India's scientific research output has been improving in the last few years. The Indian Government's Press Information Bureau published a background note that showed India's global rank moved from 13th (in 1996) to 9th (in 2010), based on the number of scientific papers published.
Patent application filings have been increasing too—from less than 25,000 filing five years ago to over 34,000 filings last year. While filings by Indian residents represent just over a fifth of total annual filings, even those numbers are showing an upward trend.