General Blog

ISM-Dortmund-Campus-Tour

ISM Dortmund Campus Tour, City Tour and Company Visit

Campus Life, General Blog, Global Study, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM Undergraduate Business School, , , , , , ,

There’s a big world beyond the IILM campus, and a student can experience it through the golden opportunity given by IILM Undergraduate Business School as Global Study Program. In order to be a responsible leader in today’s time students need to have first-hand experience of cultures, organizations, and business practices around the world. In order to cater to this requirement IILM’s global offerings encompass a mandatory 3 week global study program.

This program was organized for our stage 2 students of 2016 – 19 batches. Based on the preferences, students were taken to International School of Management, at Dortmund, Germany. The entire program was sponsored by IILM and the partner school except that the students had to bear extra expenditures like food, travelling etc.

On the 6th of August 2017, 35 students collectively from both Lodhi Road and Gurgaon campus boarded flight for Dortmund, Germany along with two faculty members. While the travel itself, the students were handed over the ISD sim cards so that they can make calls to their parents and inform them about their safe arrival at Dortmund. In addition with this the students were also explained about the rules and regulations to be followed at the hostel. Each and every student was provided on the same day with a train/bus card to travel nearby location for free of cost. The students were also provided with a unique identity card in order to seek entry into International School of Management, Hamburg, Germany.

This three weeks program was a blend of two modules, industry visits and cultural immersions. A highlight of this interesting curriculum is here.

1. Strategic Management: Prof. Qeis Kamran

The course covered the basics of strategic management, key elements, current trends in strategy, strategy thinking styles, the role of resources and knowledge, branding, decision making, organizational politics, international and collaborative strategies, strategy and innovation. Module also introduced Prof. Kamran’s six forces model which challenged Porter’s five forces. This module was delivered through lectures, case study and visit to Google. The students appreciated the delivery of the course.

Industrial and Cultural Visits in Germany
Dortmund City Tour :
Learning Outcome: The students were informed and explained about the Dortmund city’s heritage and culture.

Feedback : Liked and appreciated by the student

DASA Company Visit

Overall the students had a great 360 degree experience in terms of classroom learning, industry visits, cultural immersions, hostel lifestyle, traveling using public transport etc.

Day of freedom with Liberal kids of Independent India

Campus Life, General Blog, IILM University

2017 is the year witnessed as beautiful festive fusion of our country’s Independence essence with holy fragrance of Janamstami all over India. 15th August, 1947 which is one of the most memorable day for all the Indians around the globe, as on this date our country got independent. We owe the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters for giving us free and country of joy and festival cherishing for coming millennium years. Read more

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Behind the Scenes with Bosch in Germany with IILM Global Study Program

General Blog, Global Study, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM Undergraduate Business School, , , , , ,

The IILM BBA (2016-19) Batch 1 students visit BOSCH plant and R&D centres in Stuttgart, Germany on 2nd August 2017. The IILM BBA students were treated to an up-close view of the Robert Bosch Corporation that few get to experience.

IILM Blog Image
In an endeavor to provide world class exposure to its students, IILM Undergraduate School of Business makes it mandatory for its students to be a part of its Global Study Program. The IILM Global Study Program takes the form of a study tour of a 3week to one of its partner universities in Canada or in Europe.

The IILM UBS Global Study Program was conceived to benefit the budding entrepreneurs and managers to immerse themselves in another culture as well as experience the challenges and opportunities facing organizations around the globe. It also extends global awareness and enhances the international perspective of IILM BBA students. During such tours, students meet leading executives and government officials while visiting businesses, industries, and cultural sites.

A visit to the Bosch World Wide Headquarters building in Stuttgart The company visit began with a thorough tour of the Bosch World Wide Headquarters building in Stuttgart, Germany. Very much like the gigantic Bosch corporate entity and identity itself, it was hard to judge how big the place was – with its office tower just disappearing into the low clouds behind the German countryside.

Once inside, our IILM BBA group got a better idea of the scope of things. The Bosch Group of companies has well over 350 subsidiaries and regional companies in 60+ countries and gives employment to nearly 300,000 people. Power tools make up 16% of Bosch business, while the automotive industry is responsible for 60% of its business. Appliances and countless industrial and energy related products make up the rest.

bosch

During our tour of some of the best corporate research and advanced engineering labs including that of Bosch, we were exposed to some of the latest developments in “smart” materials, photovoltaics, and Lithium-ion battery technologies. We can’t be more specific than that, but suffice it to claim that things move pretty fast at Bosch – the Bosch corporate research department files an average of 12 patents a day.

To conclude, the trip to the Bosch World Wide Headquarters building in Stuttgart didn’t disappoint the group! It was amazing to visit and get the first-hand experience of the business and functioning of this corporate giant.

Changing Leadership Competencies in the VUCA world

Career Development (Placement), General Blog, IILM Graduate School of Management, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM Undergraduate Business School, IILM University, Uncategorized

In the recent years, the world has continued to undergo a series of transformational shifts. As we know technology has made momentous changes throughout the world, leading to great benefits and adding challenges. Let’s face it, our lives, both at work and at home, are in a constant state of flux. The looming question before us is-“how can we manage effectively in this constantly changing, dynamic situation?” The words of Charles Darwin seem to resonate more poignantly than ever: “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change”. The VUCA environment as we know it. VUCA is an acronym that recently found its way into the business lexicon. It originally derives from the military vocabulary in the 1990’s and reflects volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of general conditions and situations that we all find ourselves in. VUCA seems to be an apt description of our constantly evolving world.

So how does VUCA manifest itself in our lives? Volatility is nothing but the nature, speed, volume, magnitude and the dynamics of change. Gone are the days when leaders and managers would have the luxury of time to plan for the next change. Today the change is here, even before we realize it. Things change unpredictably, suddenly, extremely, especially for the worse. Change is now seen as way of life and we need to constantly adapt and innovate. As Alvin Toffler correctly quotes “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. Uncertainty is the lack of predictability of issues and events and gets reflected in all areas of individual and social life. It’s the lack of predictability which leads to chaos and anxiety. Complexity of the confounding issues and the chaos that surrounds us. The complexity of the VUCA world is evident. The past, present and future are perceived with confusion, but at the same time are extremely interconnected. This can lead to an inability to be decisive because we find ourselves overwhelmed with both information and choice. Clarity is no longer a commodity that can be easily gained. Ambiguity is the haziness of reality. Today, every decision presents a series of ambiguous dilemmas. Situations and events are open to more than one interpretation, and the meaning can be understood in different ways. This can not only create confusion, but even conflict. Thus, sometimes it may get very hard to make the ‘right decision’.

Since VUCA seems to be the new normal, how can leaders today manage this transition and be more effective? The leadership process needs to undergo a 360-degree change. Therefore, what organizations need today is Leadership Agility and Cognitive Readiness.  The leadership today is a contextual and a temporal process of constant learning and practice. Cognitive readiness is the mental, emotional and interpersonal preparedness for uncertainty and risk and the ability most required by leaders in today’s’ context.

Leaders are therefore required to adapt and change from context to context and it becomes imperative for the organizations today to understand and grasp the new meaning and usage of the word leadership. There is a clear distinction between developing leaders and developing leadership. To be successful in this VUCA world, the leaders cannot afford to lead and guide people, the way it was done a decade ago. Today the leader needs to ‘walk the talk’. Today, most organizations are in a constant state of flux, undergoing radical changes, the leader behavior also needs to undergo a transformation. Some of the successful organizations rely on the following strategies. First, the leader should provide guidance and direction to teams across time zones, cultures and organizational barriers. Second, invest in talent and help nourish talented workers by giving them opportunities to grow and progress, developing a high performance organization is more imperative today than it ever was. Third, closely related to the second, is to invest in people, create a work environment which is engaging and that will foster commitment. Last, but not the least, all stakeholders in the organization (customers, employees and employers) need to be the part of the organization growth curve.

Change is inevitable in organizations and is at a critical tipping point, the increased pace of change in today’s global environment has created even more problems for leaders struggling to help their organizations adapt. Therefore, simply managing change is not sufficient. Successful change, therefore, requires leadership. Change or Perish is the new mantra in this VUCA world……

SKILLING-TO-EMPLOYABILITY

SKILLING TO EMPLOYABILITY – AN INDUSTRIAL MEET HARYANA VISHWAKARMA SKILL UNIVERSITY

Career Development (Placement), General Blog, Guest Blog, Uncategorized,

An Industry-academia meet was organized by The Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University on 7th July 2017. The meeting focused on the topic “Skilling to Employability”. An Industry-academia meet was organized by The Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University on 7th July 2017. The meeting focused on the topic “Skilling to Employability”.

SKILLING-TO-EMPLOYABILITY-blog2
The Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University has been enacted by the legislature of the state of Haryana with an objective to establish a Skill University in order to facilitate and promote skill, entrepreneurship development, skill based education and research in the emerging areas of manufacturing, textile, design, logistics and transportation, automation, maintenance etc. and to raise skill level in various fields related to these areas.The event was honoured by Sh. Sudhir Rajpal, IAS and the Principal Secretary of Industries & Commerce Department, Haryana, Sh. Raj Nehru – Vice Chancellor, Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University and many other distinguished person.  This meet encouraged and enhanced the interaction between the stakeholders for building a strong skilling framework. It served as a platform to discuss about the current needs of the industry in terms of skilled human capital and how the academia can help in nurturing the potential work force with desired skill set.

SKILLING-TO-EMPLOYABILITY-blog1
After the welcome message, Shri Raj Nehru, Founding-Vice Chancellor of the University addressed the gathering where he emphasized on the loopholes of the education system in India thus bringing in the reason for the establishment of such a University where vocational and skill education would be the prime objective. He also explained the 10-20-70 Rule. Where 10% is formal learning in classrooms, 20% is through Practical trainings and 70% is learning on the job.

Various industry persons from esteemed companies like Hero MotoCorp Ltd.. Maruti, HDFC etc. and various institutions like IILM Gurgaon, Amity University etc. also joined the meet.

In the end, Mr. Raj asked the audience to give their valuable advice on how they can improve their University. Some of the various suggestions were:

► There is a lot of emphasis given on numbers i.e. number of people registering for the skill courses. This should be avoided.
► The education system needs to be diverted towards vocational and skill learning rather than mere passing examinations.
► The students coming from various institutions are not job -ready, they still lack the required skills.
► The courses should have long term employability i.e. they should be structured in a manner that is relevant for the industry even after five years from now.
► A suggestion of a skill test also came up in which when a candidate shows his/her interest in joining the skill course, he/she would have to give a skill test, the results of which will indicate as to which course he/she should opt for.
► A suggestion of virtual courses also came up to facilitate the working class.

He even highlighted that the vision of the University was not just limited to India but it wanted to become a global mark. He also appreciated the hard work of his team members by pointed out that they did not work like government employees rather worked just like any other competitive corporate employees. He also mentioned Cooperation extended by IKLM, Gurgaon by providing students volunteers which helped greatly in making event a success. Lastly, he thanked all the industry people for contributing in the event and joining hands with the University.

Contributions from
Minal Gupta
Nikhil Gupta
(PG16-18)

Review of Mergers and Acquisitions deals in 2016-17: A record year for India

General Blog,

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are considered to be one of the most important ways to expand the business inorganically and respond to the changing market conditions. The wave of M&A activities is not new across the globe and India. The last financial year 2016-17 was a record breaking period for M&A deals in India. The monetary worth of M&A transactions increased from $27.62 billion (2015-16) to $61.26 billion (2016-17). The reason of increase in the volume of M&A deals is the consolidation of various sectors such as telecom, energy & cement and increasing interest of Foreign Instutional Investors (FIIs) in the Emerging Indian market.

Source: Livemint

Graph 1: Representing deal value ($ billion) and no. of deals of M&A in India

The consolidation wave of merger in the cement industry included large players focusing towards building of capacity and bringing in synergies through the acquisition route. Some of the most strategic deals included acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates’ Cement Plants in five states and a grinding unit by Ultra Tech (owned by Aditya Birla Group) for $2.41 billion, Lafarge India’s 11 million tonne (mt) cement business acquisition by Nirma for $1.4 billion and ADAG Group’s cement capacity acquisition by Birla Corp’s (MP Birla Group) for $710 million.  This consolidation wave has led to concentration of 58 percent of market share in the hands of top five industry players.

Another most prominent consolidation wave has been witnessed in telecommunication sector. Idea Cellular led by Kumar Mangalam Birla agreed to merge with the Indian subsidiary of Vodafone (U.K. Telecom Company) for $23 billion to form largest telecommunication company of India. This merger will have a capacity to serve approximately 400 million clients by capturing 41% market revenue and 35% customer base.  Post the announcement of Vodafone and Idea merger, other telecom giants like Airtel and Reliance Communications (Rcom) also announced various mergers and acquisitions. In 2016, Rcom acquired Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (SSLT) operating under MTS brand which added approximately 6 million customer base. In 2017, Rcom announced its merger with Aircel which will lead to increase in its customer base by 81 million approximately. In 2017, Telenor’s Indian group was acquired by Bharti Airtel. Telenor is a Norwegian government entity operating in India since 2009. The major reason behind this telecom consolidation wave included spectrum gain; 4G Edge; increase in subscriber base; footprint in densely populated areas such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, UP and Assam; and lastly to gain edge over competitors.

Other top ten acquisition deals in India includes Appirio acquisition by Wipro for $500 million, Geometric Limited acquisition by HCL Technologies for $200 million, Cutrus Payment Solutions acquisition by PayU for $130 million, Jabong.com acquisition by Flipkart owned Myntra for $70 million, The BIO Agency acquisition by Tech Mahindra for £45 million, Babyoye.com acquisition by Firstcry for ₹3.6 billion, Caratlane acquisition by Titan Company Limited for approximately ₹3.5 billion, Happy Creative Services acquisition by Dentsu Aegis Network for $44 million, Ocular Technologies Sarl acquisition by Sun Pharma for $40 million and Forever 21 India acquisition by Pantaloons for $26 million.

The wave of consolidation among various sectors in India can be viewed as a catalyst for expontential and linear growth. M&A have become the integral part of the economies across the globe and will continue to trend, as inorganic growth is considered to be fastest and safest mode to grow the business. Furthermore, it becomes inevitable to grow business organically in the current era of volatility.

The Future of HR

The Future of HR

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HR has been evolving a lot as a function in the recent times. The talent pool has been increasing, and as a consequence organizations are looking at HR as a strategic role more importantly than before.

SEE ALSO: Women in HR profession

In a recent survey done by the Society for Human Resource Management, HR professionals say that the three biggest challenges facing HR executives over the next 10 years are :

  1. Retaining and rewarding the best employees as in Talent Retention.
  2. Developing the next generation of corporate leaders as in succession planning.
  3. Creating a corporate culture that attracts the best employees and creating a talent pool as in Talent Engagement.

So if we look at the upcoming 10 years of HR, here is what will be different and dynamic :

HR will be flexible

As per a recent survey of SHRM, providing flexible work arrangements will be a top priority for organizations. 9 to 5 work culture may move to more flexi timings, as young professionals are looking for places where they can have the chance to take time off to be creative, be able to take a break without being monitored, or even work from home with pre-assigned objectives.

Employees want greater flexibility and will excel in their performance if they are allowed to adjust both their work and personal lifestyle. HR is starting to understand that, we see many startups and MNC’s implementing such methods and the next 10 years will only bring more of this.

HR will be more social.

Intranet, internal social platforms, and many other ways of promoting online collaboration and communication across the company will be part of HR responsibilities in the future. HR can use social tools to predict behaviors in office performance by giving extra benefits to high performers of the month or give incentives to employees who are great performers and represent the organization. The work experience will be taken live and will bring a stronger social component to organizations and their culture.

HR will be mobile

We all know that mobile is the new hot trend in almost every industry; HR is no exception. HR can be app based out of your smartphone in the future (organization specific) .You will want to leave comments, assign tasks, and when arriving to the office have your team already working on such tasks. You will want to able to check, while having a coffee before entering an individual performance meeting, what comments were given during the last meeting. You will want to be able to check how you’re performing in terms of workforce happiness, to check the latest stats on your mobile and give a report to your CEO.

All in all, the lifestyle of an HR person will not be desktop-based. It will be wherever they are, whenever they want and in fact mobile / on the move.

HR will be about data

How many days does it take to hire a new person? What is the best quarter to hire specific profiles? When are people the happiest throughout the year? Who are the most performing people and why? What are the trending skills we need to acquire in the next hire? These and many more questions are all connected to the hot topic of big data. But data is meaningless without interpretation and context. HR will have a great deal of responsibility in analyzing the data, interpreting it and making the right decisions in order to ensure the right acquisition, training, development and retention of talent, all a part of people analytics.

HR will be integrated

HR will be composed by tech savvy people, data scientists, and recruitment experts. People that are able to do copywriting, for job descriptions that correspond to the company culture. People that are able to read and interpret data and forecast trends. People that are on top of the latest technology and can solve problems or bring additional benefits to the company. People that are connectors, socially active and can attract more talents to the company. HR will be about diversity of skills.

The next decade is crucial for HR to evolve and become a key role in any organization. HR might no longer be a single department in the future. HR might be part of something greater in the years to come.

Competing-Against-Luck

Book Review – Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice [Clayton M. Christensen, Karen Dillon , Taddy Hall, David S. Duncan]

General Blog

Clayton M. Christensen, Karen Dillon , Taddy Hall, David S. Duncan : Competing Against Luck: THE STORY of INNOVATION and CUSTOMER CHOICE

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1 edition (October 4, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062435612
ISBN-13: 978-0062435613
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Being in the ‘Decade of Innovation’, this is yet another remarkable read on Innovation by Clayton Christensen and his co authors.  The name of the book ‘Competing Against Luck’ caught my eye, as that is the reality in which we all are living. It is an engaging blend of actual success stories and ways to implement the ‘Job theory’ given in a simple and easy to read language. It would be useful for both first time entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and established organizations struggling to survive in the current environment. The guiding theme of this book is on reducing the struggle for entrepreneurs and established businesses in today’s world by focusing on understanding where and how to find the right opportunities to innovate and capitalize on them.

Christensen defines a Job as ‘the progress that a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance’. Thus what a customer seeks through a product or service is a job. This will help understand the reason behind anyone making choices and that should be the guiding factor of an innovation. The focus of this book is not on how to make a good product, but how to help the customer make progress in the job one seeks.

The book has a very definitive structure, wherein the first section describes the Jobs Theory, the second section describes how the Jobs Theory can be applied, while the third section gives examples of Jobs to be done in organizations.

Christensen, defines ‘Jobs Theory’ to expound why asking the right questions is so essential for sustenance. The same management team which leads a company to success is blamed once the company stumbles. Companies have fallen owing to other competitors bringing out cheaper and more convenient options or sometimes luck. Job theory explains how a company can innovate and create products that customers would prefer to buy. Thus the emphasis is on understanding ‘why’ of their behavior and what job helped them make progress rather than the ‘what’ or ‘how’.  It cites various examples that include Uber and Unilever to highlight this point. It reiterates that though disruption leads to innovation, disruption does not suggest ‘how’ a company can innovate or find new opportunities or what customers prefer to buy.

In the second section of the book, Christensen and his co founders go on to present various techniques to hunt for ‘Jobs’ or rather hunt for clues about where to innovate.  These techniques are very intuitive and well researched with good examples. They give a good starting point for people with an entrepreneurial mind set looking for a viable opportunity. Once an opportunity has been recognized, Christensen also insists on understanding the ‘emotional dimension’ of the product/service. He carefully explains how Todd Dunn, director of innovation in a healthcare organization, who primarily works on innovating how patient care and experience can be improved, got a better understanding about the tools and their utility for a doctor and patient, when he himself got admitted as patient due to a bad knee. Christensen also emphasizes that the experience that the customer derives from the product or service should be part of the solution to the job to make it successful.

Finally, the book gives valuable insights about what organizations must do in context of the ‘Job to be Done’. Taking the emphasis on customer experience forward Christensen highlights the need for differentiation of the product and requirement of the right processes in an organization. He defines various benefits that organizations can enjoy if jobs are clearly defined by using various examples like Unilever’s color changing soap for children aimed to kill germs. Thus Christensen questions the assumption that luck plays a role in innovation.

Overall it is a good read with valuable insights for organizations struggling to understand their customers as well as first time entrepreneurs hunting for an opportunity. Most of the examples cited are those where Jobs theory has been tried and tested and has been successful. That makes this book a MUST READ for SUCCESS!!!

Should-Credit-Ratings-alone-be-used-for-Investment-Decisions

Should Credit Ratings alone be used for Investment Decisions??

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Credit ratings are not investment recommendations rather they serve as one of several tools that investors can use when making decisions regarding investing in debt funds or any other investments. The ratings agencies only provide an independent opinion on the credit quality of the investment instruments issued by the issuers. Therefore, the investment decision should be based on many other factors such as liquidity in the market and interest rate fluctuations apart from credit risks. The credit rating provides information regarding the companies in the form of rating symbols which is easily recognizable by the investors to perceive risk involved in investments.

Credit ratings are useful for evaluating any investment, but the investors should not base their investment decisions solely on rating symbols or treat credit ratings as if it was an advice to invest in a particular security. This is because credit ratings also have certain limitations of their own.

Credit ratings provide only an alternative viewpoint to the financial analysis and enable the investor to compare risks in investment portfolios. Also credit ratings address only credit risk and give no insights on other risks associated with an investment such as liquidity risk, market risk etc.

Due to the subjective nature of credit ratings, their accuracy and performance is not measurable, thus making it difficult to compare them across different industry sectors.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has completely changed its position on the importance of the credit ratings given by the credit ratings agencies in India. From time to time, SEBI has imposed many regulations and circulars for regulating the credit rating agencies in India and to protect the interest of the investors. Despite of the fact that SEBI circulars & regulations plug many loopholes but some lacunae remains.

What should investors do ?

  • Investors should not rely only on the credit ratings given by the credit rating agencies.
  • Investors should consider the financial performance of the company before investing in securities.
  • Investors should also track news and developments about the companies whose debt funds they have invested in.
  • Investors should check with suppliers regarding the financial distress which might affect the payments.
  • Investors should also enquire from the customers of the company regarding product and services.

In short, investors should consider the credit ratings given by various credit rating agencies to have a diverse view on the creditworthiness of an investment. The investors must understand that the credit ratings should be used as supplement and not as a replacement of their own judgment, research and analysis for taking any investment decision. Therefore, the investor must understand the nature of the investment and should only invest in what he understands.

Innovation-is-the-mechanism-of-entrepreneurship

Innovation is the mechanism of entrepreneurship

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A country with large publicly funded science and technology infrastructure and a considerable education base, India has not been able to comprehend its innovative potential due to a fragmented innovation ecosystem. Many initiatives have been taken by the government towards intensification of the innovation ecosystem, the most imperative ones are: i) the establishment of the National Innovation Council, whose mandate is to coordinate various innovation-related activities, and ii) the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013, which is intended to encourage entrepreneurship and science-led solutions for sustainable and comprehensive growth. Centering on the new policy initiative, this article describes the current innovation ecosystem and the challenges it faces, and it discusses the efforts made by the government towards the promotion of innovation for entrepreneurship development and sustainable growth. With the implementation of this new policy the early indications are that India is poised to take a big leap towards innovation-led growth.

The aim of the government has been to build employment opportunities for youth while edging on economic growth. Entrepreneurship development is one of the mechanisms adopted by the Government of India towards the creation of job opportunities. There have been notable efforts taken by the government by announcing conducive policies and also efforts by various government departments towards fulfilling the above vision. The government’s assumption is that support for innovation will augment entrepreneurship development, which will in turn accelerate economic growth.

This article provides the necessary background to place the current innovation ecosystem within the Indian context, highlights some of the related challenges facing India today, and describes efforts made by the government towards the promotion of innovation for entrepreneurship development.

The core of India’s current economic systems goes back to the time of colonial rule and its dictatorial and fragmented formation. The country was made to forcefully serve as a market to its colonial bosses and their industrial products. The foundations of the today’s legal, financial, educational, bureaucratic governance systems were inherited from the colonial period. However, one key area of change following independence involved the adoption of a closed economy that relied heavily on central planning, restricted imports, and nationalization of industries. The people of India, especially the young, crave employment. There is a constraint to employment opportunities offered by the various sectors of economy, but the government does provide employment guarantee programs. However, these programs are targeted at providing basic needs and tend to provide labour-intensive jobs that have no link with innovation. To sustain rapid growth and alleviate poverty, India needs to aggressively harness its innovative potential, relying on innovation-led, rapid, and inclusive growth to achieve economic and social transformation. The innovative potential of the young Indian population, if  provided support through an effective innovation ecosystem, holds potential for developing entrepreneurship and providing the growth and job opportunities that India needs.

India’s national innovation system

National innovation system in India is a huge and multifaceted system comprised of knowledge producers such as science and technology institutions, academia, and innovating individuals and knowledge users (e.g., industry-production/services in the public and private sectors). There are financial institutions such as the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which lend support for innovation and also for commercialization of innovative technologies besides entrepreneurship. Also, various fiscal incentives are offered by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research towards the R&D activities performed by institutions, academia, and industry for supporting, nurturing and leading their innovations towards completion. Strong efforts have been made to harness the innovative capabilities of these structures by connecting them to one another and to industry and society, forming an innovation ecosystem.

India’s innovation ecosystem

Broadly speaking, an innovation ecosystem is a combination of two distinct but largely separated economies: i) the knowledge economy (comprised of knowledge producers), which is driven by fundamental research, and ii) the commercial economy (comprised of knowledge users), which is driven by the marketplace. In India, the innovation ecosystem includes the entire national innovation system described in the previous section, plus individual innovators and entrepreneurs; mentors; government policies; angel, venture capital, institutional, and industrial funding mechanisms, intellectual property rights mechanisms; technology transfer mechanisms; market inputs; and incentives, awards, and other innovation-recognition mechanisms, among others. Ideally, these various structures and mechanisms facilitate the smooth translation of innovations through the various segments of a complex innovation chain that takes ideas from “mind to market”.

Thus, the functional goal of the innovation ecosystem is to enable technology development and innovation. But, how well is India’s innovation ecosystem performing today? According to the Global Innovation Index (WIPO, 2014), India ranks 76th among the 143 countries surveyed, having fallen 10 positions since the last report and having fallen relative to other BRIC economies.

Key challenges faced by India’s innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurship in general are listed and described below are fragmented policy and policy implementation, Inadequate funding of R&D,   Difficult and lengthy funding procedures, Constrained regulations for Angel, venture capital and private equity investors,  Inadequate infrastructure facilities in villages

Conclusion

India has a large, demographically diverse population, with many young people seeking employment. The country is on a path to growth, but the rate of growth has been slow. The government has realized the roots of the basic problems and made appropriate reforms, mainly in the areas of administration, economy, and labour, as it tries to free itself from negative aspects of its colonial legacy. There has been a significant development in the area of science, technology, and innovation in past 20 years, and many initiatives have been undertaken in that direction. Realizing that the innovation-led entrepreneurship development holds promise for expansion, the government has taken key policy initiatives with a robust innovation agenda.

There are formidable challenges in realizing the goal, but as this article has shown, the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 is a big step in the right direction, because it addresses most of the key challenges in developing an effective innovation ecosystem. The main initiatives are provision of funds and removing the sluggishness in the ecosystem for innovations by improving linkages and making it vibrant in a comprehensive way. The policy is in place; now, its success depends on its implementation. Some time will needed before conclusions can be drawn about the policy’s ultimate effects on the growth path. However, the new direction reflects strong growth aspirations and resonates with the zeal and zest of the youth who wish to journey on the risky path of innovation-based entrepreneurship.

In a broader sense, innovation is important to the advancement of society around the world. New and innovative products can increase the standard of living and provide people with opportunities to improve their lives. Breakthroughs in medicine and technology have significantly improved living standards around the world. Innovation has also lead to significant improvements in the way businesses operate and has closed the gaps between different markets.