Innovation in India: Combining Economic Growth with Inclusive Development

Transcription

1

2 Innovation in India: Combining Economic Growth with Inclusive Development This book is all about how technology and innovation have shaped different sectors in India, and how this evolution has contributed to India s economic growth, while largely failing to provide for inclusive development. It shows that while technological innovations spur economic growth, they can also generate negative spillovers. There is thus a need to conceptualize innovation in a much larger sense (e.g. organisational, institutional and social) to make significant progress on inclusive development. It is also interesting to note how within the same country - different sectoral dynamics have led to different outcomes within the same National System of Innovation.

3 Adam Szirmai Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT and Professor of Development Economics at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance of Maastricht University. Chapter 1: Innovation in India: The Challenge of Combining Economic Growth with Inclusive Development In absolute terms, economic and social indicators point to a considerable dynamism in the Indian economy. The service sector has played and is playing an important and dynamic role in Indian economic development. But a comparative perspective shows that in terms of growth, India is rapidly falling behind China and indicators of inclusive development reveal that India is even lagging behind other developing countries.

4 Gita Surie Associate Professor, Adelphi University; Senior Fellow, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Chapter 2: The University as a Catalyst of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and New Markets in the Indian System of Innovation Firms in emerging and developed economies are collaborating more with academic institutions in terms of R&D and knowledge exchange due to heightened competition, abbreviated product life cycles, and rising costs together with increased connectivity. Improving the Indian system of innovation in terms of transforming scientific knowledge into technology with commercial potential requires that institutions become more meritocratic and collaborative, less political and foster higher order thinking skills and the social capabilities of graduates.

5 Smita Srinivas Director of the Technological Change Lab (TCLab) Assistant Professor in the Urban Planning program at Columbia University. Faculty Associate of the South Asian Institute (SAI), Columbia University. Chapter 3: Demand and Innovation: Paths to Inclusive Development If we view demand in societies as being the part of the iceberg that is actually visible, with a considerable amount of potential demand submerged below sea level, then innovation policies must be geared towards elevating the iceberg so that a larger fraction of the iceberg is within sight. This is important not simply to generate growth and incomes, but to find fulfilling ways for skills participation, for generating products and products relevant to various needs, and to accommodating the heterogeneity in production structure and demand that any society comprises. From an evolutionary standpoint, the elevation of the hidden part of the iceberg is not a simple lift and push upward. Rather, it requires coordination of multiple institutions over their different time horizons-from production, to demand, to delivery.

6 Arijita Dutta Associate Professor in Department of Economics, University of Calcutta. Chapter 9: Evolution of Traditional Medical Systems Sector in India: What has innovation got to do with it? Despite the remarkable growth of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, the traditional medicine sector (TMS) is flourishing Product innovations from TMS leaders are of two main forms: new formulations and new product varieties, which despite being incremental innovations in terms of technological change provide great support for the poor. However, more regulation is required to promote inclusive development via the TMS.

7 Carl Pray Professor II in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and Adjunct Professor and Advisor of the Ph.D. Program of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Science. Chapter 4 Innovations in Indian Seed/Biotech Industry Innovations from public sector research and development were an essential component of the Green Revolution. But today, it is the private sector that is making major investments in R&D. Indian and state governments should consider increasing funding for public sector research, while continuing the liberalization of foreign investment and trade in technology in the agricultural input sector.

8 Latha Nagarajan Research Associate, Rutgers University Chapter 4 Innovations in Indian Seed/Biotech Industry Though the importance of public research is recognized, the total number of agricultural scientists are declining, especially in the state agricultural universities. Much of the money seems to be spent on developing new campuses rather than strengthening research funding for scientists. This imbalance often lowers the marginal productivity of scientists and degrades the quality of research output.

9 Manish Anand Area Convenor & Associate Fellow The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Chapter 3: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: The new sunrise industry? Despite the relatively smaller investment...india s performance in nanoscience and nanotechnology is noteworthy. It has fared well in terms of the creation of scientific capabilities as demonstrated by the sizeable generation of scientific publications and collaborations. The in-house nanoproducts which have been developed by leading local Indian companies are basically the low hanging fruits...this is an excellent start but the technological challenges are going to increase as the low hanging fruit get picked and there is a need to reach higher.

10 Samira Guennif Associate Professor, University Paris 13 and researcher in the Centre d Economie de l Université Paris Nord (CEPN) France Chapter 6: The secret behind India s success in pharmaceuticals: Seizing the right windows of opportunity Developing country firms have to build up complementary competencies that go beyond technology, if they want to commercialize drugs. Radical regulatory changes at home or abroad can open up windows of opportunity but whether or not they are exploited will depend upon the beliefs and expectations of firms.

11 Nagesh Kumar Chief Economist, UN-ESCAP Director, ESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia. Chapter 5: National Innovation Systems and the Indian Software Industry Development Starting from a rather negligible base, the software industry in India developed rapidly and became a significant contributor of the country s export earnings and output growth. This was driven largely by local entrepreneurship, talent and resources.

12 Ambuj Sagar Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies and the Dean of Alumni Affairs & International Programs at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. Chapter 8: Energy innovation (sub)systems in India There is a wide range of technologies that are involved in the extraction/capture, conversion, and utilization of energy across disparate application areas. The development and commercialization of these technologies often involve very different innovation processes and systems, yet there is very little examination of these, despite the undisputed importance of energy innovation for any country.

13 Ankur Chaudhary Researcher, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India Chapter 8: Energy innovation (sub)systems in India India has had a mixed scorecard in energy innovation. In some technology areas, Indian firms have emerged as global players, while in others, India has not been able to leverage technology to meet major challenges.

14 Dinesh Abrol Professor and Chief Scientist, NISTADS(National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies) Chapter 11: Pro-poor Innovation-making, knowledge production and technology implementation for rural areas: Lessons from the Indian Experience In India pro-poor innovation-making demands efforts especially for the introduction of solutions that peasants, landless rural workers and artisans can adopt to protect and improve their own livelihoods and well being. Strategies for future pro-poor innovation-making must be founded on the critical lesson from our past historical experience namely that the poor must be helped to become the effective social carriers of innovation.

15 Shuan SadreGhazi PhD research fellow, United Nations University MERIT Chapter 10: Where is the toilet please? On the diffusion of toilets as a pro-poor innovation in rural India The current literature on NSI has little to say on the processes of innovation generation for or by the poor. Despite all the funds, government programs, financiers and social enterprises, there is still a need and a place for social entrepreneurs and civil society to ensure the creation and effective adoption of pro-poor innovations like sanitation.

16 Shyama V. Ramani Professorial Fellow in the United Nations University at Maastricht (NL). Founder Friend in Need in India, Editor of this book. This book demonstrates how innovations, innovators and national environments can coengender systemic transformations changing the goals, beliefs, perceptions and cognitive schemas by which other economic actors formulate and implement their strategies. Sectoral studies show that capability building and innovative performance cannot be taken as goals in themselves if they are to contribute to both better economic performance and inclusive development. In addition to capabilities, the drivers of innovation for economic growth and inclusive development are shown to be demand creation and support, institutional reform, focussed targets, collectively shared vision, and the presence of successful technoentrepreneur leaders (either firms or individuals).