In a special report in last week's 'Economist', Simon Cox explains that while India and China may have made clever use of foreign technology -- assembling it, copying it, servicing it, and customising it -- too much remains to be created by their firms for them to rival that technology.

He adds however that while 'techno-nationalists' may worry over this, economists will find much to applaud.

Cox argues that India does not need to focus on invention per se in order to flourish. That instead, if the country gainfully absorbs, assimilates, and uses the technology available, it can transform itself as China's done.

Cox explains, "Indian and Chinese firms have a comparative advantage in finding new uses for existing technologies, and combining them in novel ways. This kind of 'architectural innovation' may be scientifically modest, but it can nonetheless be commercially significant."

The report goes on to say that while India and China may cherish the idea of pushing the limits of technology, invention is by itself risky, costly, and frustrating. Whereas, imitation, has a lot going for it.

The report asserts that India and China have more to gain from the adoption and assimilation of technology than from invention. As such, the most urgent task for the two countries is to make wider use of know-how that already exists.