d - Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture Pune

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stagnant for long at 0.003% but it play a major role in helping the Indian Inclusive innovation will mean ‘getting
increased 10 fold in 15 years. It boosted innovation ecosystem improve. more from less, for more and more
technopreneurship in the academic
A robust national innovation
community.
ecosystem needs innovative technology
A robust national ecosystem also and financing mechanisms. What is
recognizes that Saraswati (Goddess of missing in India is angel funding - early
knowledge) and Lakshmi (Goddess of stage financing. Venture capital dealing
wealth) should coexist. George with technological innovation really
Whitesides of Harvard University is the needs to be ‘ad’venture capital! When
highest cited scientist in the world, but CSIR created the New Millennium
has co-founded over a dozen
Indian Technological Leadership
people’. This means the design and
development of products and services
with more performance, from less
material, less cost, less time, less
environmental pollution and for the
benefit of not just a privileged few but for
more and more human beings on this
planet; in fact all 4 billion people, whose
income levels are less than 2 dollars a
companies, which have a combined
First and foremost,
Initiative (NMITLI), it was, in fact, the
market capitalization of about $20
government providing the early stage So far, corporates worked hard
b i l l i o n ! S u c h a c a d e m i c
financing on ideas that were risky. towards more (productivity) from less
entrepreneurship does not exist in India.
Today NMITLI has some world class resource (human, physical, financial
The government’s above mentioned
technological breakthroughs to its capital) for more (profit, shareholder
initiative, which, in effect, allows
credit. With more than 100 private value). But now they must also
academic researchers to convert
sector companies partnering with over embrace inclusive innovation by getting
knowledge into equity, is the right step
200 public institutions, it is the largest more (performance) for less (cost) for
forward. But we need some major
Indian innovation network ever. We more and more (people).
mindset changes amongst our
academics too!
require many more NMITLIs. When it came to products and
The national innovation ecosystem
gets hurt when there are obstacles to
innovation due to bureaucratic hurdles,
rigid rather than enlightened regulatory
frameworks, non-competitive and
monopolistic practices, etc. Our
research institutes lack autonomy,
flexibility and freedom to operate today.
The President of India has proposed
the idea of the “decade of Innovation”.
The Indian Government has committed
itself to “inclusive growth”. Including
hundreds of millions of resource poor
Indians, who are `excluded’ from access
to the essential necessities of life is
crucial. These dual thrusts of the
s e r v i c e s , “ h i g h p r i c e – h i g h
performance” was reserved for the rich.
“Low price – low performance” was, of
course, for the resource-poor. Can we
change this price-performance
paradigm to say that we will build “low
price – high performance” for the
resource poor? Yes, we can.
Their governance structures need to ‘decade of innovation’ and ‘inclusive An excellent example of inclusive
change dramatically. Government growth’ should be combined to embark innovation is the ‘Nano’. Tata’s people’s
departments and ministries dealing with on “innovation led inclusive growth” or in car – Nano is the most inexpensive car
tax, customs, IP laws, standards can short “inclusive innovation”. ($ 2000) in the world with exceptional
g§nXm - gßQ>|~a 201
day.
for a robust
national innovation
ecosystem,
we require
researchers.