Opinion Seize the moment

India and the United States are two nations separated geographically but bound together by the common values of democracy,freedom and a strong belief in competition and free trade. Today we are at a point in the history of our two great nations where our economies have become increasingly interdependent and the relationship has developed into one of equal partners. There are over 200 CEOs of top American corporations visiting India with President Barack Obama. He begins his visit in Mumbai. The buzz about the visit in the Indian corporate fraternity underscores the vast potential of our relationship. This is a relationship in which we co-create and co-innovate for the development of the world and deliver high-quality,low-cost sustainable solutions. I would like to highlight two areas where this relationship can be further strengthened helping provide solutions to the world — innovation in products and clean-tech.India is a market where the challenge has always been keeping costs low without compromising on features,thus making our engineering talent masters of frugal engineering: throw a challenge at some of the brightest engineers and you might get the cheapest mobile phone in the world fully loaded with an FM receiver and even an LED torch!One such example of this frugal innovation is GE’s USD1000 portable ECG machine — this innovation is being adopted globally helping bring down the cost of healthcare. The other example is the solar ATM — these ATMs have been deployed in towns with erratic power supply. As opposed to traditional ATMs that consume some 1,800 units of power a month,these solar ATMs use renewable energy. They are climate-friendly as well. They reduce carbon emissions by at least 18,500 kg per year. This innovation is a great asset to banks wanting to cut down operating expenses of their ATM networks or to expand in newer geographies,besides being extremely environment-friendly.A lot of the technology has,over the years,been invented in the West; but in India,the world of constraints is helping sharpen the deployment of these inventions for the masses and spawning a spate of new inventions. It is very important that this cross pollination of ideas continues to happen and further impetus is provided to Indo-US academic and corporate collaboration. President Obama’s trip could aid that process of cooperation.The other big area of potential collaboration is in clean-tech. India today offers a unique opportunity: a large part of the country’s infrastructure (power,roads,etc) still needs to be built. That challenge is also an opportunity. It gives us a chance to build it all in an ecologically sustainable manner that provides India as well as the rest of humanity with a way forward. India has taken aggressive targets like the National Solar Mission,which envisages production of 20 GW power by 2022. Collaboration in Solar PV and solar thermal technologies would go a long way in making renewable power both affordable and scalable.These are two of the many things that India and the United States should work together on. However,there is a reason why these two made it to the top of my list. I believe that technological innovation and eco-sustainability would be the foundation on which future societies all over the world will be built and,hence,there is a great need for our unyielding focus. Finally,I wanted to close by saying that this is a historic moment. It is not very often that two great nations have so much in common with a future so symbiotically aligned. It is time for both our countries to seize this opportunity and help this relationship attain its full potential.

The writer is Joint CEO,IT Business,and Member of the Board,Wipro Ltd. Views are personal

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