Art of the novel

For all that we congratulate ourselves on jugaad and improvisation,its obvious that India needs a sustained innovation intervention. INSEADs global innovation index,collaborating with CII,has placed India at a so-so 62,six ranks down from last year. Its ranked lower than Brazil,Russia and China the nations we most often measure ourselves against.

The metrics are based on various input factors including human capital,research and education,market and business sophistication,etc,as well as the outcomes they produce. Innovation is not just resourcefulness,or random,light-bulb moments,but considered policy choices within organisations and nations that arrange incentives to reward creativity whether in products,processes or systems. They could be sharp swerves away from established practices or incremental design improvements. Intangible as innovation is,there are some clear enabling factors like the stability of institutions over time. India seems to have slumped because of a far from reassuring business environment,as well as a paucity of knowledge workers,gaps in elementary and secondary education,among other reasons.

However,in output terms,India has been far more successful,moving up from 101 in 2010 to 9 this year on the innovation efficiency front. It excels in operating with constraints,in producing low-cost,high-volume concepts in automobiles,healthcare and telecom,whether it is the Tata Nano or solar-powered cellphones. However,in the absence of an encouraging ecosystem,such experiment is unlikely to thrive. Innovation is the result of a a firm or industry searching for ways to optimise a process or develop a product,or it can be a purer laboratory exploration. Good governance should further both sets of pursuits,even as we reorient education,research and industry practices.