The manufacturing sector, being the cradle of innovation and technological change, has always occupied an extraordinary position in the minds of economic policy makers. A majority of innovations are first introduced and commercialized only in this sector, thus making it the main engine of technological change and economic growth. Technological change is a crucial driver of competitiveness of this industry (UNIDO, 2013). Technological change occurs in three stages: invention (generation of new ideas), innovation (development of new ideas into marketable products) and diffusion (disclosure of the products across the market) (Schumpeter, 1942). Thus, technological change is an outcome of creation and accumulation of intellectual assets and in turn, intellectual assets usher technological change. It is similar to a process leading to a product and a better product demanding an improved process. Intellectual assets are considered to be the most valuable corporate assets in the knowledge economy. The prominence of these assets is such that they are eclipsing the traditional asset portfolio of the corporate organizations, particularly those belonging to the knowledgebased industries. Recognizing this paradigm shift, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been leveraging intellectual assets as an incentive to realize, increase and exploit the potential of innovation through its agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Further, most of the TRIPs-mandated intellectual property rights are industrial property, which includes patents, trademarks, industrial designs, integrated circuit designs and the other evolving forms. Such being the importance of technological change and innovation, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) further observes that in order to design and implement the policies that can support the growth and enhanced performance of the manufacturing sector, the policy makers need to have necessary knowledge of how technological change can be supported and promoted. Evaluation of intellectual assets may help them to decipher the what and how of technological change. As an old adage goes, “What is being measured is well managed”. Globally, electronics industry is one of the high technology knowledge-intensive industries. It is unique among its clan as it is the only industry that is capable of transforming other industries into knowledge-intensive. Electronics is a ‘meta resource’ which is a significant part of all machines and equipments. In automobile industry, wheel alignment would have been largely a mechanical process with less scope for precision but for the application of electronics, which has resulted in precision wheel alignment as a separate process out of automobile workshops. The application of electronics in manufacturing ranges from video games to aerospace. Thus it is synonymous to King Midas who transforms everything into gold. Therefore, the Indian electronics industry is chosen for the present study.
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