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Fast Changing Indian Innovation Landscape
Highlights
India\'s innovation landscape is changing fast and for the better. Indian digital arena is buzzing with activities. Be it Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India - Stand up India, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and now IMPRINT - a combined initiative from major institutions of India. A common denominator of all these innovation campaigns is the same, in the sense that they are comprehensive and spanning across multiple industries & key domains and the changes are triggering dramatic outcomes.
India's innovation landscape is changing fast and for the better. Indian digital arena is buzzing with activities. Be it Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India - Stand up India, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and now IMPRINT - a combined initiative from major institutions of India. A common denominator of all these innovation campaigns is the same, in the sense that they are comprehensive and spanning across multiple industries & key domains and the changes are triggering dramatic outcomes.
For example, Incubators, Start-ups nutured by Dept. of Biotech of Indian government, produced over 45 new products and 63 patents within a year. As many as 164 companies have been nurtured under the Biotech Ignite Grant scheme, producing some key innovations to market. This is just a indicator of the potential it holds to make a significant impact in the market in terms of jobs, oportunities and building innovations portfolio for monetization. Innovation, Incubation, Start-up and Entrepreneurship are going to be the new mantras for economic growth.
Now little bit on the IMPRINT India Initative and what it means for Innovations Promotion in India. IMPRINT is - IMPacting Research Innovation and Technology initiative by the Govt. of India under the auspices of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of India Pranab Mukherjee and is the latest and most daring initiative by India to find indigenous solutions, creating opportunities and accelerating growth. IMPRINT is the joint initiative of IIT's and IISc, and is focused on creating roadmap to handle engineering challenges in ten key domains including - nano-technology, Healthcare, ICT, Energy, water resources, Environment, advanced materials, manufacturing, security and defense to address core issues.
Panning across the elite institutions of India - the IIT's and IISc and bunch of key organizations across core ministries, "Imprint" is focused and comprehensive project undertaken by the govt. With a funding of over Rs. 1,000 crores, that is, $150 million USD - the initiative is challenging the billion minds to come up with specific proposals for providing innovative solutions and in the process, create more jobs & opportunities and contributing to economic growth.
This Imprint initiative is in addition to Start up India and Skill India campaigns that have already gained lot of traction. In terms of Start-ups, India is now number three in the world, with only US and UK ahead of India. And, based on current going rate, India is holding potential to become "The Start-up nation of the world".
Let us look at from the other end of the spectrum. Core problems like bureaucratic red tape are being sorted out quickly. Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, for example, initiated single window clearance making it easy for start-ups to hit the ground running within a week. For the incubators, life is even more easy now. Companies can walk-in, find the space and other infrastructure needs such as connectivity, labs, equipment and get started within a day or two. Proposals for innovations under IMPRINT will be fast tracked under single window clearance policy. Although these expedited services are not on par with Hong Kong yet, these transformative changes are a good start in Indian terms wherein Start-ups can hit the ground running rather quickly, avoiding the typical months and months of waiting game. Also, 24 X 7 uninterrupted power, water, connectivity are a major plus.
Complementing to this initiative is the Skill India campaign, geared to nuture the bottom tier people to horn their skills for emerging markets. Within next few years, 25 percent of global skilled workforce would be provided by India. So, such steps are imperative and need of the hour to tap the untapped opportunities.
Already, Incubators in specific areas of chemical technology, biotech, healthcare, food processing are accelerating start-up culture. The department of Biotech (DBT) of Indian Government initiated several incubator centers and bioclusters and within a short span extended support to over 164 companies and got not only innovative solutions to market but also 63 patents within a year. This is sign of maturity and visibly demonstrates how India is fast catching up on addressing core issues - market opportunities. "Scale" is another major advantage inherent with Indian markets. Since it is at the core of business interest, providing ready markets to field test but also rapidly accelerate growth there is bee-line of investments. Coincidentally, India is now the Top Destination of investments in the world pushing ahead of China and the U.S. $31 Billion USD in such a short time frame speaks up what is in store for near future.
Over 90 incubators are in action now across the country. As Imprint gains momentum, more issues are going to be addressed head-on, triggering further uptick in incubation centers, start-ups and in the process increasing the innovation portfolio. With over $40 billion USD domestic market per year from Defense alone. As the India becomes more technology driven, the innovation campaign slogan " million challenges billion minds" is just apt as the cause. Now let us watch for the telling effect!.
By: Kameshwar Eranki, Innovation, IP Expert based out of Silicon Valley.
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