原创 2010-2020 is the decade of Innovation in India

Last week, I attended the TiECon 2012 conference in Silicon Valley, the annual conference of Indian entrepreneurs from around the world. Some 3,200 people from the USA and around the world attended the conference, and we heard some great keynotes from prominent Indian entrepreneurs in the USA.

The two keynotes at the conference that stood out for me were those by Anant Agarwal, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and director of CSAIL, computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory, with his keynote on organic computing; and Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Indian Prime Minister for public information infrastructure & innovations, who talked about 'Igniting Innovation in India'.

I met with Sam Pitroda at the conference and it was good to see that the vision with which he set about helping transform the Indian tech sector some 20 years ago, still remains a passion for him.

At the TiECon 2012 (http://www.tiecon.org/content/conference-overview) keynote he delivered at the end of the conference to a packed audience with standing room only, he called upon the Indian diaspora to make their contribution to the Indian tech sector – by providing knowledge and expertise.

He said that the years 2010 to 2020 would be the decade of innovation in India. A National Innovation Council was already announced back in March, with 20 Chief Ministers having already set up innovation councils.

He also talked about healthcare and education being key areas needing support – he said that India is spending $70 billion on education but that is still not enough. The country is also spending about $100m on smart grid field trials.

One of the messages he gave towards the beginning of the speech referred to India looking to copy  the USA model for economic growth – and he warned that while India wanted to copy the USA, the country (India) needs its own growth model.

Many regions around the world do indeed try to copy the USA for encouraging growth in the tech sector and particularly Silicon Valley in California (see http://thenextsiliconvalley.com/). There are some lessons that can be learned from the effect that Silicon Valley has on tech businesses and innovation – as referred to in my article, ‘Learning from Silicon Valley’, in which I write about my experience having just returned from a week in Silicon Valley. As always, I get a lot of inspiration from the way things work and happen in the Valley.  

To find out more about why Silicon Valley works, in my opinion, click here: http://thenextsiliconvalley.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/learning-from-silicon-valley/