KOCHI: For a state with higher education institutions featured in various national and international ranking frameworks not being in the National Association of Software and Service Companies’ (Nasscom) list of top states for number of patents filed raises serious questions.
The neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka feature at the very top in terms of volume of patent filings in the 2025-26 financial year, with 16% and 8% respectively of the total. Kerala on the other hand finds itself relegated to the group marked “other states” with negligible filings.
In the case of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, patent filings have been heavily driven by education institutions, especially central institutes like IITs and NITs. Interestingly, Kerala too has central institutions.
What accounts for this divergence? According to Rajan Varughese, member secretary of Kerala State Higher Education Council, among the root causes might be the fact that Kerala hasn’t had a comparable state-level intellectual property push that would show up as a distinctive trend in the data.
“The six states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Telangana alone account for approximately 47% of the country’s just over 1,43,700 filings in 2025-26. Kerala’s share falls into the “other states” bucket noted at the bottom of the chart.,” he told TNIE.
The main reason for lower patent filings is the onus placed on publications, said Dr Honey John, professor, department of polymer science and rubber technology, Cusat.
“Educational institutions and research centres are fixated on publications, though patent filings should be promoted equally. Even my department has just around six to seven patents,” she said.
This is despite the government promoting research activities in higher educational institutions, with schemes such as the Chief Minister’s Nava Kerala Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Suggesting measures to improve Kerala’s status in patent filings, Rajan said, “We need more investment in R&D. KSHEC has opened seven centres of excellence in various state universities. We also need to encourage research through fellowships and awards by the government and universities. New curriculum needs to be in alignment with research and innovation at the UG and PG level.”
