Panel I discussions at the Round Table on Innovation in India, during the IIPC Conference

Ashok Chawla spoke about the importance of creating a balance between competition and innovation, so that the latter was allowed to grow. Dr. Jensen noted that the notion of openness was the key to foster innovation. He pointed out that India and its IT/BPO sectors had benefited greatly from an open global trading system. “However, countries are using security concerns to put up barriers to the free flow of data and this is a risk to the innovation ecosystem in India.” Dilipkumar Khandelwal discussed the importance of innovation in developing new business models. “If you're not innovating, you’ll get out of business very fast.” Dr. Kirti Gupta highlighted the significance of proper standard setting in the telecom industry. She pointed out that these standards actually embodied fundamental technology and helped to solve core problems. She added, “This is important for India because we are at the cusp of policy changes that could have a huge impact on India’s telecom sector.”

Dr. Chandru, speaking as a scientist-entrepreneur, pointed out that a key challenge for India when it came to moving up the value chain in innovation dwelt in the need to make institutions of higher education responsible for driving innovation. He also highlighted the synergy between East and West in innovation, where the West makes a basic scientific discovery and the East then builds on it, and referred to the importance of this synergy in sectors such as pharmaceuticals.

Prof. Branstetter said India was at a turning point with more and deeper innovation on the horizon. He also echoed Dr Vijay Chandru’s thoughts on the concept of East-West synergy and its role in driving and promoting innovation. He spoke about the challenges faced by US because of a slowdown in innovation and said the entire world was looking to India to make significant contributions in the area of innovation.