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  • commenter
    Dampers and
    Solutions
    May 12 11:57 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    A very good and timely article. You have covered much ground on most of the key points.

    Let me highlight a few specific dampers which may also explain why an "innovation ecosystem" does not exist or thrive in India as of today :

    1. Corruption. This includes corrupt Income Tax inviduals harassing innovators etc ( philipji.com/incometax... ). If an I-Prize fund is set up as suggested, it should necessarily come with mechanisms to prevent corruption and abuse.

    2. Serious lack of "Real" Education, as opposed to the pursuit of paper qualifications, which often stop with knowing how to write the exam, or how to carry out certain operations with certain things with partial or no understanding. Education is just a gateway to a "job" which is more about having a secured income than about producing something of value. By and large, the education system promotes rote learning. (Example: tinyurl.com/3lnurx which is also about corrupted organizations in the education sector).

    3. Certain inherent traits. What Phil Dewey refers to as "happy to scoop up pennies.." is part of that. There is a whole bunch of stuff here, but I diverge with Phil Dewey in my strong belief that these can all be overcome through educating and motivating the upcoming generations. (The generations that grow up seeing corruption and misgovernance everywhere tend to accept the status quo and grow into their slots within the system and perpetuate it. So, breaking out of this requires considerable push and enlightenment).

    4. Political meddling in the education system, and in employment (not only in the government sector!) is a big big problem.

    Parts of the solution:

    1. The government should start viewing individuals on their own merits, and not based on their birth. (I am referring to the "caste" of the individual, which is basically defined by the family the individual was born into. Imagine that the government practices discrimination, favouring one family over another, instead of looking at absolute merit of the person). This kind of meddling exists today in education and employment (mostly government employment). This is done in the name of social justice, discriminating against the historically "high castes" against the historically "low castes" purportedly to equalize the two ! It ensures "vote banks" for politicians who practise and further the discrimination, so this is very hard to stop even if an equlibrium has been reached (or even surpassed!). Laws have been (and are being) created to legitimize this kind of discrimination citing historical reasons and social justice.

    2. Part-2 of the "Caste System", is in the minds of people irrespective of their birth. The "culture" needs to restore the nobility of "doing" as opposed to "preaching". The caste-ridden Indian mind deludes itself that "doing" is somehow inferior to preaching. (Whether it is the colonial masters who brought about this view, or their royal/feudal/brahmanic forerunners, is a matter of debate, but that is immaterial). Having this tendency at work today in the Indian mind is very debilitating -- for example, every engineer wants to be a manager. (Apart from the fact that many Indian company structures are unable to reward the good engineer more than an average manager). As everyone wants to only manage / preach, and nobody wants to do, quality and innovation takes a hit.

    3. Increase Transparency. The Right To Information (RTI) act has been a bold step in this direction to combat many ills.

    The reason India shines irrespective of the ills I have mentioned is that there is a large population that must compete, and that a good filter can always pick out the best. My main point is that the education system and the government haven't done enough to help India on the large scale to which they could/should have to improve the statistical averages. In fact, they have impeded India.     Reply
  • commenter
    anil gupta
    May 12 09:48 PM
    My Website
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    i could agree with some of the author's analysis but not all. There have been three inventor of India workshop organised at IIMA since 1998. The fourth one will be organized during Nov 28-30, 2008. Come and see how many very good innovations have been developed by individual innovators. I invite generally only those patent grantees or applicants who have worked individually or with one's own resources rather than through sponsored mode. during last three years.

    But you are rights such a workshop will have many patrons, supporters and stakehodlers. Such has not been the situation unfortunately so far. So in that sense eco-system is lacking. But things are changing fast. Have you seen National Innovation Foundation ( nifindia.org) set up by Honey bee network started twenty years ago to bring out creativity and innovations by the knowledge rich economically poor people.

    We have discovered thousands of creative peopel from over 500 districts of India, files 154 patents, more than that developed open source solution in thousands and shared the data base of innovations and tk ( see also indiainnovates.com and sristi.org and gian.org with wider publics.
    When it comes innovations by comapnies, i could not agree with you more. But recently when i talked to the top teams of several companies. One insights was counter intuitive. Many companies had far more innovations than they had the courage or capacity to acknowledge. One of the major 100 year old company in construction and many other hard high tech lines recognised that in IRaq, most houses being built were single stories. Why then use buidling material of strenthg required for multi storey buildings. Saved huge resources, reduced cost, and its innovation generated revenue for the company and satisfaction for the consumers.

    There are innovative companies, individuals and some empathetic policy makers. They are under strangleholds of insensitive bureaucracy and some times myopic leaders. But in many science departments, things are changing and i hope results are visible soon.

    i liked your article sent by a friend and visit the creativity on ground, you will change your views in general about how India is turning around.

    all the best

    anil
    anilg@iimahd.ernet.in






     Reply
  • commenter
    roshanis
    May 11 12:02 PM
    My Website
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    India has no shortage of innovators. The problem is in
    1. funding ...lack of VC infrastructure
    2. Lack of IP protection
    3. Shortage of good talent...as you know all the best people fly to UEA(US,Europe,Australi...
    4. Endemic corruption at every level...
    and more

    Here are some innovative companies...
    Reliane, Tata Steel, Suzlon
    Reply
  • commenter
    Hardik
    May 10 04:07 PM
    My Website
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    A very well researched article here.
    Reply
  • commenter
    mayhs
    May 10 12:43 PM
    My Website
    India's Exploding Real Estate Market: Shades of the Florida Condo Bubble [view article]
    See a comparison between buying and renting in Bangalore. This indicates a price correction in the offing

    bangalore.craigslist.c...     Reply
  • commenter
    A.S.Rao
    May 10 10:17 AM
    My Website
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    Interesting and timely. Two comments- first most of the suggestions made are implemented in India -though on a limited scale. The only missing action is on `the culture of celebrating creativity' -the third ingredient in the article. Second- about innovative Indian firms- there are plenty- see my blog www.indiainvents.blogs.../.
    I orchestrate a network (TePP) that has more than 200 innovators developing low cost innovations- say innovations for BOP market.     Reply
  • commenter
    User 191619
    May 10 07:26 AM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    sorry, the sentence in line 11 should be "which sectors are open and which are closed" Reply
  • commenter
    User 191619
    May 10 07:21 AM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    Interesting article. The govenment due to its inherent corruption is averse to resolving problems of innovations in areas 1 and 2 ie energy, transportation, communication and logisitics. This itself would mean that a platform for innovation is setup. It is a very good idea to vote out a government which is resistant to positive growth. Opening markets to foreign players is a good idea but it must be opened in areas in which innovation is needed, high tech, manufacturing, services, design, engineering. Some areas like the food, textiles, and other indigenous industries supplying local domestic products should be infact shielded from foreign competition for their survival. There should be a balance between which sectors and opened and which are closes. Continuously there should be a review on this matter. Reply
  • commenter
    Sam Sur
    May 10 02:55 AM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    Interesting article and I definitely find the factors you identify with the lack of innovation to be true.

    India has a great education system that produces great engineers, doctors and lawyers but does not produce entrepreneurs - our education system does not encourage innovation. This needs to change and the industry will have to play a big role in this. There needs to be a healthy partnership between our industries and our educational institutions so that innovations can be harnessed. That is very minimal currently.     Reply
  • commenter
    Amit Mehra
    May 10 02:09 AM
    My Website
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    I couldn't agree more with the primary article and to some extent it's contents would amount to stating the obvious that innovation holds the key to the future. Having said that, every nation, every society is driven by their primary needs.

    Though no effort is exclusive and different things can be developed at the same time, we as Indians need to first get our basic concepts in order before we can start flying with it and innovating.

    The biggest lesson I learnt in filmmaking was in order to break the rules, we must first learn them. 18 years later, I am still learning new rules and trying to break few old ones.

    In a nation where basic amenities, infrastructure and fast eroding moral fabric are the biggest plagues affecting it, innovation should be looked at as a medium and not an end.

    Getting numbers on patents is no small achievement but we need to focus on solving problems so that the nation can shine in an honest sense of the word and not only in the cleverly drafted advertising campaigns or over-enthusiasm of corporate dwellers.

    I feel, the time has come for us as a nation, as a society to stop looking at the charts, graphs and numbers on our computer screen and start looking outside our window.

    I think the time has come to take out the plug on the matrix so to speak and feel the reality and perhaps only then can we truly create an environment where these graphs mean something , where biggest innovation need of a nation will not be a device to do some reality check.

    Reply
  • commenter
    phildewey
    May 09 06:53 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    India is a factory. It always will be. The VAST majority on India's population are more than happy to scoop up the pennies of factory work and consider innovation a bad/dangerous/ostentat... endeavor. India is a factory. It always will be. Reply
  • commenter
    ronee2
    May 09 06:35 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    The article ignores one important issue that is destrying India's educational system -- CASTE BASED RESERVATIONS
    Reservations have been a curse on the Indian society. The actual percentage of reservations has increased over the years instead of declining. Students are being admitted to Institutes of higher education based on their castes instead of merit. Actually the biggest beneficiaries of this political pandering has been the USA, UK and Australia. This has prompted most of the bright and talented people to flee the country to places like USA and Australia in droves. Just look at the number of Indians in graduate programs in USA. Most of them are forward caste and shut out of their own country. Most of the people left behind excel in mediocrity and are happy in their artificial comfort zones.

    The education system in India is a complete mess and it is getting worse. The cost of good primary education is getting prohibitive. Parents are askedto shell out donations (another word for bribes) of as much as $10,000 just for a Kindergarten seat. The monthly fees are outrageously high. The situation is even worse in primary and secondary schools.
    With this kind of screwed up caste based education system, there is going to be a severe talent shortage in the next few years and I won't be surprised to see companies finding it that their cost of operations sky rocketing prompting them to move their operations back to US and other areas.     Reply
  • commenter
    Anish J
    May 09 04:07 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    Here is an innovative Indian company. www.ittiam.com/ Reply
  • commenter
    Geetha
    May 09 03:14 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    So astoundingly true. I am an electrical engineer graduated from one of the top university in India, having taught in a reputed Institution for 10 years, preferred to quit job for my kids and now looking for an investor endlessly for a very lucrative business proposal. Completely befuddled as to the "who and how" of Angel funding. Will be delighted to get information on angel funding from India or abroad. Fingers crossed...... Reply
  • commenter
    Deepak9
    May 09 02:45 PM
    Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions? [view article]
    I found this article immensely interesting and satisfying. Satisfying because it sort of synthesized my various ideas and opinions into one article. You have a deep understanding of the Indian challenge and I think you should take it one step further. Give lectures or seminars in India so that people become motivated and aware. Most Indians are too apathetic or just too comfortable in their niche to take the risk to do something. The rewards idea is the correct stimulator for them. Once your ideas go into effect there is NO stopping India. Reply
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