Why India Will Continue To Push Incremental Innovation Over Disruption

Can India move away from being a low-cost innovator at the bottom of the pyramid, and instead begin to be known for big-bang, disruptive innovations for the world?

- Ashish Gupta

In an age of cutting-edge technology and immensely disruptive innovation, can India ever become an innovations hub for the world? Will, say, a Tesla equivalent be born in India? I put this question to a bunch of thinkers, economists, and colleagues, and get an almost unequivocal answer: No. I’m taken aback, to be honest. I’ve been favourably impressed by the work done by the wonks at Ericsson, IBM, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and other information technology majors.

That’s not innovation, scoffs a colleague; real Indian innovation continues to be low-cost tweaks at the bottom of the pyramid, or, to use a word Indians love, jugaad. I appeal to Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth, and Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School, whose work has focussed on innovative thinking across the value chain. “The time for incremental change is over,” he tells me. “It is time for non-linear, breakthrough innovations, not just for solving the country’s complex problems, but also for creating a far more equitable and inclusive society.”

From Bengaluru, Lakshmi Pratury, founder, host and curator of INK Talks, a platform for exchange of cutting-edge ideas and inspiring stories, says something similar. It’s time for India to take some “exponential risks”, she says. “Today, Singapore is the innovation hub for biotech. India too needs to make some huge bets on some emerging technologies like block chain, for instance, to ensure financial inclusion at an affordable price.”

Put in that light, yes, it seems that India is not really ready to drive disruptive innovation. But does that mean we should completely write off the country as an innovation hub? Ask a simple question, and you can be sure the answer will be far from simple.