Comments on: India & innovation: Why hasn’t India produced an Apple, Google or Microsoft?

By: Raju

Raju — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:54:54 +0000

India’s average IQ is 81 and ranks 134th in the world for “average” intelligence. You can pick those top IQ Indians out of India and habitate them on an island and most likely you will see some innovations coming out of that Elite Indians island. But no one can deny the rule of average. On average India ranks below 100 on majority of statistics, and hence for centuries to come don’t expect any innovations.

By: Letter to the Prime Minister on Independence Day | NextSutra

Letter to the Prime Minister on Independence Day | NextSutra — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:23:09 +0000

[...] speak about the Indian IT industry. India as a geek nation has been eulogized and overrated. The story of India as laggards in innovation is well documented. Industry reports like this one are nice to read but remain as they are – [...]

By: Vignesh

Vignesh — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:31:06 +0000

The answer in my opinion is availability of a strong local market in India. For this to happen, the following are necessary,

Increase in buying power (on the rise)
Increase in entrepreneur support eco system (on the rise)
Increase in national pride (on the rise, if you have not noticed)
Increase in pride and focus on local products (will happen due to previous point)

This is why companies in west innovate, they create products for themselves which eventually goes global based on the strong local foothold. Right now, we (in India) try to create products/services more towards US/Europe so effectiveness would be lower. The easy answer due to this is a ‘me too’ product/service which leverage on cost arbitrage.

If you pick top innovative companies in India, I bet they serve the Indian market!

By: kamonasish aayush mazumdar

kamonasish aayush mazumdar — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:28:43 +0000

Here is the answer
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_res_and_dev_exp_of_gdp-economy-research-development-expenditure-gdp

on a more broader term, its because we as Indians don’t teach to innovate, we teach to employ people as workers and our education system is maniacally rote learning based.

It kills a lot of innovation that we have.

This comes from a student who is trying entrepreneurship and someone who has been taught in 3 of the biggest cities in India across the best schools.

By: Nil

Nil — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:33:34 +0000

Some of the reasons are touched upon in this article Complete Telecom Products “Made in India”? http://bit.ly/5wzvM3

By: Partha

Partha — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:26:24 +0000

Hi,

We have companies with large cash without knowing what to do and also at the same time there main source of business is not doing well i.e the service.

However our biggies are not comfortable venturing outside service to product.

By: Shubhendu

Shubhendu — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:16:42 +0000

Innovations are not new to India’s economic fabric. Infact the best example of innovation can be traced in the recent growth in mobile communication business and its use in boosting earning potential of rural and semiurban population. The story of Kerela fishermen using mobile phone to know the daily prices of fish and accordingly get the best price of their catch is now replicated in other agricultural produce. Similarly, the mobile service providers are now launching unique solutions for rural masses to fetch the information with huge economic value in a user friendly manner. Infact Prof. C. K. Prahlad’s book entitled “Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” depicts some of these successful innovation stories in Indian environment.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:03:52 +0000

Guess its becuz we donot really THINK and DO but only FOLLOW.

By: Rushin

Rushin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:02:35 +0000

Apple, Google or Microsoft…..hmmmm….well how did these companies show up??? Any Ideas??? Simple – The Indians invented the decimal and the number system.

By: Anil

Anil — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:22:57 +0000

Make no mistakes, India innovates every day…look at people working in India in such difficult conditions in different sectors.

But does that innovation translate into world class products ? unfortunately no, barring few exceptions, some also quoted here. But why? Because product development is a different ball game requiring its own set of eco system to succeed.

Products are being developed in India without our knowing because they’re owned by International entities.

Most of the comments here touch upon – government, mindset, legacy, colonial rule. Well, they’re right. Then what ?

INSTEAD of just finding reasons for why google, apple doesn’t come from India, fruits would lie in taking it forward to – “what could be done to make India a “leading world class product developer & owner ?”

For that, you could join me in that discussion (what could be done to make India a “leading world class product developer & owner”?) that I have posted in India outsourcing group on Linkedn, in case you wish to.

Best

Anil