International Journal of Management (IJM)

Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2020, pp. 3727-3738, Article ID: IJM_11_11_366
Available online at https://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34218/IJM.11.11.2020.366

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

INNOVATION AS PANACEA FOR INDIA TO

BECOME A GLOBAL ECONOMIC POWER
UNDER INDUSTRY 4.0
Dr. N Prasanna
Associate Professor of Economics & Deputy Director BECH-RUSA 2.0,
Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

Dr. M Ravichandran
Director i/c, Bharathidasan Entrepreneurship Innovation & Career Hub (BECH-RUSA 2.0),
Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
India is known for its strength and accomplishments on the Information and
Technology (IT) front and she has greater role to play in the current phase of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). The Indian IT sector is the largest reservoir of
professionally trained manpower in the world, where about one crore IT professionals
are being outsourced by the United States of America and Europe. India, albeit, ranks
52 in Global Innovation Index (GII- 2019), but in ICT services export, she ranks first in
the world. Leveraging information and technology potential to gain global economic
power may be the best strategy for India. Innovation as an economic instrument assumes
importance, which is a case in point here, as panacea (ultimate solution) to elevate
India as one of the global economic powers in the future. In this milieu, the Government
of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has initiated
an institutional measure to promote innovation, research and development,
entrepreneurship and career by formation of hubs in select Indian universities since
March 2019. This paper aims to present the experience of a state university in
implementing the MHRD sponsored aforesaid program in the back drop of a detailed
discussion on promotion of innovative entrepreneurs.
Key words: NSO, IT, MHRD, ICT
Cite this Article: N Prasanna and M Ravichandran, Innovation as Panacea for India to
become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0, International Journal of
Management (IJM), 11(11), 2020, pp. 3727-3738.
https://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11

1. INTRODUCTION
The National Statics Office (NSO) estimated that India’s economic growth will be 5 per cent
for 2019-20. No doubt, India’s performance in all the three sectors, viz., agricultural, industrial

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 Innovation as Panacea for India to become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0

and tertiary have contributed to GDP. Tertiary sector in general and IT in particular has drawn
the global attention through its contribution in the last two decades. India is now an intellectual
store house for IT professionals, where more than 10 million trained manpower, from India, is
actively engaged onsite in developed countries. The IT sector is capable of steering India
towards becoming a global economic power in the near future. Industry 4.0 is essentially
entered on harnessing IT sector further through promotion of innovation culture. Wong, et.al.,
(2016) studied the cross sectional data of 37 countries estimating regression equation derived
from the Cobb-Douglas production function with rate of growth of GDP per employed person
as the dependent variable and technological innovation and entrepreneurship as the two of the
three predictors. Their findings supported their hypothesis that technological innovations are
positively associated with economic growth. Their research confirmed the need for
entrepreneurship and innovation activities to achieve economic growth. Acs and Virgil (2009)
analysed the role of entrepreneurship in developing countries and opined that
entrepreneurship can act not only as an engine of growth, but it can also lead to the
Holistic development of a country. In developing countries, entrepreneurship can impact
technology and innovation allocation and mobilization of factors of production, also
improving the education and skills of members of the society leading to human capital
development, employment opportunities, removal of market distortions, etc. They
concluded that entrepreneurs are the best agents to achieve economic growth and
development when supported by market friendly institutions.
The Government of India in this direction, has been adopting several options to achieve the
same. One of the strategies to accomplish this mission is through targeting higher education
institutions across select central and state universities in India. The Central government
initiated the ‘Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub’ program at the national level in
universities in early 2019 through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
which has identified a few universities in Tamilnadu, amongst the total 30 in India, for
implementing the same with adequate financial aid.
The authors of the paper propose to share the experience of implementation of the aforesaid
program from one of the state universities in Tamil Nadu. Both entrepreneurial prospects
coupled with innovation is the need of the hour. Understandably, innovation is an instrument
of entrepreneurship. Aspects pertaining to innovation and entrepreneurship are familiar,
however students and scholars at the higher education level need to be sensitized towards
innovation and to make them think out of the box. It is tough, but formidable and that is the
reason a systematic method will have to be evolved to achieve this. In particular, there is a need
to create an ecosystem that would facilitate student aspirants to become innovative
entrepreneurs after graduation.

2. INDUSTRY 4.0
The fourth industrial revolution focuses its attention more on the manufacturing industry
besides others. Rapid growth of IT industry is a shot in the arm for India to transform the whole
manufacturing style with the help of digitalization right from designing till the distribution of
the final product. Each stage holds promises for innovation. The industry 4.0 is holistic in its
approach with the composite modern technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of
Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, GPS, Big data analytics, Robots, Sensors, human- machine
interface and automation devices. The list is not exhaustive, but still included as major items
and all the new technologies, carry adequate potential for innovation. According to Roblek,
et.al. (2016), “the phenomenon of Industry 4.0 was first mentioned in 2011 in Germany as a
proposal for the development of a new concept of German economic policy based on high-tech
strategies (Mosconi, 2015). The concept has launched the fourth technological revolution,

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 N Prasanna and M Ravichandran

which is based on the concepts and technologies that include cyber-physical systems, the
Internet of things (IoT), and the Internet of services (IoS; Lasi et.al., 2014; Ning & Liu, 2015),
based on perpetual communication via Internet that allows a continuous interaction and
exchange of information not only between humans (C2C) and human and machine (C2M), but
also between the machines themselves (M2M; Cooper & James, 2009). This communicational
interaction influences the establishment of knowledge management 4.0 (KM 4.0; Dominici
et.at., 2016).” Further they observe that “characteristic of Industry 4.0 is increased
competitiveness through smart equipment, making use of information about high-wage
locations, demographic changes, resources, energetic efficiency, and urban production (Heck
& Rogers, 2014). The four key components of Industry 4.0 are cyber-physical systems
(connections between the real and virtual world), the IoT, the IoS, and the smart factory.
Machine communications (M2M) and smart products are not considered as independent parts.
The M2M is an enabler of the IoT. Smart products are a subcomponent of the cyber-physical
systems (Greengard, 2015; Kagermann, 2014).”
Though ambitious, India aims to become a five trillion dollar economy in five years down
the line. Reports suggest that India occupies third position in technology driven product start-
ups next to the U.S and the U.K. It is known that start-ups are the modern engine of growth of
employment generation. A detailed discussion of the concept of innovation and
entrepreneurship is mandatory as backdrop to develop and propose methods to follow in
creating ambience for promotion of innovation. Following the discussion is of the same for
students and scholars at higher education level to take to the path of innovation in the future.

3. NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND

INNOVATION IN PERSPECTIVE
‘Entrepreneurs are born and not made’, the proposition remains a myth still. It may be ambitious
to create entrepreneurs always, but an atmosphere can be set in a scientific manner in promoting
entrepreneurship culture among students. Both the concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation
are seldom new. They complement each other as mutually inclusive partners. Several stages are
involved in the task of preparation. They include, inter alia, sensitizing students to create
awareness of entrepreneurship, equip students to think out of the box, training to pitch in new
ideas, preparing a theme based project proposal, intensive training to learn the latest business
models, research and development, coming out with prototype model, learning marketing
strategies and emerging as full-fledged innovative entrepreneurs eventually.
Entrepreneurship is a very old concept, but generic in nature. For more insight, let us start
from where the word ‘entrepreneur’ originates, which is from French, implying “a person who
undertakes” (a task). Richard Cantillon, one of the famous ‘Physiocrats’, in his 1755 work,
“Essay sur la nature du commerce en general” (written between 1730 and 1734), first introduced
the concept of the entrepreneur into economic analysis (Spengler 1960). He argued that
entrepreneurs make conscious decision for better returns for their investment. He classified
society into two-fold; ‘fixed income earners’ and ‘non-fixed income earners’ as entrepreneurs
basically belong to the latter.
The classical school and other schools of economic thought did not delve into
entrepreneurship per say until the famous economist, Joseph Schumpeter. But, to have some
perspective of entrepreneurship from the traditional economics point of view, let us take into
consideration, the views of the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, who explained that
refinements in the division of labour in the economy lead to greater specialization, and
specialization leads to greater efficiency and wealth. Through this we can interpret
entrepreneurship as human actions that lead to changes in the division of labour, which further
lead to disaggregation of complex processes into simpler ones; simpler processes can be

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 Innovation as Panacea for India to become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0

automated through machinery and tools; thus ushering invention and innovation (Michael,
2007).
Later, Schumpeter (1947), in his pioneering work on the innovations theory of economic
growth, observed that ‘The entrepreneur and his function are not difficult to conceptualize; the
defining characteristic is simply the doing of new things or the doing of things that are already
being done in a new way’. Over a period of time, the dynamics of the concept witnessed several
changes. Basically, an entrepreneur is ‘the one who takes risks’ right from pitching in ideas,
developing business model, marketing, and till earning money and profit. Even the globally
coveted, the Nobel Prize recognized the very idea of entrepreneurship and awarded prize in
2006 to Prof Edmond S Phelps and Prof Muhammed Yunnis. Harvard Business Review puts it
as ‘those who quickly identify and systematically eliminate risks’ become successful
entrepreneurs.
Modern entrepreneurs of the 21st century showed interest in ‘building sustainable
institutions’. This category of entrepreneurs do not believe in ‘catching the wave’ but by
‘creating their own wave’ by confronting totally a different set of challenges.

4. INNOVATION-CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
It is common knowledge that invention is to do with discovering something new, a product or
method, which precedes innovation. Innovation is a subtle concept, which needs to be
understood in perspective. There are myriad definitions (see Annexure) perceptions, and
interpretations available in the literature on innovations. Tracking the same may unfold several
facets of innovations and the dynamics of it is very interesting. Innovation, as a concept, is also
generic in nature. Cutting across all fields and there is no exception; innovation is all pervasive.
Innovation never occurs on its own, a conscious and deliberate attempt is required, while
invention may be possible as a natural occurrence. Innovation is always an offshoot and
derivative of invention. In fact, the influential economist Schumpeter (1939), introduced this
important distinction. Invention, he argued, was the creation of something new (e.g., a new
product), while innovation related to the adoption of that new thing (e.g., the bringing of a new
product to market). Schumpeter defined and distinguished between inventions and innovations
over defining inventions as the discovery of new technical knowledge and its practical
application to industry, while innovation asks the introduction of new technical methods,
production, sources of supply and focus of business organisation. According to him,
entrepreneurs are also the innovators.
The world has been witnessing innovations across all realms and it is a continuum; there is
no end to it. The foremost question is whether it is possible to inculcate innovation culture in
the academia. The advent of information technology gives impetus to innovation. Management
experts, scientists, business gurus and intellectuals have come out with explanations to unleash
the dynamics of the concept, no single definition would suffice to discern the concept in
perspective. Innovation is associated more with business because inventions shall remain as it
is, be it small or big, but innovators convert the same into business propositions through
entrepreneurship / entrepreneurs. Businesses have two eyes; innovation and marketing.
Unless one understands the concept of innovation in perspective, there is no point in
contemplating it to take the same to the stakeholders. It may be interesting to discern the
dynamics of innovation through the minds of great innovators, philosophers, successful
businessmen, and inventors. Their views on innovation may be in the form of written material
as quotes. Invaluable insights can be drawn from the quotes provided in the Appendix.
Innovation is a composite term, encompassing numerous aspects like creativity,
intelligence, imagination, changes, novel ideas, new way, alternate solution, driving force of
growth, development and progress. Innovation does not come by giving incentives, but by

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 N Prasanna and M Ravichandran

creating necessary ambience. Also it does not come by accident. A deliberate attempt with
conscious effort to come up with an idea, new one, passes through human interaction,
arguments, debate and sometimes conflict. Albeit new, an idea seldom becomes an innovative
one in the first instance, has to pass through several trials. Failure is very much a part of the
journey of innovation. Change that calls for making a difference is innovation. Some would
argue that innovation is all about collecting two or three things, which exist already, and arrange
them together in a novel way.
What is the link between dream and innovation? A dream may lead to innovation, if and
only if it is realized. Innovation is compelling need of the future. At times, vulnerability gives
birth to several innovations and at the same time innovation cannot be brought forth by force
or compulsion. Innovation is producer-centric and certainly not from the consumers. There are
instances, where outrageous ideas, apparently foolish, turned out to be innovative ones.
Innovation, an agent of change, resulted in new values. Innovation favours a leader and not
followers. Innovation enables individuals to perceive change as an opportunity and not a threat.
Innovation stems from difference in thinking and not from seeing the same object. All
individuals may see the same object/ product, but the thought about the object will be different
and the differences in thoughts pave the way for innovation. Of course, new thinking leads to
creativity, eventually becoming an innovation, when new thinking is converted into reality by
doing it. There is a famous quote that ‘if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see
every problem as a nail’. According to Albert Einstein, there is no point in repeatedly doing the
same thing again and again, as it would fetch the same result and returns. Change in direction
of thought matters more in innovation. Human ingenuity and passion are integral part of
innovation. Experts opine that innovators ought to be ready to be misunderstood. Innovation is
a means of finding a better way to do it, as change makes a difference.
Creativity may bring-forth new ideas but innovation makes it realize. Peter F. Drucker
(1985) in his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” is emphatic that new ideas emerge only
when the old one ceases. John Maynard Keynes (1936), in his magnum opus, “The General
Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” goes further by stating that real hardship lies in
getting rid of old ideas than developing new. However, as part of innovation exercise,
connecting the dots warrants backward looking and not forward looking. Ability to perceive
even an unfavourable circumstance as favourable one rather than danger. True innovation
always calls for human arguments, conflict, interaction, and debate. In modern days, innovation
is no longer a choice but becoming an imperative. It is really rare to witness innovation coming
up in the first try and therefore it is necessary to keep repeating the trial and repetition is the
recipe of innovation.
The upshot is change and nothing but change. Introducing a change either in product or
service will certainly add value to both. Next question is why change takes centre-stage in
innovation. Any change brings about betterment in quality. Human psychology, since time
immemorial, is that humans seek for better quality, be it quality time, quality food, quality
education, quality items across the whole spectrum. Improvement in quality is continuum and
there is no end to it. Innovation is the most ideal mechanism to usher change.

5. STEPS TOWARDS SYSTEMATIC METHODS OF PROMOTING

INNOVATORS
There is no universally accepted methodology in place to be followed to create entrepreneurs.
However, the process can be evolved in the course of time through initiating discussions.
Different methods have been practiced in different countries from time to time in a sporadic
manner. Concerted efforts are the need of the hour in consolidating the existing means and they

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 Innovation as Panacea for India to become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0

may get crystalized. Following stages are generic in nature, which may warrant debates and
discussions before finalizing the same for execution.
• Sensitization of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship among stakeholders
• Scientific training for preparation of theme based projects leading to innovation
• Research and development
• Developing prototype
• Exposure to varied business models
• Learning Marketing Strategies
• Accessing finance
• Start-ups
• Incubation
• Emergence of innovative entrepreneurs
All the aforesaid steps are not rhetoric, but an offshoot of experience gained by the authors
of the paper from an entrepreneurship, innovation and career hub of a state university.

5.1. Sensitization of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship among

stakeholders
First and foremost, the stakeholders, students need to be sensitized over the idea of creativity,
innovation and entrepreneurship. In academic curriculum, by and large, there is scant attention
to critical thinking leading to creativity. There may be some exceptions to this in some academic
programs. Therefore, it is imperative to induce students to think out of the box, which is a
preliminary step in the entrepreneurship journey. This can always be achieved to incorporate
innovative aspects in the curriculum in the long run. As of now, majority of students learn what
is given in the syllabi, attend lecture hours and take their exams.
An old adage goes as ‘catch them young’, as the initiation has to start from schooling to be
carried forward to college and ultimately to university level. A blend of both, teaching and
training is necessary as teaching entrepreneurship and innovation would prepare students with
raw intelligence and training would impart necessary skills. Roger La Salle, a world renowned
Australian expert, gave a working definition of innovation as ‘change that adds value’. He
asserts that all products and services can be changed. “There is no product or service you can
not change”, Roger asserts. A clear cut understanding of innovation in Roger’s perspective
helps visualize innovation prospective across all products and services (Melinda Oliver, 2013).
For instance, take the case of mobile phone, it was hardly a substitute for conventional
phone with cords connected to the telephone line. Now, look at the changes that were introduced
in terms of internet facility, camera, and movies and songs, etc. Each change that was brought
about in the mobile phone added value to the electronic gadget. Ceiling fan, where the change
introduced in the form of ‘dust free’ blades, added value to the ceiling fan. Wrist watch meant
for time check, now upon introduction of a small change facilitate recoding the number of foot-
steps made in a day and many such new utilities. Change that leads to innovation. No wonder,
ten years down the line, many more functions can be expected of a wrist watch owing to
innovation. Tube lights, television sets, modern cars, motorbikes and the examples are endless.
One may cite as many number of examples as possible; tailoring, food, hair-cutting saloon and
so on so forth. To reiterate, no product is exempted, a change in some form or the other get
introduced leading to value addition of the product. The hard core of innovation lies in bringing
in change that adds value to the product.

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 N Prasanna and M Ravichandran

Services are no exception to innovation practices. Starting from postal service, banking,
railways, bus, air travel and cinema ticket booking, payment of electricity bill, income tax,
transfer of money (instead of money order), payment towards purchase of commodities, books,
dresses, tuition fee, examination fee, door delivery of food items, hiring transport like uber/ ola
and the list could expand and all the aforesaid services have witnessed some change resulting
in value addition and that is all about innovation. Hence, Roger La Salle’s conception of
innovation is an eye opener to discern the subtle meaning of innovation transpired across all
products and services.

5.2. Scientific training for preparation of theme based projects leading to

innovation
An aspirant may come up with an idea, but the mere idea would not become a desirable proposal
on its own. A systematic training is required and training should be given by experts in the
respective fields for a select students, say 20 stakeholders. Individual care, mentoring, and
coaching shall be easier with a small group. A two day or one week workshop may be
programmed in offering a thorough exposure. Brain storming, debate and discussion may form
part of the training program. The expected outcome is to ßprepare students to write a theme
based project proposal, with a focus and thrust on innovation. This contemplated exercise will
facilitate at least five to six students to jump to the next stage of the journey, viz., research and
development.

5.3. Research and Development

The research and development (R and D) is an integral part of the whole exercise. Be it product
or service oriented, research on the concerned aspect brings precision and accuracy by means
of leveraging the advancement of science and technology. Sophisticated and state of the art
scientific instruments can be made accessible to the prospective students who will have the
freedom and support to conduct experiments to validate and verify the proposed idea.

5.4. Developing Prototype

A prototype is basically an early example as design or type, which is operational/functional/
working. The preliminary design is partial, but with positive outcome in the realm of
innovation. Before making the device/ machine in large numbers, prototypes emerge as first
sample, which facilitate getting the feed-back of consumers or the users. Prototype enables
modifications in design before reaching the final stage as finished products.
A prototype gives shape to one’s idea that helps enhance the quality and accuracy. Prototype
is an initial format in working condition, but still amenable for change to suit the end users. The
available literature carries a few steps to transform prototype into finished product; create
concept sketch, develop a virtual prototype, build a physical prototype and locate a
manufacturer. The prototype is useful in determining novelty in design. In sum, prototype is
that which comes first and later after confirmation, the same is made in large number. It has
grater relevance in the innovation narrative as prototype begets a concrete form, albeit initial.

5.5. Exposure to existing business models

An innovative entrepreneur is expected to equip oneself by learning different business models.
There is no dearth of business models both at national and international levels. Be it small or
big, stakeholders ought to have oriented themselves with business models. This exercise would
help prospective entrepreneurs to identify risks and learn strategies to remove/ overcome the
same. It will be rewarding to discern success and failure outcomes in the past from the existing
business models.

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 Innovation as Panacea for India to become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0

5.6. Marketing strategies

Most crucial part of entrepreneurship journey is marketing. Without it, a product or service
would not reach the intended target group on the one hand, and recovery of initial investment
and tasting profit by entrepreneurs, on the other. There is ‘no one size fits all’ strategy in
marketing. Strategies vary depending upon the type, size, price and quality of products. With
the recent advent of information and technology, online trading has become widely prevalent
now. Online trading unfolds several options for prospective entrepreneurs. Marketing is a fast
growing area, changes are taking place and entrepreneurs have ample scope to identify suitable
marketing strategies to the products or services to become a successful entrepreneur.

5.7. Accessing Finance

Financial support is necessary for carrying out any activity connected to entrepreneurship right
from conducting research towards developing prototype till reaching start-up stage to begin
with. In the case of students, the stakeholders in the present context of discussion, the Ministry
of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has granted adequate funding for this purpose. But,
for trained entrepreneurs can look for bank loans for furthering their activities.

5.8. Start -up

Start-up is a stage where the prospective and budding entrepreneur takes a concrete step forward
in transforming one’s innovative idea in to making a product or service, towards forming a
company. This entails investment, big or small, depending on the nature of the proposed task
in hand. Start-up implies the early stage, the very caption denotes the meaning to start the work.
Supposedly, a young company is all set to begin to develop, though in a small way. Start-up
even means a new business that intends to enlarge in future.

5.9. Incubation
Incubation is all about extending support services like providing physical space, finance,
connectivity to marketing and networking to the prospective entrepreneurs. In the absence of
such initial support services, the start-ups will never see the light of the day. Incubation is
increasingly becoming connected to business, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Any new idea
or new method however creative they are, ideas per se may hardly evolve into business on their
own. Particularly for the first generation entrepreneurs, who generally face teething problems
as to how to go about to move to next stage with the new idea in mind. Incubation comes into
picture here. As a facilitator for a beginner to offer support services starting from mentoring,
de-risking, moral support, to physical space or factory, seed money, technical support and
networking and so on. Support services essentially nurture the idea in converting it into viable
business to grow and survive. This is an early stage support, which is crucial; a premature baby
attains normal growth only with the help of incubator. Similarly, the early stage young business
aspirants with creative ideas need business incubator to survive. In the absence of incubator
similar to premature baby, the early stage young aspirant may hardly survive and grow.
But for incubators, many a start-ups would not have seen the light of the day. Initial support
is necessary as the confidence level would be lower due to uncertainty of space, finance,
networking and so on. Business incubators are playing a crucial role in the growth of
entrepreneurial activities at least in so far as small business is concerned.
Business incubators may by themselves become entrepreneurs. By means of taking risk they
may try to de-risk the start-ups as beginning stage is more vulnerable for quitting or dropping
out. A prospective entrepreneur could have a creative idea potential to turn it as business
proposal. However, the metamorphosis of entrepreneurship has to cross a host of stages like
making a business plan, ensure adequate funding, finding a location for office space, factory

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 N Prasanna and M Ravichandran

space, and studying the market potential, etc. Business incubator to an entrepreneur can extend
all the preceding support services. This actually helps both the young aspirants and the business
incubators and both become mutually dependent.

5.10. Emergence of Innovative Entrepreneurs

Innovation and entrepreneurship are the two sides of the same coin, as they complement each
other. Both the concepts are age-old, however importance is increasing to innovative
entrepreneurship in the modern era. This is due to complexities of problems, be it technological,
economic, social, political and cultural, the conventional solutions hardly provide holistic
solutions. Innovative approaches to solutions are the need of the hour. Alternate innovative
solution help achieve ‘win-win’ situation. Employment generation is the first one, as a single
entrepreneur can offer multiple number of jobs to others. This in turn would increase incomes
of employees leading to more purchasing power, better spending, and increased production
level and so on. Unemployment is one of the very serious problems developing nations are
confronted with. Government can provide only less than ten per cent of the total number of
passed out graduands. Only option left, other than the state sector, is private enterprises. Scope
for emergence of innovative entrepreneurs is large in the private sector than the public.
Notwithstanding the flip side of private sector, there are enormous avenues for graduates to
have careers. Entrepreneurial prospects bear twin benefits; self- employment and ability to
provide for others. Inculcating the concept of entrepreneurship and innovation in the curriculum
and prepare students to be innovative entrepreneur ready, before leaving the campus, is a case
in point.
Students who graduate either at the under-graduate or post graduate level, by and large,
possess raw intelligence owing to existing curriculum structure followed in colleges and
universities and as a result a minimum percentage of students become employable. There are a
host of reasons for that and this issue is being discussed at all levels of the academic circle.
Notwithstanding the fact that curriculum has been updated from time to time by all educational
institutions in enhancing the quality of education with better placement prospects;
employability skills of students still leave much to be desired. Is there an alternate solution for
this problem? The answer is a big yes and the alternate solution may make a maximum of
students becoming employable. Innovation literacy is the need of the hour as students with raw
knowledge attempting to become entrepreneurs seldom succeed. In this milieu,
entrepreneurship and innovation assume importance.
Innovation is panacea and there is going to be the future in this. One may wonder how is it
possible to use innovation as tool to address this issue. Innovation, in simple terms, is the means
of coming out with new ideas, new method, new process, new product, and new alternate
solution and convert the new ones into reality. According to Roger La Salle, innovation is
nothing but creating a change, as change that adds value to products and services. Further, one
may realize that almost all products and services have been changing over the years, be it health,
education, information technology, media, fashion designing, food items, banking, logistics,
insurance, transport, textile and across all spectrums of the economy. Change that is brought
about as an offshoot of innovation not only enhances the value and fetches profit but also leads
to growth and economic prosperity.
Time has ripened; where there is compelling need to inculcate innovation, creativity and
entrepreneurship in the curriculum itself. Of course, curriculum in a few disciplines carries
aspects pertaining to entrepreneurship and innovation. But concerted efforts are needed to
consciously incorporate the same in the syllabi, a module or a few modules to familiarize
students to think creatively leading to innovation. Innovation culture needs to be evolved. It
ought to be mentioned that there is a notion that creativity and innovative ideas are confined to

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 Innovation as Panacea for India to become a Global Economic Power under Industry 4.0

some disciplines that deal with production and marketing. Innovation is possible across all
disciplines. Understanding of innovation and creative thinking in perspective is mandatory.
Incidentally these can hardly be taught, but can only be sensitized through discerning the minds,
words and experience of great innovators at the global, national and regional levels.
As of now, higher educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and top-class business schools are
endowed with business incubation centres with international standards. The currently proposed
move would facilitate universities, at least the select ones, to offer such facilities and enable
students to bring out their full potentials in so far as entrepreneurship and innovation is
concerned.
Every individual is competent of becoming an innovative entrepreneur. Howard Gardner, a
Harvard University Professor, argues in favour of multiple intelligences. Conservative view
was that individuals who possessed linguistic, logical and mathematical skill were construed as
intelligent. Howard Garner demystified this traditional views that intelligence does not confine
only to linguistic, logical and mathematical skills alone. Types of intelligences go beyond.
According to Howard, visual (picture smart), musical (music smart), kinaesthetic (body smart),
interpersonal (people smart), intrapersonal (self-smart), naturalistic (natural smart). All
individuals shall have any one of the aforesaid attributes. Therefore, everybody is capable of
becoming an innovative entrepreneur. Basic intelligence is a pre requisite for innovation and
thus every individual is deemed to be capable of becoming an innovative entrepreneur as an
offshoot of intelligences embedded in oneself, i.e., of any one kind of the aforesaid
classification.
This would be a golden opportunity for the students’ community to make proper use of this
program and therefore at the end of the day students would be ready to venture into becoming
entrepreneurs immediately on completion of college/ university studies. The Government
initiated program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation is essentially meant for the students’
community. The said program bestows financial assistance for theme based projects, internship
with big companies for entrepreneurial training, post-doctoral fellowship, seed money for start-
ups and so on. The initiative further envisages skill development programs for Government
college students. In sum, efficient execution of the program shall transform the students’
community to benefit individually and in turn serving the society at large creating a win-win
situation.
Anything is possible with proper training and practice. Systematic planning and scientific
training can make a difference in promoting successful entrepreneurs. A few would have
become innovative entrepreneurs in the past without a formal training. Even those few also
would have achieved with informal exposure or experience. Formal training will certainly
ensure informed entrepreneurs, who know better in reducing and overcoming risks. Various
steps or stages discussed in the preceding pages would only reinforce the message that an
ambience and an ecosystem be created to promote new innovative entrepreneurs. It is
unequivocal that full-fledged innovative entrepreneurs can be shaped with systematic training
and motivation.

6. CONCLUSION
Innovation is inevitable for economic growth. Innovation in India have had their contributions
in the past towards the economic development of our country. But it is sporadic and innovators
are less in number, who involved in this journey. There is a compelling need for enhancing the
number of innovators across all sectors of economy. In sum, the qualitative description and
discussion presented in the paper may directly or indirectly create a positive impact in
promoting innovations in the context of Industry 4.0.

https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 3736 editor@iaeme.com

 N Prasanna and M Ravichandran

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