Innovation: Mantra for the Future

Juhi Bhambal

MUMBAI: While cost and quality have been the drivers for the IT industry, going forward, the mantra for success will be innovation.

This was the theme of the inaugural session of the NASSCOM 2006: India Leadership Forum, which began here today.

“Cost helped us get a foot in the door, quality opened it a little bit more, and now we need innovation to open it all the way,” said S Ramdorai, chairman, NASSCOM, and CEO and MD, TCS.

The challenge is that the twin engines of invention and commoditization are driving the IT industry. “More and more services are coming to the platform, representing invention. At the same time, existing services are getting commoditized,” said B Ramalinga Raju, vice chairman NASSCOM, and chairman, Satyam. Public-private partnership, emphasis on R&D and a multidisciplinary approach to academics have been proposed as the drivers for achieving innovation.

Citing that private-public partnership is what gave rise to Google in the US and initiatives such as e-Chaupal and the township in Jamshedpur, Ramdorai said, “These models have an innovation sub-system that caters to all stakeholders.”

Maharashtra promised to play its role in this partnership with chief minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh talking about developing the second-tier cities of Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashik as IT hubs. He also talked about Gondia, another small town, which has a notable IT-training institute from where Reliance's Mukesh Ambani has plans to recruit people. Satyam, too, has signed an MoU to set up centers in the state.

Deshmukh also promised to look into the state's infrastructure issues - power, trains and roads.

In terms of R&D, Ramdorai said that while the US produces 40,000 PhDs across all disciplines every year, India produces only 12,000. There is, hence, a need to bring in more funding, including venture capital funding to research labs and an improvement in the research atmosphere.

Ramadorai added that India needs more initiatives such as the incubation labs for SMEs in Chennai.

In another session, Thomas L Friedman, author of The World is Flat, in his characteristic manner, redefined untouchables to bring out the importance of education.

“An untouchable is one whose job cannot be outsourced or automated,” he said.

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