Anecdotal? Perhaps...Having worked in three countries ( China, India and North America) in mining and construction equipment R & D ; directly both with Chinese and Indian engineers I can only restrict my opinion to my own field.
The older post 1947 generation of Indians had the legacy of a fairly intact and ethical engineering education system, as well as a Soviet backed technology transfer system for core sector industries. The current situation at least in the field I am familiar with is substantially different from the previous era.
This is reflected in a very non-competitive standard in the automotive and heavy construction equipment sector. 1955-56 Toyota Motors of Japan and Hindustan Motors both launched new models of cars. Toyota had their own design, The Crown. Hindustan Motors was producing a licensed version of the Morris Oxford 1955 that it kept manufacturing till 2013. Nothing more needs to be said for Indian automotive innovation.
Moving to critical fields such as optics and electronics and precision engineering India has lagged behind for decades.
The consumer goods a nation makes are spin-offs of critical technologies developed for the defence industries.
( Example: There would be no microwaves in our kitchens if the magnetron had not been developed for military radars).
At the time when China had made several models of fairly robust and accurate still cameras such as Seagull as well as cine cameras, the only cameras India made was a plastic box camera, license built from the German Agfa Company. This is unusual for a nation obsessed with its film industry with a heavy reliance on photography.The entire Bollywood film industry relied on imported cameras and stock.
Similarly in consumer electronics India did poorly manufacturing atrocious quality 3-band Murphy transistor sets , the price of which cost a month's wages of the average middle class family.
It was the same with every other ciass of consumer goods, from bicycles, motorized scooters, sewing machines,TV sets to home appliances. The Indian consumer industry under heavy protection from competitors kept producing shoddy goods until 1992-93 when import bans were lifted.
Till the mid 1990s with Nepal next door smuggling thrived, and the demand for Chinese and Japanese goods were insatiable.
Win Sung fountain pens, National Panasonic Transistor sets, Yashica and Seagull cameras, Funai VCRs, Grundig tape recorders, jackets, gloves, all were smuggled into India from across the Indian border.
Once India went to collaboration and
started manufacturing licensed versions of consumer goods the Indian brands have vanished.
Hindustan Motors made its last Ambassador car in 2013, and a little before that India's last Premier vanished. Tatas makes a fairly basic line of sedans Indigo etc. which are sold nowhere else but in India and Bangladesh. Murphy, Bush and Telerad radio sets have gone into memory lane, and so have Sonodyne and Texla TVs. "Delhi" brand firms making laundry irons and cooking stoves have long since shut down. India imports or license builds all consumer goods to foreign designs. Its own design bureaus have long since hung up their T- scales and slide rules.
