NEW DELHI, October 8 — The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Thursday announced that the Indian Patent Office has crossed a historic threshold by granting over 100,000 patents within the current calendar year 2026—representing the highest volume of annual intellectual property recognitions ever recorded in the nation's history.
Addressing an intellectual property summit, Commerce and Industry leadership highlighted that systematic digitization under the e-Filing 2.0 portal, recruitment of specialized patent examiners, and an 80 percent fee concession for recognized startups and educational institutions have catalyzed domestic innovation. Concurrently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) confirmed that India advanced to 38th place in the Global Innovation Index (GII 2026), marking a sustained decade-long ascent from 81st rank in 2015.
DPIIT disclosures revealed that domestic filers—comprising Indian universities, MSMEs, and indigenous deep-tech startups—accounted for over 58 percent of all patent grants. The fastest-growing patent categories included artificial intelligence architectures, green hydrogen electrolyzers, clean energy technologies, and biopharmaceutical formulations.
The statutory framework of the Patents Act 1970 (amended in 2005 for TRIPS product patent compliance), Section 3(d) preventing evergreen patenting, compulsory licensing protocols under Section 84, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and WIPO governance are recurring themes in UPSC Civil Services (GS-III: Intellectual Property Rights & Economic Growth). Candidates should understand how GII benchmarks input institutions against knowledge and technology outputs.