I guess, you've tried to present one view on aggregating few instances of innovation that currently exist - in rural india, in institutional agencies and the education sector. I'm sure, you're completely overlooked the industrial innovation that exists in leading industrial sectors viz. ICT, Chemical, Advance-engineering, Clothing, Services etc. where corporates play a major role. Producing billion-dollar innovations requires a major policy framework from central/state govts - incubators are just the start of it (with private sector partnership), then you have technology parks, industry clusters and what not. Ours is applied research or even a need-based research - driven by shortage of resources and urge to get something done. The next level is providing opportunities for commercialisation, taking blue-sky/applied research to the market and leveraging from it. We do have mechanisms but they lack confidence in backing "made in india" brand. Also, encouraging commercialisable research is probably the last thing on many state govt.'s agendas. There is tremendous hope but we've a long way to go.
First of all i would like to thank you for providing such a good article about the current standing of India in the international community in terms of advancement in science and technology.it made great reading and i feel we need more such articles,which have the potential to inspire people to achieve something.but the sad part is that such a good article hardly is noticed by many... usually i come across around 50-60 viewer posts for articles related to movies,sports and a few junk stuff which are not worth discussing.people get so passionate if someone says a word against his/her favorite actor or player or.....but for good articles like these which is a must read there were only 3 replies posted by viewers....really sad that people are not interested in moving the country ahead.
India will start institutionalising innovation without resorting to large-scale changes that need huge political capital very soon. Earlier how many people were writing the articles like yours??? I could see very few people like Arun Shourie, who always writes the inspiring articles. Now we can see many people like you, Arun Shourie and Narayanamurthy of Infosys, Anial Ambani, Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree and so on, trying to encourage the Indians in positive way. It definitely changes the attitude of Indians and makes them think and innovate and appreciate others.
It is the best article I have read in the recent times.It's just that we are money minded,we do anything that gives money.The people's mindset has to change rather than blaming the system.It's a shame that IT services company like infosys,which accumulated huge wealth can't pay attention in R&D.
I very much appreciate the views put forth in this insightful article. However, I wish to highlight that the article tends to take a very myopic view of Innovation.
Innovation is much more than invention or discovery, and it includes all the activities encouraging the commercialization of new technologies.
Innovation includes the scientific, technological, organizational, financial and business activities leading to commercial introduction of a new (or improved product or new (or improved) production process or equipment.
While ideas can be generated all the time, very few make it to the state of a blockbuster platform technology or a new generation product. The broad spectrum of activities including the process that nurtures, grows and gets it to the top is what is INNOVATION all about.
Hi, Good article. Awaiting your final part of the series.
Having done so much research on writing these article, I believe you would have already found out if these existing innovations by relatively unknown indians have been patented or are being patented.
We could help Dr Mashelkar of NIF or Paul Basil RIN to probably help them patent these innovations/inventions too ? Or any such help to start off.
John Seely Brown said" The great challenge in innovation is linking emerging technologies with emerging markets. If it were just a matter of linking emerging technologies with existing markets (or vice versa), the coupling would be relatively easy. But when both are emerging, it is a delicate, coevolutionary process: as technologies emerge, they affect the markets, and as markets emerge, they influence the technologies."
As new technologies and new markets engage in this eternal dance of complexity, nations must deal with enormous discontinuities, increasing volatility, and the rapid evolution of industries.
The article does some justice to understanding the problem of innovation but not to identifying how it can be corrected.
In India, the management of R & D and innovation has evolved to remain centered on the incremental development of technology portfolios and products for existing markets, using perhaps, stage-gate methods of the west. The focus seems to be more on continuous innovation, while these techniques are necessary, but they are grossly insufficient. Broader needs and opportunities of discontinous innovation are poorly understood and rarely addressed.
