Dr Sam Pitroda, a leading innovator, entrepreneur and thought leader was recently appointed as India’s first Innovation Czar, a post curiously titled as the “Infrastructure, Innovation and Information” adviser to the Prime Minister. Perhaps this the first step towards having a full fledged Ministry of Innovation, something that Dr Mashelkar has been advocating for a while now.
India’s Innovation Czar
“In December 2007, at a conference hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, Sam Pitroda, a leading technology guru, was asked: Wouldn’t you agree that China is able to achieve quicker technological progress than India, owing to its one-party rule and ability to take quick decisions?
Pat came the answer: I’d rather be part of a democratic set-up, where all our voices can be heard.
Pitroda, recently appointed as India’s first innovation czar, should know—for, almost three decades ago, his voice was heard by a dynamic premier, Rajiv Gandhi, who was on the lookout for creative ideas to bridge the technology divide and bring telecommunications to the masses.
As with most leading innovations, Pitroda’s idea was a fairly simple one. Getting individual phone lines to all houses in rural India was impractical, even impossible. Coin-operated booths, as was widely prevalent in the US, could not have worked in India. Perhaps the best option was to leverage the existence of small establishments such as paan shops, grocery stores and local pharmacies that spanned the length and breadth of rural India. And thus was born the trademark yellow PCO booth that took Bell’s legendary invention to the remotest corners of India.
Hailed as one of the most admirable social innovations, this idea came to be replicated in other developing countries. Pitroda has now been appointed India’s first innovation czar, a post curiously titled as the “infrastructure, innovation and information” adviser to the Prime Minister.
This appointment couldn’t have come at a better time. For, despite India’s rapid economic progress and technological proficiency, it has failed to produce any real innovation on its soil. Consider our software industry, which continues to remain content with a cyber coolie “services” model, and our pharmaceutical industry that thrives on a copycat generic model. What is most puzzling is the fact that the very same brains that fail to create on Indian soil do so the moment they land on foreign shores. What ails? Do we really lack an innovation culture? How is it that a country that boasts of a Sushruta and rudimentary cataract surgery as far back as 600 BC does not have a single blockbuster drug to its credit?
Pitroda laments that in a rapidly expanding international market for ideas, Indians often end up using their brains to solve the problems of the Western world, but neglect their own. Consider the plight of villagers from the Sunderbans, where a furious Aila polluted agricultural lands with a massive infusion of salt water. Traditional wisdom holds that their livelihoods are doomed, as nothing ever grows in salt water.
Can we not think of creative ways of solving this problem—perhaps by eliminating salt water in a cost-effective manner or identifying crops or plants that are likely to withstand salt water? Ought not the government offer “prizes” or other incentives to encourage some out-of-the-box thinking here? No amount of Aila relief will help as much as an idea that guarantees a future sustained income to these poor villagers.
The key challenge for India’s innovation czar will be to help create an ecosystem that engenders innovations of this sort. What works for the more innovative economies such as the US may not work for India. Nobody understands this better than the czar who often quips that while most of his innovation and wealth creation is in the US, his social work is in India. The challenge for India is to create an innovation ecosystem, where future Pitrodas could leverage their creativity on Indian soil, rather than having to rush to Western pastures. And who better to drive the creation of such an ecosystem than Pitroda himself.”
Its good to know about India’s first Innovation Czar..and especially appointment of a person like Mr. Pitroda…is really good news. But, Now we have to wait and watch, what will be the result of this new kind of innovation !!!
but that will require sam to have faith in ingenious capacity. If National Knowledge Commission ( c silent) could conceive a policy framework for India without ever engaging with the knowledge and creativity of vast majority in informal sector, do we still have hope that an inclusive eco-system will evolve. I wish you were right. i hope i am wrong. That apart, i greatly admire the Telecom revolution because he had domain knowledge in that field and followed an inspiring leadership model. may be i have missed the sparks of that in the recent activities of his, but then may be i have blinkers on my eyes.
It is great news that India is thinking in terms of innovation. It is a welcome step and hopefully his visions get materialized. A major factor would be to convert our non resident intellectual capital to resident intellectual capital. It cannot be accomplished without providing incentives and havens to people where they can be challenged to innovate. More often than not, challenges which keep people working would be needed and achievement based incentives would have to be incorporated into the system. Why are we coy about providing incentive to researchers? We should be able to establish a risk reward system like the US. I think this is the major drawback to the current system of research in India and will be a detriment to technological progress.
I am agree with that in India system of risk reward, does not exist. And, I am also agree that Dr. Pitroda, is having a very good knowledge and risk taking capacity in telecommunication industry. But, what about the other fields? Do you think that India can only run on communication, or a person who dreams everything about communication and now its content technology will be able to deliver overall growth? India is a land of natural resources, big & cheap manpower, diversity and many other advantages, so why you are only going to implement the technological innovations, which will benefit few companies. Why not to think something that every Indian is able to make profit out of it or Indian government is going to be world leader in it ??
Irreverent Indian,
you’re right–we have to wait and watch to see if the magic of the yellow PCO can be re-created. That said, its unfair to label NKC’s work as completely neglecting the informal sector. It did an extensive report on Tradnl medicine–which as you know, relies much more on the informal sector–but you’re right, it could have gone much further than this.
In a letter to the Mint titled “Undeserved praise for Pitroda”, Farah Rahman writes:
“It surprised me to read Shamnad Basheer’s gushing ode to Sam Pitroda (“India’s innovation czar”, Mint, 7 December). Pitroda happened to be in the right place at the right time.
His great innovation of the last century remains that of the last century. The mobile phone revolution has pretty much made that whole system obsolete now. Most recently, he was, what—the “knowledge commissioner”? From what I gathered, not much came out of that whole enterprise. Besides, Pitroda lives in Oakbrook, Illinois, US. Does nobody at home fit the bill?”
The letter can be found at http://www.livemint.com/2009/12/10215748/Undeserved-praise-for-Pitroda.html