Eight India Innovation
Summit 2012 - Notes
I attended the 8th CII
India Innovation Summit held at the Leela Palace on August 30thand
August 31st 2012. I have
attended the conference two years back and it is interesting to note that CII
maintains a remarkable standard of professionalism in conducting this
conference. Kudos to the present CII chairman Mr. L. Krishnan and his team. It
was a packed audience for the whole of two days and that does tell about the
entire engagement levels brought about by the conference.
It is always heartening to see
accomplished industry veterans, accomplished professionals and budding entrepreneurs
(some even less than twenty five years of age) sharing their experiences in a
single stage.
In this short note I have tried
to distil the key take away of the forty odd wonderful sessions. Please note it
is impossible to re-create the magic brought about by the individual speakers.
‘Made in India’ is *not* a taboo
‘Made in India’ is to be taken
seriously. It is something to be proud
of. Low cost *does not* translate to low quality. India has lessons to offer
for the world. Be it HealthCare, IT, Manufacturing, Biosciences any other
field, India can create for the world. There were strong opinions for and
against this, however the mood was optimistic and it was felt that the progress
was being made in the right direction. Some note worthy examples were
·
The cost of bringing down the Hepatitis B
Vaccine from Rs 800 to Rs 10 per dose by Bharath Biotech
·
Nano Car – No one ever thought a 2000$ car can
be made
·
Animation can be as good or better than
Hollywood – Wait for the upcoming movie Delhi Safari on October 19th
·
GE’s portable ECG machine
Foundations *remain* the same
The following fundamental values
were repeated through-out by all speakers in some form or the other and
possibly numerous examples were given for each of these values
·
Passion
·
Commitment
·
Excel within constraints
·
Do something different each day
·
Follow your heart
·
Making creativity count (i.e accountable
creativity)
·
Do not be afraid to fail
·
Do not re-invent the wheel (Copy and Adapt is
alright)
·
Do not afraid to tread a path where no one has
gone
·
Enlist the right set of people
·
Lack of belief is the barrier
·
Money is a side effect, be obsessively focused
on purpose
·
Be Aware – There is always a story
·
‘And’ is possible
·
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
Juggad and Low cost innovation
Juggad, a term originating from
here is nothing to be ashamed of. It is applying logic, resources and common
sense to solve a problem in a unique way keeping the local context. A vehicle
powered by a motor used for agricultural can be considered as Juggad. Low cost
innovation on the other hand is ‘Juggad’ by design!!. Developing a vaccine for
ten rupees or making a $2000 car is not juggad. They are frugal innovation
built in the purpose. The entire world is looking at India for low cost
innovation and taking the lessons, work done here to their markets across the
globe. Here is a view of how Bosch is looking at India.
“As a group, we have said that is
strategically important for us to be in the low-cost vehicle market, and there
are two reasons for this: Firstly, you cannot just transfer technology X, from
Europe to a low cost vehicle. You need new engineering, the intelligence to
make things simple, and adapt it to low cost markets. Secondly, this is
valuable for our engineers, who could down the line bring these ideas back to
the low end of the European market. “– Bernd Bohr, Bosch”
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is
a battle everyone is fighting to stay relevant and it cuts across industries
Invest in Humanities, Fine Arts and Basic Sciences
Everyone stressed the importance
of investing in children in the above subjects. It was felt that we are
disconnecting from our roots and creating a factory of individuals who are more
mechanized in their approach towards life. We are not laying the foundation for
critical thinking in our students at earlier years and are churning out mostly
machines. The ‘Right Brain’ skills which need lot of horning are not nurtured
enough in earlier years, thus leading to lot of gaps in all corners of all
industries where skills are needed, people are available, but people with
skills are not found. We are preparing
our people to clear textbooks, but not making them ready for market. Though
isolated pockets of efforts are made by individuals to correct this, there
needs to be more systemic correction. It was cited as an example with ample
evidence on how a taste for music acquired in the early years can help the
individual to be better grounded in shaping their personalities. The most
glaring example of lack of originality came from Dr Krishna M Ella of Bharath
Biotech when he said that as a country we have never developed or launched a
new molecule. The underlying message is that find avenues to keep nurturing the
‘Right Brain’ skills, the earlier the better, otherwise we run the risk of
creating a copy-cat society.
Lack of political will
This is something that I guess
everyone was saying and not saying. While the customary acknowledgements were
made in the support given by the governments, it was blatantly evident that
there was no correlation in the speed at which the governments are functioning
and the speed at which the industry is expecting the government to function.
Here again, pockets of excellence still exist. An example was given of a state
where infant mortality was the largest five years back , but in a span of five
years , it was brought down to better international averages. It just goes to
show what political will can do. However the mood was sullen on this aspect and
I somehow came out with the feeling that these guys somehow seemed to make
things happen bearing the governmental apathy.
Some Little Known facts
·
India has 633 districts and a budget of 1200
crores per year is available for each district. Imagine what accountability,
trust and governance can bring about with that kind of money.
·
Karnataka runs the largest e-procurement portal
in the world and 1,65,00 crores of money was handled through the portal last
year
·
An Indian Institute of Nanoscience is being setup
·
The biggest biotech park is coming up in
Bangalore
·
Centre for Indian Music Experience is on the
anvil
·
The budget for Metro phase I is around 11000
crores and each year it will save the exchequer around 1100 crores. The
Managing Director of BMRCL Mr Sivasailam remarked that this is a small project
!!
·
The budget for Metro phase II is 26000 crores.
He mentioned here that this is a slightly bigger project !!
Familiar faces
·
Professor Sadagopan - Director IIIT Bangalore
·
Dr Gopichand Kattragada – Managing director GE
India Technology Centre
·
Kris Gopalakrishnan – Executive Co-Chairman,
Infosys
You will find the above people,
generally present in any conferences of significance related to Innovation and
Project Management in Bangalore. The depth, clarity, passion, humor, and
consistency they bring about in their speeches and the sessions they chair are
laudable. The underlying theme of their talks generally center on that we have
everything in here to ‘rub shoulders with the best in the build’. Their quest
for excellence in anything and everything they do is visible
Opportunities to make a difference
Education and Healthcare are primary
areas if focused properly can change the direction of this country. Energy and Biosciences
are fast growing up. I do not think anyone doubted our abilities in IT and we
seemed to be considered as leaders here. It was felt that we need to
supercharge bringing about IT in other areas
Interesting Session
The banquet session on the first
day was the best. Clearly it floored me. All speakers spoke from the heart
without opening any slide and the flow was amazing. This was one session and
probably the only session which got standing ovations. I will see if I can get
a video to share , but the way in which the speakers shared their achievements,
failures, hurdles they had to cross,
apathy they had to face from the environment around them and nudging along
their way to be what they are stuck an emotional chord with the entire
audience. I have briefly summarized in the table below the speakers and what
they do. You probably can explore further if you wish. Please note that these
are people who have taken the ‘road less traveled’
|
Speaker
|
Title
|
Brief Remarks
|
|
Mr Aroon Raman
|
Managing Director – Raman Fiber Science and
former
|
|
|
Mr Ramji Raghavan
|
Founder Chairman – Agastya International
Foundation
|
|
|
Dr Gopichand Kattragada
|
Managing Director – GE India Technology Centre
Pvt Ltd
|
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/bs-people-gopichand-katragadda/470691/ http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4692
|
|
Mr Anil Srinivasan
|
Classical Pianist and Founder Rhapsody Music
|
|
|
Ms Manasi Prasad
|
Classical Musician and Project Director Centre
for Indian Music Experience
|
|
Interesting Speakers
Though most of the speakers were
engaging, the following people stood out in terms of connecting with the
audience and the messages that they were able to drive home in the short time
they had
|
Speaker
|
Topic
|
Key Note
|
|
Dr Krishna Murthy Ella – Chairman and Managing
Directory, Bharath Biotech International Limited
|
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
|
Imagination + Knowledge = Innovation
|
|
Dr. V.Sumantran Executive Vice Chairman , Hinduja
Automotive Limited and Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland
|
Innovating to a cost advantage
|
Engineering => Combination of Brains and
Materials. More the brains, less the materials.
|
|
Dr Lalitesh Katragadda – Country Head, India
Products Google
|
Revolution
|
Nine Rules for Visionaries 1
|
|
Mr K Ramakrishnan – President Coffee day group
|
BEAN there
; Done that
|
CTRL +C, CTRL + V, Adapt
|
|
Vidyashankar and Sivasailam – IAS officers
|
Transparency and Public Accountability
|
Committed public machinery can make a large scale
impact
|
|
Aditya Nath Jha
|
Delhi Safari – Creating India’s Answer to
Bollywood
|
We are ‘world class’. Make no mistakes on that.
|
|
Sundi Natrajan
|
Funding Innovations
|
It is easy to start an enterprise now with very
little capital
|
|
Mr Vivek Sahadevan Nair and Mr Deepak Ravindran
|
CEO
|
Less than twenty five years of age and their raw
enthusiasm was infectious
|
1Nine rules of
Visionaries
·
Hire the best
·
Everyone can contribute
·
Share
·
Everyone must understand your vision
·
Morph ideas
·
Speed Matters
·
Data, Data, Data drives decisions
·
Users come first, always
·
Let passion bloom (20% time is the kindling)
Interesting Links to follow through
Treelabs – (http://www.treelabs.org/)
Hanjer – (http://www.hanjer.com/)
A ‘crack’ on patents
Professor Sadagopan answered a
question on Patents and Intellectual property in his own trademark way. He said that he used to travel from Dehradun
to Delhi in a train which was generally crowded. Each station people use to say
‘Darwaza Kholo’ (‘Open the door’) to get into the compartments and after some
struggle one or two persons get into the compartments. However the same persons
who get into the compartments remain mute to the ‘Darwaza Kholo’ appeals to
people in the subsequent stations!
Conclusion
It is easy to sit at my own seat
and think life is difficult, but it was gratifying to come out and see that
people are surpassing bigger mountains with constraints that are larger than I
face. Though I am still dozing I would like to conclude by a quote which was
shared in the event
“We grow great by dreams. All big
men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the
red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but
others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring
them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who hope that their
dreams will come true - Woodrow Wilson”
