CHICAGO: “Diversity has always been the backbone of innovation in India. In solving the challenges of development, demography, and disparity, we will need expansion, excellence and equity,” said Dr Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation
In his keynote address at the India Innovation Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here in Chicago on Thursday July 18, he observed that “as a nation of a connected billion, a first in the history of the world, we need to leverage emerging technologies, including social media, to help alleviate the enormous problem of poverty.”
The Summit, organized in partnership with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA), the US-India Business Council (USIBC), PanIIT Alumni Association and TiE Midwest, brought together creative minds, experts and entrepreneurs, financing institutions and economic development officials, packing the halls with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. Discussions encompassed key policy interventions, funding mechanisms, and partnership opportunities between India and the U.S. in the innovation space.
Madhav Lal, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) emphasized leveraging collaborations to scale up innovations, and the growing role of technologies to enable this cross-sector engagement. “I would like to see more collaborative networks between the governments, industry, academia and institutions, cutting across country borders,” he said.
The MSME Ministry was one of the agencies that also had an exhibit booth at the Summit, which had on display their various initiatives that facilitate innovation among smaller companies.
Other agencies that participated in the exhibition included the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).
CII President S Gopalakrishnan was leading a CII CEOs delegation to the Summit. In his thought provoking address, he said that the need of the hour is to empower a large number of people using mobile connectivity and cloud computing platforms and make them a part of the knowledge revolution, which would ultimately contribute to economic growth.
“Innovation generates economic value, new jobs and a culture of entrepreneurship. By virtue of its relationship with competitiveness, innovation emerges as a factor in promoting economic growth,” he added.
Stressing the need to enhance Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman, CII Innovation Council and Vice Chairman, Toyota-Kirloskar Motor said, “Mutual trust will lead to mutual benefit.
The public and private sector cannot be working in isolation.”
He elaborated on the recent formation of the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), which manifested as PPP-model based, a non-profit company jointly incorporated by the Technology Development Board (TDB) of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and CII.
On enabling innovation in education, Dr Naushad Forbes, Chairman, CII National Committee on Higher Education and Director, Forbes Marshall highlighted two major areas of engagement: to build capacity in the administrative leadership in higher education institutions and connecting Indian companies with leading U.S. universities.
“As Indian companies invest more in Research and Development, there is a heightened need to connect them to leading research institutions and universities,” he said.
The Indian government has declared 2010-2020 as the decade of innovation, and the upcoming launch of the India Inclusive Innovation Fund seeks to catalyze the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, targeted at innovative solutions for the bottom of the pyramid. In this context, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII expressed that U.S.-India collaboration presents a huge opportunity.
“A lot remains to be done in India on the innovation front, and we believe that the power of collaboration between India and the U.S. – two countries with a diverse, democratic and creative people – would yield tremendous results. We are delighted to hold the India Innovation Summit for the first time ever in Chicago, and hope to see many fruitful partnerships emerging from this interaction,” he said.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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