Book review: Rama Iyer,Innovation Ecosystem in India

Global markets are rapidly changing, and more than investment, it is innovation which is the game changer in this ever-competitive business canvas. Stunningly, the decades old business conglomerates are caught napping, while the new ventures have revenues surpassing in a few years. The new ventures today are provided with ample support to ideate, launch and propel into the unicorn club. Government support, venture capitalist funding and success selling are daily business news.

The book dwells on the contribution by various stakeholders in the innovation space. The author describes how the start-up ecosystem is networked and in synchronization with the requirements of the new age businesses. In the section, innovation by school and college students, contribution by NITI Aayog’s Atal innovation mission (AIM) by opening Atal tinkering labs (ATL) has been highlighted. In fact, in ATLs students are exposed to the concept of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and a lot of do-it-yourself kits, which give students a touch-and-feel and a maker attitude.

The author highlights the academics and research fraternity’s contribution in nurturing young talents to roll out an environment of job creators more than job seekers. Innovation and start-up hubs are today, very much part of state government’s mission. The stand outs are Kerala Startup Mission, Telangana’s T-Hub and Startup Haryana—run by HARTRON. The support to the innovation ecosystem by central government departments is quite commendable and encourages the entrepreneurship ethos. Various schemes and support systems through Startup India (Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Invest India (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade), Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog), MeitY Startup Hub (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) are conversed by the author.

The author underlines the importance of ‘Open Innovation Initiatives’ companies should look at all external avenues, research organizations—who build a massive repository of intellectual property and start-ups who may solve a niche problem which could be a very valuable differentiation in the company’s product offering.

The author underlines corporate innovation which is mostly regarded as paradoxical not only in the start-up fraternity but also in the corporate corridors. Innovation champion is empowered and drives programmes such as hackathon, innovation talk, tech meet-up and developer day.

The book has special mention of T-Hub, a start-up ecosystem hub, considered to be one among the world’s leading start-up engines, powering entrepreneurship and innovation. T-Hub provides access to mentors, customers, corporates, investors and government agencies for over thousands of national and international start-ups. The ecosystem needs a hotspot like this to help build new products, business models with access to new technologies, capitals and markets.

The book highlights how the ‘accelerator programmes’ further the cause of innovation from a corporate standpoint. Corporates almost always follow a pattern, flow and process, which makes it very difficult to innovate. So, the best bet for them is to collaborate with the cutting-edge start-ups in new age solutions like AR/VR, AI, ML, robotics, blockchain, cognitive, and so on.

High level engagement framework cited at T-Hub gives a walkthrough of various stages—scouting, sprint, open innovation, market access and investment. The accelerator programme connects the corporate with the selected start-up in close proximity and allows them to bring in tech, business, operations and leadership leading to the assessment of best value intersection. The author brings in the hands-on experience with UTC climate, control and security (CCS), Otis business and HSBC global innovation team.

The author concludes with a case study, as the last chapter. The programme for YES FINTECH aimed at discovering start-ups in the space of payments, customer experience and lending. The takeaway of the programme is the initiative of ‘two in a box’ concept, wherein an internal domain expert along with the start-up navigates through the functions to come up with solutions.