 2021.

Role: Project Director.

Output: Used in preparing the technical chapters of the DST-UNIDO report Assessment of Firm-Level Innovation in Indian Manufacturing (2023).

Reducing Import Dependence on APIs: Early Experience of the PLI Scheme

Team: Reji K. Joseph (Project Director) and Ramaa Arun Kumar (Co-Director).

Outputs: A working paper, a journal article and op-eds.

Sponsored research

Outward FDI from India: Review of Policy and Emerging Trends and Outward FDI as a Strategy for Technology Catch-Up: A Case Study of Two Indian Automotive Firms, two studies under the research programme Industrial, Trade and Investment Policies: Pathways to India’s Industrialisation (Sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research).

Team: M.R. Murty (Programme Director), T.P. Bhat (Co-Director), Reji K. Joseph (Project Director, OFDI Studies), Beena Saraswathy, Mahua Paul, Ramaa Arun Kumar, Santosh Kumar Das, H. Ramachandran, Surya Tewari, Satyaki Roy, Sanjaya Kumar Malik, K.S. Chalapati Rao, Biswajit Dhar, Smitha Francis, Anjali Tandon, R. Rijesh, K.V.K. Ranganathan, Priyanka Tiwari and Swati Verma.

Outputs: A report submitted to ICSSR and two working papers.

Sponsored research

FDI in R&D and Development of National Innovation Capabilities: A Case Study of India (Sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research).

Team: Reji K. Joseph (Project Director), Biswajit Dhar (Co-Director) and Akoijam Amitkumar Singh (Research Assistant).

Outputs: A report submitted to ICSSR and a working paper.

Sponsored research

The Challenges, Opportunities and Performance of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry Post-TRIPS and India’s Information Technology Industry: A Tale of Two Halves, two studies under the project Innovation, Economic Development and IP in India and China (Sponsored by Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany), in collaboration with the Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA), Singapore Management University.

Team: Biswajit Dhar (Project Director) and Reji K. Joseph (Co-Director).

Output: Two chapters in an edited book by Springer (2019).

Review of Trade Policies of India’s Major Trading Partners, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

Team: Shashank Priya (Project Director) and Reji K. Joseph (Co-Director).

Output: A report published by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.