Innovations are critical for India to achieve inclusive growth. Tech guru Sam Pitroda tells Sebastian PT how these concepts can address the problems of the deprived.
SEBASTIAN PT INTERVIEWS SAM PITROD
You have said that current research focuses on solving the problems of the rich, not the poor. Explain.
Research worldwide has focused on solving the problems of the rich, who don’t have any. As a result the poor are not getting the talent and resources to solve their problems. Innovations are key to solving the many global problems. It is not about R&D and products anymore, but about a broad platform for change. The Internet has changed the dimension and business models for everything. We need to look at a new way of improving governance, the social sector, public delivery, financial services and so on.
India has had a great past in innovations: from inventing the zero to Ayurveda to pioneering universities such as Nalanda and Takshshila. But somehow, somewhere, we lost that tradition. In the last 50 years, it is the US that has led most innovations. The Silicon Valley was, for instance, a fertile ground for innovation. Also, lots of innovation came out of American defence R&D funding, which then went into consumer products.
What’s your strategy to create an innovative ‘Indian model of development’?
Basically, there are three challenges in India: disparity—between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, and the urban-rural; demography—550 million young below 25 years; and development—related to basic human needs such as health, education, power, infrastructure, etc. There is a need to look at things differently to solve these challenges.
The focus should be the bottom of the pyramid, as those at the top can take care of themselves. Providing proper information infrastructure throughout the country is critical for development and service delivery.
There are a lot of people innovating in India.
The challenge is in identifying the right innovations to scale up.
We should innovate to create low-cost models that will provide improved access, affordability and sustainability for the poor. Let’s take the Indian mobile phone industry. Indian businessmen worked out a low-cost model for mobile service delivery. It has the lowest average revenue per user (Arpu) in the world of about $4-5, and is still doing well. This has provided unprecedented access to mobile telephony. Similarly, we really need to look at low-cost solutions for other critical areas. For instance, we can’t afford the western model of higher education with $40,000-a-year tuition fees.
We need to look at innovation as a broader platform to address the problems of those at the bottom of the pyramid. We need to develop an ecosystem for innovations with risk capital and policies to encourage inventors. However, we also need to create a discourse on innovations. Only through discourse do we begin to question. We don’t question enough; we take things as they are. We celebrate our past, not the future. The problems of the future are manifold and you need to create solutions for them.
So, are we still stuck with the ‘19th century mindset’ in facing 21st century challenges? How do we create a culture of innovation?
We still are. We are not changing fast enough; as a result only people at the top are enjoying the fruit of growth. How are we going to build a future for our young population if we keep thinking as we did in the past? We still have the legacy of archaic processes from the British Raj. If we don’t change that, we will not be able to create 10-20 million new jobs needed every year.
Look at the legal system: there’s a pendency of 32 million cases. How will we solve them? The challenge is in finding new approaches. I saw the discussions on the Lokpal Bill on television. We have enough good laws; but the challenge is in implementing them well, possibly by new innovative and creative ways. Also, look at the food system, we are unable to feed everyone—it requires technology, logistics, information systems and a new distribution system.
We have to, importantly, open our eyes, ears, minds and information systems to provide transparency and accountability. We did implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act; but all government information is locked up in nadawala files (or stringed files). We need to computerise them. We can’t have RTI of 2011 and still not have digital information. The problem really is in the execution; we know how to deal with it but are just not focused on it.
The Planning Commission suggested a ‘frugal’ innovation model for inclusive growth. How do we direct our intellectual capacities toward innovating for the country’s development?
We have to first create a buzz and sensitivity around innovation. We have to encourage people to think differently. It doesn’t mean we need a Nobel Prize. Innovations just don’t mean new technologies but application of existing technologies to solve people’s problems. This could be on how to clean our roads, purify water, sanitation, making sure our children have the right tools for education, restructuring our libraries and the like.
We need to be innovative in our thinking and approaches. We need to question the present and past. We need to redefine ourselves. Each one of us has to say ‘How do I change?’ Then, this country will change. Change has to come from within. In India, I find we don’t take responsibility for our communities and local problems. If there is a problem in the local community, we expect the government in the remote capital to solve it. Not ourselves.
We need to look at innovation as a broader platform to address the problems of those at the bottom of the pyramid. We need to develop an ecosystem for innovations with risk capital and policies to encourage inventors. However, we also need to create a discourse on innovations. Only through discourse do we begin to question. We don’t question enough; we take things as they are. We celebrate our past, not the future. The problems of the future are manifold and you need to create solutions for them.
So, are we still stuck with the ‘19th century mindset’ in facing 21st century challenges? How do we create a culture of innovation?
We still are. We are not changing fast enough; as a result only people at the top are enjoying the fruit of growth. How are we going to build a future for our young population if we keep thinking as we did in the past? We still have the legacy of archaic processes from the British Raj. If we don’t change that, we will not be able to create 10-20 million new jobs needed every year.
Look at the legal system: there’s a pendency of 32 million cases. How will we solve them? The challenge is in finding new approaches. I saw the discussions on the Lokpal Bill on television. We have enough good laws; but the challenge is in implementing them well, possibly by new innovative and creative ways. Also, look at the food system, we are unable to feed everyone—it requires technology, logistics, information systems and a new distribution system.
We have to, importantly, open our eyes, ears, minds and information systems to provide transparency and accountability. We did implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act; but all government information is locked up in nadawala files (or stringed files). We need to computerise them. We can’t have RTI of 2011 and still not have digital information. The problem really is in the execution; we know how to deal with it but are just not focused on it.
The Planning Commission suggested a ‘frugal’ innovation model for inclusive growth. How do we direct our intellectual capacities toward innovating for the country’s development?
We have to first create a buzz and sensitivity around innovation. We have to encourage people to think differently. It doesn’t mean we need a Nobel Prize. Innovations just don’t mean new technologies but application of existing technologies to solve people’s problems. This could be on how to clean our roads, purify water, sanitation, making sure our children have the right tools for education, restructuring our libraries and the like.
We need to be innovative in our thinking and approaches. We need to question the present and past. We need to redefine ourselves. Each one of us has to say ‘How do I change?’ Then, this country will change. Change has to come from within. In India, I find we don’t take responsibility for our communities and local problems. If there is a problem in the local community, we expect the government in the remote capital to solve it. Not ourselves.
If companies don’t focus on innovation, they will die.
The future belongs to people who look at the future.
There are a lot of people innovating in India—a lot of small things are happening at various levels in urban and rural India. The challenge is in how to identify the right innovations, scale them up and provide them the right ecosystem.
For this we need risk capital; we need to educate people on incentives, copyright and trademarks; provide incubators and thus create the spirit of entrepreneurship. For instance, Surat is the capital of diamonds in India; but there is very little research done on diamonds there. We need to encourage universities around Surat to do so.
We need to democratise information and innovations. As information is power, not many people like to share it. One way to do it is to take broadband to the panchayat level. Once done, the young people will figure out how to innovate.
Many industries have neither the organisational focus on innovation nor the skills. Are companies realising that without innovating they’ll perish?
If they don’t start focusing on innovation, they will die. The future belongs to people who look at the future. Companies need to innovate to be globally competitive, to reduce cost, increase productivity, serve new markets and survive. Many Indian companies are becoming global in nature and have been inculcating global practices in innovation.
How does the Unique Identification Project support your ideas of innovation?
The UID is a big start. However, it is just one of the platforms. The other platforms of public information infrastructure are Geographical Information Systems, broadband, cyber security and application services (banking, driving licences, etc). We need an open software system to put these together. The key is to build the information structure. For instance, the RTI or the proposed Lokpal can’t deliver results without a proper information structure. We have to pinpoint accountability. All this requires new thinking.
While the services sector has seen innovation mainly in the IT sector, how do we spur innovation in the other services, say, healthcare?
I am really worried about our focus on the western model of health services delivery and expensive 5-star hospitals. This model can’t deliver healthcare to the masses. The Indian model of healthcare should cater to local needs, with an emphasis on traditional medicines. In fact, India has a shortage of doctors. But you don’t need doctors everywhere; you probably can get by with paramedics. We also have a lot of vaids, knowledgeable in traditional medicines. Why don’t we allow them to prescribe medicines for minor ailments, say, headaches? But, doctors have vested interests in this. We know a lot of answers, but we just don’t implement them because of vested interests. People at the top of the pyramid don’t want to lose control.
Designing is vital to innovations and development. Is India doing enough to encourage it?
No. Our idea of innovation is to design products. When I talk of designs, it isn’t a toy or a high-tech product but about designing processes. It could be about designing our health system, education system, governance, the country’s slums and so on. For instance, the process of getting land records or birth certificates is a century-old process. All this has to be redesigned.
Still, do you see India changing for the better?
Societies don’t change overnight. I see a lot of hope ahead. India’s time will come because of our strengths such as a vibrant democracy, demographic dividend and the vast untapped talent.
Inclusive Innovation Fund
For this we need risk capital; we need to educate people on incentives, copyright and trademarks; provide incubators and thus create the spirit of entrepreneurship. For instance, Surat is the capital of diamonds in India; but there is very little research done on diamonds there. We need to encourage universities around Surat to do so.
We need to democratise information and innovations. As information is power, not many people like to share it. One way to do it is to take broadband to the panchayat level. Once done, the young people will figure out how to innovate.
Many industries have neither the organisational focus on innovation nor the skills. Are companies realising that without innovating they’ll perish?
If they don’t start focusing on innovation, they will die. The future belongs to people who look at the future. Companies need to innovate to be globally competitive, to reduce cost, increase productivity, serve new markets and survive. Many Indian companies are becoming global in nature and have been inculcating global practices in innovation.
How does the Unique Identification Project support your ideas of innovation?
The UID is a big start. However, it is just one of the platforms. The other platforms of public information infrastructure are Geographical Information Systems, broadband, cyber security and application services (banking, driving licences, etc). We need an open software system to put these together. The key is to build the information structure. For instance, the RTI or the proposed Lokpal can’t deliver results without a proper information structure. We have to pinpoint accountability. All this requires new thinking.
While the services sector has seen innovation mainly in the IT sector, how do we spur innovation in the other services, say, healthcare?
I am really worried about our focus on the western model of health services delivery and expensive 5-star hospitals. This model can’t deliver healthcare to the masses. The Indian model of healthcare should cater to local needs, with an emphasis on traditional medicines. In fact, India has a shortage of doctors. But you don’t need doctors everywhere; you probably can get by with paramedics. We also have a lot of vaids, knowledgeable in traditional medicines. Why don’t we allow them to prescribe medicines for minor ailments, say, headaches? But, doctors have vested interests in this. We know a lot of answers, but we just don’t implement them because of vested interests. People at the top of the pyramid don’t want to lose control.
Designing is vital to innovations and development. Is India doing enough to encourage it?
No. Our idea of innovation is to design products. When I talk of designs, it isn’t a toy or a high-tech product but about designing processes. It could be about designing our health system, education system, governance, the country’s slums and so on. For instance, the process of getting land records or birth certificates is a century-old process. All this has to be redesigned.
Still, do you see India changing for the better?
Societies don’t change overnight. I see a lot of hope ahead. India’s time will come because of our strengths such as a vibrant democracy, demographic dividend and the vast untapped talent.
Inclusive Innovation Fund
- Establish an autonomous Rs 5,000 crore ($1 billion) Inclusive Innovation Fund.
- To encourage low-cost models for generating inclusive growth.
- To encourage VCs to design solutions for the bottom of the pyramid with a focus on livelihood opportunities.
- Help people from marginalised sections of society develop skills.
- To be structured as a ‘Fund of Funds’ with seed capital from the government and built up by investment from private or public sector enterprises, banks, FIIs, HNIs and overseas investors.
- Will primarily operate as a fund of funds, investing in intermediate funds/ institutions that will make the end investment in the chosen areas.
Innovation Clusters
- Driving the innovation agenda nationally would require strengthening of the regional capacity for innovation.
- It is proposed to identify 20 innovation clusters plus 20 innovation hubs at universities across the country to develop and support innovation, especially inclusive innovation.
- These will enable interconnections between intellectual, financial, human and creative capital as well as unleash latent potential.
- This requires an innovation roadmap that focuses federal and state, public and private funding on creating and sustaining regional anchors throughout the innovation economy.
About Sam Pitroda
Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda or Sam Pitroda wears many hats—a telecom inventor (he holds about 100 worldwide patents), entrepreneur (Founder of C-SAM), policymaker and development thinker. In the 1980s, as Advisor to PM Rajiv Gandhi, he sowed the seeds for India’s technology and telecommunications revolution. He then headed six technology missions related to telecom, water, literacy, immunisation, dairy and oilseeds. He was also the Founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. Pitroda returned to the US in the early ’90s. “I was broke,” he says. While making a comeback as an entrepreneur there, Pitroda went through a tough personal life—he survived cancer and two quadruple bypasses. His second stint in India began after PM Manmohan Singh made him Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (2005-09), an advisory body. The NKC has given its report on a blueprint for reform of knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. The 68-year-old Pitroda is currently Advisor to the PM on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations and heads the National Innovation Council. He has recently been appointed to the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development.
Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda or Sam Pitroda wears many hats—a telecom inventor (he holds about 100 worldwide patents), entrepreneur (Founder of C-SAM), policymaker and development thinker. In the 1980s, as Advisor to PM Rajiv Gandhi, he sowed the seeds for India’s technology and telecommunications revolution. He then headed six technology missions related to telecom, water, literacy, immunisation, dairy and oilseeds. He was also the Founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. Pitroda returned to the US in the early ’90s. “I was broke,” he says. While making a comeback as an entrepreneur there, Pitroda went through a tough personal life—he survived cancer and two quadruple bypasses. His second stint in India began after PM Manmohan Singh made him Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (2005-09), an advisory body. The NKC has given its report on a blueprint for reform of knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. The 68-year-old Pitroda is currently Advisor to the PM on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations and heads the National Innovation Council. He has recently been appointed to the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development.
