Innovation is taking place at the grassroots level and there is a need to support innovators in the early stages, said former Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) director general R.A. Mashelkar on Tuesday. He made the point during his keynote address on ‘Making Innovation a Part of National Agenda’ at the Melting Pot 2020 Innovation Summit that kicked off in the city today.
Underscoring that innovation should not be on the periphery but a part of the national agenda, Mr. Mashelkar gave examples of innovators as young as 13 years old, whose innovations are scheduled to go into production.
He said that ideas are coming from artisans and farmers, among others.
Website
“If you visit the National Innovation Foundation website, you will find a list of 20,000 innovations which have come from the grassroots,” he said, adding that one of the last Acts to have received former President Pranab Mukherjee’s assent concerned innovation. Mr. Mashelkar said there is a trust deficit between the potential young entrepreneur and the parent, and between the start-up founder and investor.
Bepatitis B vaccine
Discussing ‘paradigm shifts’, he described the nature of innovation in India as ‘disruptive’. He cited as examples the hepatitis B vaccine, which has been made 100 times cheaper, and high quality cataract eye surgeries. He encouraged original innovation, saying there are several functioning companies that are clones of ideas ‘not born in India’.
‘Deep technology’
Former NASSCOM chairman B.V.R. Reddy suggested that start-ups immerse themselves in ‘deep technology’. He opined that food technology start-ups could use that to make their companies successful and sustainable.
IIIT-Bangalore director Prof. S. Sadagopan and CL Educate chairman and co-founder Satya Narayanan R. also addressed the gathering on the occasion.
