An opportunity for Innovation in Indian business

India is poised to be the innovation capital of the world – the ideas supermarket. Far from being techno-coolies, Indians are giving innovative new solutions to the world in IT, life sciences, health and agriculture. e-choupal from ITC, is a synthesis from the fields of IT and agriculture – a mega vision that could link rural India to the world. Here are a few new trends in Indian business which could bring innovation center stage: * Entrepreneurship needs innovation. It is creativity that will fuel this emerging revolution. Over 18% of India’s workforce is engaged in entrepreneurship. Compare this with the 10.2% in US. Only Thailand ranks higher. India has moved from being a brand that stands for imitation, to a name in innovation. * India has filed 4,000 patents in 5 years. Over 100 top MNCs in India and Indian research laboratories are fueling the innovator’s dream. We need to overcome our innate dislike for selling knowledge, “Saraswathi”. We need to wake up. Multi-nationals have even tried to patent basmati rice and 2000 year old ayurvedic drugs while we dream of our glorious past tradition. * India’s 250 million people who live below the poverty line and 750 million who live on less than a dollar a day, need products and services that combine economy with utility. The CEO of Erickson asked a creative question, “Why do rural cell phones need a screen?” ITC and e-choupal in Madhya Pradesh has created an IT tool that can put poor soyabean farmers, in touch with the world. Poor fisherwomen in Kerala are being enabled to track the movement of shoals of fish, using satellite imaging with net linked PC. Arvind Eye hospital has created a cataract kit costing less than US$ 15. Poor Africans are grabbing it. Indians created the simputer in Bangalore. Innovation is required to turn India’s poor into consumers. If we succeed, the world’s 5 billion poor become our market, making the Goldman Sach’s report, that India will be world’s 3rd largest economy, come true. * India has the largest population of young people in the world. The marketplace is youthful and idealistic. We are “The world’s youngest nation”: 55% of Indians are now below 25 years age. 550 million Indians – the numbers are more than Latin America and the Caribbean put together. You can feel their vibrant energy in the media, on the street, in the upward streaking GNP. They want the world and they want it now! The ‘core competence of India’ is her brilliant young people. Our intellectual capital or mindspower is our Unique Selling Proposition (USP) provided we put it to good use. Planning Commission says, India will crack the population problem. With less children to care for, people will have more disposable incomes, resulting in higher saving for banks to collect and maybe higher consumption. India is shining with a growing literacy rate of 65%, 54% young people below 25, a 7 percent plus compounded growth rate. * The next item is a corollary to the previous one. In the words of Azim Premji, Chairman of WIPRO, on his success, says, “What made the difference, is people ……. Translating this experience into the language of economics, it has taught me that Labour is a far more important factor of growth than Capital”. We don’t need to read Amartya Sen to know that the key to economic leadership in India is education and health. If we can make our one billion people, fully, zestfully, human, instead of being half alive, the path to global leadership is open. How can we talk of equality or quality, when children in their mother’s womb, have their intelligence grossly retarded, because their mothers do not get even one full meal a day? * Personal excellence has become the only solution to escape being a victim of restructuring. Flexible, adaptable, innovative performers rise to the top, passengers are fired. Globalization and competitive scenarios leave no room for flab. Hierarchies are giving way to small, tight, commando teams. Departments dissolve into lean profit centres and strategic business units. Strict accountability is the rule. Entrepreneurship and intrepreneurship define all economic activity. Higher profit is the golden deer that corporations chase through 15 hour days and 7 day weeks. Corporate bonsais and techno-coolies who cannot call their body, mind or soul their own: Is this a Tofflerian nightmare or are we speeding towards this state of waning humanness in corporations? Health is the boat given to us to cross the ocean of life. We are responsible for keeping it seaworthy, is a corporate decision. * The dominance of services as the fastest growth sector of the world economy is an unprecedented Indian opportunity. We are not talking of ayahs to Asia and nurses to the Middle East. We are talking about doctors, hospitality and travel experts, teachers, customer service specialists (not just BPO bee-hives). Services: entertainment, hospitality, travel are on the roll. Indian call center employees are graduates (average age 23). They work for 1/7 of the salary of their European counterparts and earn about 8 times more than the average Indian. “The downside of aging economies, is India’s upside. The demand for services will make India the world’s back office.” * This is the age of knowledge. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world, At the speed of thought, leveraging knowledge and information. How are we, Indians dealing with the education of children? Are we training them to be innovative and creative leaders? Quality learning is as important as ensuring equal access to education. * Towards democracy and peace: India has been a democracy since 1947, which has managed a billion people without descending into anarchy. In the age of knowledge India has a population trained in handling dissent and fresh thinking. She should use this extraordinary resource. The Goleman Sachs report talks of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), of a far improved tomorrow in India, while the largest economies US and China face an aging population and shrinking number of workers and consumers. India’s productive human resources are growing rapidly. * Reversing the Brain Drain. The best brains have migrated to the West. Let India give them a way of coming home with honour. The reversal has started. Let government work to enable it instead of trying to regulate it. * India has the world’s most sophisticated technologies. The study of creativity and innovation as a science and a subject needs to be introduced in all educational institutions. When the scholar was on the Syndicate of Anna University, she could spearhead a move to include a 40 hour optional course on innovation in the undergraduate syllabus. To realize the mindspower of our people, creativity and innovation should be introduced into the core syllabus in schools and colleges. There is a need to establish Departments for Innovation and Creativity both at the Central and the State to create a million incubators for Indian thinkers. * Resurgence of Indian pride. This is a wonderful time to be Indian. Brand India has metamorphosed into a country perceived to be of brilliant people, rich in the ultimate software – the human mind. Today India’s young fuel the IT incubators of Silicon Valley, while swelling her foreign exchange reserves. Amitabh Bachhan in the BPL ad said, “Indians are the most creative people in the world – we use washing machines in Chandigarh to make excellent lassi”. Gandhiji’s “Be Indian Buy Indian”, has made a confident comeback. The world loves everything Indian: from the catwalks of Paris to the hallowed portals of Oxford, Aishwarya and Amartya have made us A1. Such confidence, faith and national pride will create the climate or positive field where innovation can thrive. Rekha Shetty (2004) Business Mandate