India is Innovation – Post 2

Microsoft demonstrated their Multipoint technology where two people can use one computer at the same time.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft: “5 Years back during my early trips to India, I saw it was primarily about People being shipped outside or rented out. We need a few people who are thinking outside the system. It is important to nurture these people. Capital availability, Intellectual nurturing and Infrastructure are all needed to do innovation.If you look at the problems we have now whether it is basic literacy, healthcare, energy problem there is no other way other than to invent our way out. And IT has the ability to influence and help all forms of engineering. The task at hand that is an opportunity for India is the analogy to cell phones. Both India and China leapfrogged from copper fixed lines where they lagged developed countries to mobile phones penetration. I have been thinking about this for few years, as life has become more comfortable the country doesn’t celebrate their engineers, they are more driven by the media and sports. In India, it seems to be Bollywood and Cricket. In the USA you ask the kids you do you want to do be when you grow up they say Tiger woods/Britney Spears and not Bill Gates. In China, the same question gets answered as Bill Gates. You want to do things for the long term, for example, what I do as Chief Research Officer sees light not less than 3 years”

Dr R A Mashelkar (Ex-Director General of CSIR): “India has 3 advantages – Democracy, Diversity, Demography. India has 3 freedom, in 1947 the first freedom political freedom; Second was with Liberalization has brought down the cost of capital and freedom to do things in 1991; The third is technology freedom in 2007 with the Nuclear deal. India also has been an uneven innovator as only 3% work in organized Private sector/97% work for the unorganized sector and India is a hesitant innovator especially because we are reluctant to face IP rights, etc. The big challenge for India is including those that are excluded those at the bottom of the pyramid. IT among other things, especially when you have to deal with a large number of people and huge distance. Solutions like TCS illiterate learning program that can make them read in 6 weeks and they have demonstrated that successfully in South Africa as well. Innovator sees what everyone sees but thinks what no one is thinking. Innovator doesn’t know that it cannot be done. When you want to achieve something that was not achieved before you got to use methods that have been not used before. Engineering of the word Engineer will be done by Engineers themselves. I am delighted to be an engineer”