The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Asia is shifting towards new paradigm in innovation’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Asia is shifting towards new paradigm in innovation’

Staff Reporter

‘There is a need to reach out to countryside’
‘Small and medium entrepreneurs should be nurtured’

Bangalore: “Asia has always been creative in all aspects, with a novel tinge. Asia emerged as an innovation hub only post-World War II era; that was innovation under duress,” said P. Rajendran, Director and Chief Operating Officer, NIIT.

He was speaking at the concluding session at BangaloreIT.in held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre here on Wednesday.

Mr. Rajendran said that it was with Singapore that the word ‘hub’ actually came into focus.

“After the World War II, hubs to deal with certain kind of businesses emerged. India emerged from political independence and moved on to economic independence,” he said.

Pre-Independence, there were only so many degrees of freedom. The important thing was to comply, align and serve.

“We are slowly disconnecting from there and moving to a new paradigm. Almost all Asian countries are experiencing this for the first time,” he said.

Mr. Rajendran then went on to compare how innovation happened in India and China. In China, he said, farmlands were converted to industries, whereas in India, innovation was restricted to areas with infrastructure. “It has not really progressed beyond countable cities. There is great need to innovate far more.”

Every country was different and diverse and had its own challenges.

“In India, we need to reach out to the un-served markets within the country. We have to create entrepreneurs and nurture small and medium enterprises. We have to tap the potential of the Diaspora,” he said.

About the challenges that the region faced, he said that a recent study said that the region, as a whole, lacked adequate skills and resources, appreciation for intangibles, disengaged employees, under-dog mentality, insufficient project management capabilities and so on.

“These are things that we have to take with a pinch of salt.

“While there are challenges, there are great opportunities. We need to challenge the pedagogy of what we teach. We need to bring in discovery-based education,” he said.

The organisers of the event – Department of Information Technology, Bio-technology, Science and Technology and Software Technology Parks of India – later gave away awards to the participants. The awards were given away by Mr. Rajendran and J. Parthasarathy, Director, STPI.

CISCO won the first place for showcasing Best Innovation, while Tachyon Technologies secured the second place. Bavaria and Pegasus secured the first and second places for showcasing Best Product/ Application Display. Matrix bagged the first place for showcasing Best Small and Medium Enterprises, while Sparr Electronics secured the second place. Endeavour and Avaya secured the first and second places for the best path-breaking companies. Rajasthan bagged the best State Pavilion Award, while West Bengal came in second.

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