Innovation in India

Innovation:
Innovation is especially critical, not only for growth and development, but,
because, we have a huge reservoir of unmet needs in critical areas of economy
such as health, education, energy, housing and agriculture.
Innovation can play a key role in not only driving growth and competitive
advantage, but also ensuring that this development includes a larger cross section
of people and is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Affordable solutions, innovative business models or processes which ease
delivery of services to citizens can enable more people to join the development
process.
Indias biggest strength in the coming years is going to be her demographic
dividend. More than fifty percent of our population is under ! years and soon
one fifth of the worlds working age population will be in our country. "o
innovation is re#uired to address needs of younger generation in a sustainable
manner $ this generation can contribute hugely in innovations
India dedicated %&%'% as a decade of innovation.
(he products, services, processes or technology innovations that cater to the needs
of the under privileged sections of society are termed "ocial Innovations.
Indias model of innovation:
(hree distinctions of this emerging Indian approach to innovation)
1. It focuses on finding affordable solutions for the needs of people*for health,
water, transport, so on*without compromising #uality. +or instance, e,tremely
low cost eye surgeries which do not compromise on surgical standards at -".!%
compared to -".&,/!% in the -".
2. In this Indian approach to innovation, desired outcomes are produced by
innovations in organisational and process models that deliver to people the
benefits of technologies that may be developed in scientific laboratories. An
e,ample is the delivery models of mobile telephony services that have e,panded
the reach of telephony with the cheapest call services in the world.
3. There are innovations in the process of innovation itself to
reduce the cost of developing the innovations. An example is the Open
Source Drug Discovery (OSDD process !eing applied !y the "ouncil of
Scienti#c and $ndustrial %esearch ("S$% to develop drugs for treatment
of tu!erculosis& !ased on a semantic'search& (e!'!ased platform for
colla!oration developed !y $nfosys& an innovative approach that has
cut do(n the costs and reduced the time for drug development.
The need:
A. In Industry:
(he Indian industrial sector is heavily dependent on imported technology. (his
makes it weak and vulnerable.
(he cost associated with imported technology is much higher than that of a
domestic, in'house technology. (his additional cost is passed on to the consumer
and makes it a lu,urious unaffordable product to the low income groups.
0,amples)
&. In the nuclear energy sector, we import e,pertise, reactors, au,iliary parts and
spares from abroad. +or e,ample, (he 1ight 2ater 3eactor 41235 technology
employed at 6oodankulam 7uclear 8ower 8roject 4Agreement between India and
3ussia signed in &9::5 is a first of its kind in India. (he 78;I1 is completely
dependent on 3ussia for the design, drawings and all the e#uipments necessary.
(he project failed to take off for the ne,t decade, due to the dissolution of the
"oviet -nion.
. In transport sector, the ;hennai Metro 8roject for e,ample, imports train coaches
from <razil 4 ;ompany) Alstom 5. (his is despite the fact that one of Indias
largest and oldest coach manufacturing facilities 4(he Integral ;oach +actory,
Types of
innovations in
Indian context
;ore innovations'
getting patents and
publications
+rugal innovations'
impacting lives of
people directly
"(I policy %&= "teps taken by 7In;
>ovts support to each of them
8erambur5 is located within the ;hennai Metropolitan area. (his clearly indicates
that though we are e,perts in manufacturing traditional, well'established products
we lack e,pertise when it comes to new arenas as a direct conse#uence of lack of
innovation especially innovation of the social kind.
B. For Inclusiveness of the under privileged:
In a country with a large economic divide such as ours, social innovation is
mandatory for the inclusive growth of all sections of society.
0,ample)
In India, only the middle and high income groups can afford proper housing while
the low income groups depend on the government for housing. ?owever,
conventional construction methods are costly and time consuming, thus restricting
the governments ability to provide effective housing to all those in need and they
end up living in cramped, potentially unsafe conditions with poor sanitation
facilities such as slums.
At II( Madras, technologists have constructed a two'storey apartment in =& days
at very low costs. If this is mentored and funded on an industrial scale, it could go
a long way in eliminating slums in India.
C. For Bridging the Urban !ural divide:
(echnological innovations are targeted majorly towards the urban population.
(his leaves the rural population backward and denies them several opportunities such as
education, e,posure and white'collared employment. >overnment approved the proposal
to connect all panchayats through optic fibre and the rural broadband plan on ! @ctober
%&&. 7In; is currently working on applications for rural broadband in collaboration with
concerned Ministries.
"hat #TI $olicy %&'( see)s to do*
&. SRISHTI= Science, Research and innovation system for High technology led path
for India.
. (he 8rime Minister launched this policy for faster, sustainable and inclusive
growth.
a. 8ositioning India among the top ! scientific powers by %%
b. 888 48ublic 8rivate 8artnership5 to increase 3AB spending upto C of
>B8 within ! years.
c. IndiaDs global share of scientific publications from the present =.!C to
E.%CF
d. (reating 3AB in the private sector at par with public institutions for
availing public funds.
e. Making careers in 3AB and innovation more attractive to the talented
minds and retaining them within the country.
f. 0stablish large 3AB facilities through 888.
g. 8rovide new financing methods to entrepreneurs to encourage them.
h. >ender parity to be achieved by bringing in more women researchers.
i. 8roviding incentives to innovations focused on G>reen ManufacturingH i.e
Innovations that are environment+friendly.
,. (he "cience and (echnology <oards I ;ouncils in the "tates to be
strengthened.
). #cience -iplomacy J forging strategic partnerships with other countries
to develop state of the art research facilities.
#teps by .InC:
.ational Innovation Council is the think'tank council of India to discuss,
analyse and help implement strategies for innovation in India and suggest a
3oadmap for Innovation %&%'%%. It is headed by "am 8itroda. It has approved
Kadodara Innovation ;ouncil as its first city'based innovation council in India.
7In; is focused on encouraging and facilitating the creation of an Indian Model
of Innovation by looking at five key parameters) 8latform, Inclusion, 0cosystem,
Brivers and Biscourse
(he core idea is to innovate to produce affordable and #ualitative solutions that
address the needs of people at the Bottom of the $yramid, eliminate disparity
and focus on an inclusive growth model.
(o finance innovation, 7In; is creating an India Inclusive Innovation Fund
/IIIF0
(o keep up the pace of strong economic growth and to stay globally competitive,
M"M0s need to innovate in all aspects of business. 3ecognising this need, 7In;
has envisioned the Industry Innovation Cluster initiative.
7In; has developed the India Innovation 8ortal to enable easy access to these as
well as to become a wider information repository on innovation and a platform for
collaboration as well. It is said that India is a country with many successful
e,periments that do not achieve scale. (his platform will address this issue.
About IIIF:
Innovators need financial support at an early stage to develop and test their ideas
in the marketplace.
III+ seeks to leverage the model of Kenture ;apital to transform the lives of the
less privileged
(he +und will endeavour to provide modest financial returns, while ensuring
significant social impact to the community
(he +und will be registered under "0<Is Alternative Investment +und ;ategory I
guidelines with an initial corpus of 3s. !%% crores, with the Ministry of M"M0
committing to %C 43s &%% crores5 and the balance being given by <anks,
insurance companies, overseas financial and development institutions.
8hilosophy of the programme is to bring various stakeholders together not only
for financing the enterprises but also providing handholding support in different
manner through technical inputs to connect with the markets
Cluster Innovation Centre /CIC0:
(his is focal point of Industry Innovation ;luster initiative
;I; will actively seek relationships to address the needs of the cluster and
establish frameworks for knowledge and best practice sharing
(he 8ilot 8hase of the Innovation ;luster Initiative has been launched and nine
clusters 4seven industry and two university5 have been chosen to be part of this
phase.
7In; has been collaborating with "tate >overnments, Ministry of M"M0 and the
Bepartment of "cientific and Industrial 3esearch in this effort.
#ocial Innovation and 1ntrepreneurship:
+ostering and nurturing entrepreneurship is crucial for social innovations to take
place.
@ld, established institutions and industries find it difficult to adapt to new
challenges and demands. (hey react to social innovations slowly and with caution
because of the risks of failure. ?owever, new enterprises and start'ups which are
born from social innovations constantly work towards transforming their lab
prototypes into successful market'ready wholesome products.
(hese start'up enterprises and the entrepreneurs driving them have to be
mentored, supported with resources and insulated from the ill'effects of failure by
the government.
(he student community, especially the bright minds in our prestigious national
technology institutions must be encouraged to become entrepreneurs because they
show the ma,imum interest and capability towards entrepreneurship.
Challenges Faced by #ocial 1ntrepreneurs:
Most talented minds go abroad for pursuing their research due to sub standard
3AB facilities in Indias higher education institutions which is in turn, due to the
lack of capital.
(he target market is the low income group. (hus, the innovation must be of low
cost and high #uality and durability.
(he actual transformation of a lab prototype into a marketable product is often
associated with very high initial investments with no assurance of immediate
profits.
A prototype that functions perfectly in a lab environment may fail completely in
the real world or be rejected by the intended target market.
1ack of mentoring in skills and methods by industry persons.
Innovators lack clarity about Intellectual 8roperty rights. The $rotection and
Utili2ation of $ublic Funded Intellectual $roperty Bill3 /$U$FI$0 has been
pending in 8arliament since %%:. If passed, it could help to leverage the best out
of the intellectual properties of patents and enable innovators to earn more
revenue from their innovations.
Alumni involvement in the governing boards of universities is non'e,istent in
government institutes in India. (he top &9 of the % universities of the -." 702"
rankings are run predominantly by their alumni. Alumni involvement will ensure
that the universitys interests are most supreme and everything else is secondary.
4easures ta)en to foster #ocial Innovation:
1stablishment of !esearch $ar)s at IIT /4adras0:
&. 3esearch 8arks are arenas where students and entrepreneurs can showcase
their innovations to industry persons and interact with them.
. Industry persons can provide more information on the real world scenario
and market trends which the entrepreneurs lack and can serve as
GmentorsH
=. ;hances of winning sponsorships or funding from the industry for worthy
innovations.
$romoting innovation through education:
&. ;reation of a separate scholarship stream of 7ational Innovation
"cholarships analogous to the 7ational (alent "earch "cheme. (his will
help identify talented children at the school level who think creatively,
laterally and innovatively on issues that they perceive as important in their
local environment.
. "etting up an Innovation ;entre in each BI0( 4Bistrict Institute of
0ducation and (raining5 to enhance teacher training and enable them to
become facilitators of creativity and innovative thinking.
=. ;reation of a 7ational Innovation 8romotion "ervice to replaceIadd to 7ational
"ervice "cheme in colleges to use college students to identify local innovations.
(his is a scheme of the Ministry of Louth Affairs and "ports which along with
Ministry of ?uman 3esource Bevelopment 4?3B5 has been re#uested to
e,amine its feasibility.
M. "etting up a Meta -niversity, as a redefinition of the university model in
the &st century by leveraging Indias 7ational 6nowledge 7etwork to
enable multidisciplinary learning and collaborative knowledge creation.
(his university will reinterpret the concept of a university as not just a
traditional, physical space of learning, but as a repository of knowledge
and information that can be delivered in multiple ways, and can be
accessed from anywhere and anytime. (he 7ational 6nowledge 7etwork
47675 of the >overnment of India which is a high'speed multi'gigagibit
network is not only connecting educational and research institutes in the
country, but is getting connected to global research networks to enable
real'time collaboration and research. (he 767 is allowing students and
researchers to move towards a new paradigm of education and research
based on a virtual platform that breaks silos of geography and boundaries.
!. (he ;ouncil has launched the NT5- F5- 65- /TF60 initiative which
aims to provide a hands'on learning environment, where students can de'
construct, re'construct or re'purpose everyday objects that they see or use.
(his initiative is an e,citing step in fostering creative thinking and
analytical skills amongst the students
/. "etting up % Besign Innovation ;entres co'located in Institutes of
7ational Importance. ;o'location in campuses of national repute like
Indian Institutes of (echnology 4II(s5I7ational Institutes of (echnology
47I(s5 will help leveraging of academic and industry resources and give a
boost to design capacity in the country. Also, setting up an @pen Besign
"choolF creating an institute for facilitating training of trainers in design
and introducing design thinking at the school level.
E. Bepartment of "cience A (echnology has launched an I7"8I30 programme to
identify and reward young talent in science, and it covers students from high
schools, <achelor of "cience and Master of "cience levels.
Conclusion:
(hough concrete steps towards fostering social innovation such as the "(I J %&=
policy are being taken by the government, the goals envisioned must be made
measurable, time'bound, regulated and monitored.
>overnment must realize that bringing 3AB facilities to global standards cannot
be done overnight and must analyze and learn from the failures of the earlier
policies.
>overnment must monitor whether the incentives it awards to private entities are
not misused and whether the beneficiaries contribute actively towards
development of social goods.