240 https://ijbed.org/details&cid=240 2026-06-14 Developing countries such as India should create highly innovative Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ecosystems by adopting the Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) approach which envisages industrial clusters surrounded by innovation supporting organizations, particularly universities and research institutes. Policies should be crafted to advance partnerships among colleges and universities, government institutions, nonprofit agencies and SMEs for creating a highly innovative milieu of innovation. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), an apex body set up by Government of India for fostering Research and Development(R&D) in the fields of natural sciences, should follow the lead of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Small Business Administration (SBA), both federal agencies that manage programs for advancing innovation in small businesses. The NSF invests in basic research across all fields of fundamental science and engineering and runs the Small Business Innovation Program for assessing potential business ideas through involvement of small businesses in research and development. The SBA runs Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, specifically designed to help SMEs plan, start and expand their businesses by connecting companies with lenders and funding. Though Indian SMEs have demonstrated acumen for innovation in hi tech industries such as space research, their full potential needs to be harnessed. Indian academic institutions produce high quality research but rank poorly in terms of academia industry interaction, thus hindering the innovative potential of the economy. The paper presents an India specific perspective on the RIS approach, and gives policy prescriptions for unleashing the economy’s innovative potential. Cooke, P. 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Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/the-trident-approach-to-making-india-an-rd-powerhouse-institutions-need-to-work-as-clusters-in-partnership-with-firms-which-will-bring-funding/ Times of India (2024) ‘Semiconductor mission’s great but academia can chip in’, The Times of India, 3 March. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/all-that-matters/semiconductor-missions-great-but-academia-can-chip-in/articleshow/108168309.cms Economic Times (2025) ‘India's food processing sector projected to reach $535 bn by FY26 end’, The Economic Times, 5 September 2025. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/indias-food-processing-sector-projected-to-reach-535-bn-by-fy26-end/articleshow/123717398.cms?from=mdr https://ijbed.org/cdn/article_file/V14-N2-Nov26.pdf Chander Shekhar Dogra Satinder Kumar SME cluster innovation university-industry linkage ANRF NSF 15 0 0