Fourth Udai Pareek Memorial Lecture“Reinventing India as Innovation Nation”

NHRDN in collaboration with MNIT, Jaipur organized stthe Fourth Udai Pareek Memorial lecture on 1 May

2015 at Prabha Bhawan, Mini Auditorium, MNIT, Jaipur. The lecture was delivered by Padma Vibhushan, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar on the topic “Reinventing India as Innovation Nation”.

The session began with lighting of the lamp and floral tribute to Late Prof. Udai Pareek by the dignitaries, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Prof. I.K. Bhat, Prof. Ashok Bapna, Dr. Ashok Agarwal and daughter of Late. Prof. Udai Pareek, Dr. Surabhi. The program was compered by Dr. Kanupriya Sachdev.

Mr. Ashok Agarwal, Trustee, NHRDN, in his tribute to Late Prof. Udai Pareek, remembered his association with Prof. Pareek and his contribution in the HR forte. He said that he worked till the last day of his life and never asked for any monitory return. He further added that Prof. Pareek who liked to be addressed as “Uday” was very youthful and student oriented, in order to help the students he would go to any extent. Highlighting his contribution in the HR field, as the father of HRD, he added that Prof. Pareek published more than 50 text books and 350 research papers and many of the instruments developed by him are used

Date 1 May 2015

Venue

by the institutions and organizations till date.

Prof. Ashok Bapna, President NHRDN, Jaipur Chapter welcomed everyone present. Speaking about NHRDN, he said that it is a platform for the development of human resource through research, consultancy. He said that NHRDN is led by the HR professionals across the country in honorary capacity. He further added that major concern of NHRDN is how to make youth more employable looking at the fact that the recent surveys have revealed that the condition of Higher & Technical Education in India is not satisfactory wherein it has been noted that only 10-20% graduates are employable. He said that the 1st lecture was delivered by Prof. T V Rao, second was delivered by Padma Shree, Dr. Pritam Singh and the third was delivered by Padma Shree Prof. Goverdhan Mehta. Further, he thanked Prof. I K Bhat, Director MNIT for hosting the fourth UPML and said that MNIT is amongst the top 30 engineering institutes of India and has a global presence. Prof. I.K Bhat., Director, MNIT, Jaipur in his opening address, welcomed Dr. R. A. Mashelkar and expressed his gratitude to him for addressing the Session.

Dr. R. A. Mashelkar in his opening remarks thanked NHRDN and said that it is an honor to speak in the memory of Late Prof. Udai Pareek who was amongst

Prabha Bhawan MNIT, Jaipur

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the top 50 most influential people. He also congratulated MNIT for its success and growth over the years. Prof. Mashelkar acknowledged the valuable contributions made by Prof. Udai Pareek.

Prof. Mashelkar said, in order to achieve growth the most important elements are:

• Ambience and ambition

• Contingency excellence and relevance

He further added that education disseminates more knowledge and innovation creates knowledge and money a combination of “Saraswati” and “Lakshmi”. He said that there has been a great evidence of education and research now it is the time for “innovation”.

He said that since industrial revolution, the world has experienced an unprecedented rise in economic growth fueled by innovation. From individual excellence in the 1930s, to self reliance in the 1970s, to technology denial driven in the 1990s, IP generation and global competition in 2010 to global leadership in science and technology face of India will change in the times to come. But in terms of innovation, India seems to be slipping down. Highlighting the global innovation index, he said from Rank 64, in 2012 India has slipped down to rank 76 in 2014.

He further added that India so far has experienced 3 Freedoms:

• Political freedom in 1947

• Trade and Economic freedom in 1991 through economic liberalization and

• Technological freedom in 2008.

Prof. Mashelkar while quoting example of Tata Motors said, that JRD Tata in 1978 once said if Telco was allowed to develop in India as it should have been, Tata’s would have been making cars in India and would have been as successful as Tata trucks. And through the Technological freedom now Tatas have joined hands with Jaguar and Land Rover.

Speaking on Technological freedom , he further said that in his book “Indian Innovation the story of Pleasure and Pain” he has highlighted how Innovations in India are being implemented in other countries. He said every pleasure comes with the pain, pleasure is the wireless local loop technology developed by Ashok Jhunjhunwala in Indian technological environment but pain lies when this technology is implemented in other countries like B r a z i l a n d M a d a g a s c a r. T h u s , h e s a i d t h e technological environment in India needs more conducive government policies.

He said research converts money into knowledge but innovation converts knowledge into money. Thus, innovation ecosystem needs to be created which requires five pillars:

• A c a d e m i c Cu l t u r e P r o m o t i n g S c i e n c e Entrepreneurs

• IP awareness and culture

• ‘Ad’ venture capital (Risk Financing)

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• Conducive Government Policies

• Supportive Regulatory Regimes

Further he enunciated that, academic culture in India should promote science entrepreneurs. But, there is a cultural difference in the university and industry. Time horizon in the university is more in comparison to the industry and university system caters to perceived needs while the industry caters to the market needs. Thus, there is a gap in the academic research and industrial requirements.

He said that certain educational institutes like MIT has bridged this gap by facilitating academic researchers with catalyst programs, grant program, events and innovation teams. Therefore, other academic institutions should also follow the footsteps of MIT for facilitating innovation with commercial value.

Talking on IP awareness he said, that though innovation converts knowledge into money but it should be monetisable knowledge and this calls for patent literacy in India. So now the slogan should not be Publish or Perish but rather Patent, Publish and Prosper. He also said that Indian IQ must be used to create Indian IP, which creates wealth in India. Quoting from his book, “Reinventing India” he added that it’s a moment of pleasure when Indian scientists publish some breakthrough scientific results but every pleasure is with pain and here the pain is when Japan takes regular patents based on this research. Thus, in other words Indian science will make money but in Japan and not in India. He added further that do not copy China but learn from China.

Prof. Mashelkar also highlighted that the patents granted by US to CSIR increased to 145 in 2002 from mere 4 in 1994.

Talking of Indian Corporations he said, innovation is now moving to centre stage from periphery. In this regard,Prof. Mashelkar chairs the following corporations: Reliance Innovation Council, Thermax Innovation Council,Marico Innovation Foundation, KPIT Technology Innovation Council.

He said that 5 mantras to enterprise innovation are:

• Build Innovation Leaders

• Succeed by End to End Innovation

• Talent –Technology-Tolerance

• Move from R&D to C&D

• Realize the Power of Indovation for Global Leadership

He said that traditional mindset needs to be changed to facilitate innovation. He emphasized on creating innovation leaders, who actually see what everyone else sees but thinks that no one else thinks.

Innovation should be from end to end, thereby having a holistic approach which covers all the processes in the organization like:

• Technological innovation

• Business Model Innovation

• Workflow innovation

• Organizational innovation

• Research process innovation

• System delivery innovation

• Policy innovation

Prof. Mashelkar also said that failed innovation should also be rewarded so as to encourage people to take risk. Indian corporate houses have initiated awards for trying innovation like Tata Group has “Daring to Try” and Mahindra group has “Failed Innovation Award”. Other organizations should also emulate so as to encourage talented people towards innovation. He said that this will encourage Indians towards innovation leading to Indovation having a global presence.Mobile desktop PC, and Akash tablet for $35 was an innovation which led to tablet coming into the hands of students. Such innovations will lead to global presence of India, he said.While talking of innovation in India, he said innovation should be:• Integrative• Inclusive

• Disruptive

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Integrative with respect to geography, technology, customer and environment.

Inclusive which refers to more from less for more (MLM). But the challenge in this regard is getting more performance from less resources for more people. He quoted, Jaipur foot as the best example in this type of innovation which is referred to as $28 foot. He further added that Jaipur foot since its inception has total 1,282,121 fitments. He said making high technology for lower is what the need of the hour is.

Indian mobile revolution and generic drugs as an innovation in this regard is the best example he said. Mobile revolution triggered other innovations like technological innovation through reasonable mobile handsets and process innovation by lowering the call rates. Similarly generic drugs also increased access.

Further he added, inclusive innovation is not about, stripping products and services to make them cheap, somehow inclusive innovation is about giving high quality at affordable prices.

Disruptive innovation has changed, the way we read, write, draw, hear, learn, exchange, entertain, communicate, collaborate, hire, move, navigate, produce, he said.

We earlier read books now we have e- books, we got informed through newspapers now we have twitter, earlier we purchased from shops now we purchase online, earlier we learnt in classrooms now we have interactive online sessions like Khan academy.

He said that earlier in order to reach 50 million households commercial television took 13 years, Internet service providers took 3 years, Facebook took 1 year and twitter just 9 months. This is the revolution in innovation, he said.

In his concluding remarks he said “Finally, we should launch a powerful national innovation movement to propel us into the next millennium. The I in India, should not stand for imitation and inhibition, it must stand for innovation. The I in IIT must stand for innovation. The I in industry, the I in CSIR must stand for innovation. The I in every individual Indian must

stand for innovation.

“It is only this innovative India that will signal to the rest of the world, that we are not a hesitant nation, unsure of our place in the new global order, but a confident one, that is raring to go and be a leader in the comity of nations.”

In the end, Prof. G.S. Dangayach, Head-DMS, MNIT, Jaipur presented the vote of thanks. Prof. Dangayach while appreciating the valuable contributions of Prof. Mashelkar hoped that we shall have such lectures mini more in the future to enrich our existing knowledge.

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“Congratulations for getting such an eminent person for Udai Pareek memorial lecture. I wish the function a great success.”

Dr. Udai Pareek was in Indonesia when we started National HRD Network but continued to give his moral support to starting of such a body. On his return from Indonesia he supported NHRDN continuously until his death. IN 1990 he was the Chairman of NHRDN awards committee under the Presidentship of Mr. M R T Nair. The committee gave me the award with enclosed citation. I received very reluctantly as Dr. Pareek insisted and let me not escape. Our salute to this great human being who lived HRD all through.

Prof. T.V. Rao, Chairman, TVRLS

“My best wishes and my apology to have it missed it due to my reasons beyond my control. Our tribute are to our visionary founder Late Udai Pareek. Our sincere thanks to Dr Mashelkar to deliver the Memorial Lecture. My best wishes for success of the Function.”

Dr. Kamal Singh, Director-General, NHRDN

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