In a finely landscaped high-technology park on the edge of Bangalore – and a world away from the chaos of urban India – sits the John Welch Technology Centre. In the four years since General Electric of the US set up this showpiece of corporate research, its 2,400 scientists and engineers have filed 240 US patents and had 25 granted. Advances range from more efficient aero aircraft engine designs and a system for GE Capital to predict corporate defaults to “pedestrian-safe” car bumpers that protect people against injury in impacts of up to 40kph.

At another equally splendid bioscience park outside Beijing, CapitalBio is emerging as a world leader in the new technology of biochips – devices that combine biotechnology and electronics for biological testing and medical diagnostics. The four-year-old company is already selling instruments to US drug companies and last month agreed a strategic partnership with Affymetrix in California, the world’s largest biochip producer.