New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS): Of the 1.53 lakh researchers in India, 27,532 are women, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply, Minister of State Science and Technology Y.S. Chowdary said 14.3 percent of the researchers in the country were women.

Citing data from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), he also said that the country registers "far fewer" research application in comparison to other developing and developed countries.

"In 2013, India registered 43,031 patents in comparison to 825,136 by China, 571,612 by the US, 328,436 by Japan, 204,589 by South Korea, 63,167 by Germany and 44,914 by Russia."

Chowdary blamed "lack of awareness" on filing patents, its benefits among individuals, academic institutions and industries and low spending on research and development by private sector as the prime reasons behind the lesser registering of patents.

"The government has taken various steps to encourage patent filing like generating awareness programmes among stakeholders, encouraging potential applicants, organising knowledge expo and design summit for filing patents in collaboration with WIPO," said the minister.