How much growth was recorded in patent filing in Madhya Pradesh during the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, 230%. Patent filings from Madhya Pradesh grew by about 230 per cent between 2018-19 and 2022-23 — that is, they roughly tripled in four years, off a small base. The state's own reported series shows the shape of that climb: filings from MP rose from 190 in 2017-18 to 194 in 2018-19, 285 in 2019-20 and 398 in 2020-21 (MP Council of Science & Technology, using Indian Patent Office data). Over the same years all-India filings grew only about 22 per cent, from 47,854 to 58,503, so MP's growth rate is several times the national one — which is the point the figure is quoted to make.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Overstates the rise. A 320 per cent increase would mean filings more than quadrupled over the four years; the reported growth is 230 per cent, a little over a tripling.  (c) Understates it — 180 per cent is less than a tripling. It is a plausible-looking guess because MP's patent filings had already risen about 109 per cent between 2017-18 and 2020-21, and it is easy to assume the pace slowed rather than continued.  (d) The nearest distractor, and the one most likely to be confused with a neighbouring statistic — MP's design filings (a different category of intellectual property) rose about 250 per cent between 2017-18 and 2020-21. Keep the patent series and the design series apart.

Concept: Patent filings are the standard proxy for a state's innovation activity, which is why they turn up both in state economic surveys and inside the SDG and innovation indices. Two cautions come with the statistic. First, filings are not grants — an application filed says nothing about whether a patent is eventually awarded. Second, percentage growth off a small base is dramatic by construction: Madhya Pradesh files a few hundred patents a year against tens of thousands nationally, so a rise of a few hundred applications reads as a 230 per cent jump, while the same absolute rise in Maharashtra or Karnataka would barely register. The underlying push in MP has come from IPR facilitation through the MP Council of Science & Technology, patent-cost reimbursement in state industrial and startup policies, and the growth of institutional research at IIT Indore and similar centres.

State PCS 2026 Q90 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q90 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer