Less than a third of India's homes have a toilet

Another great achievement of our great PLANNING COMMISSION !
-------------------

The mantra of innovation
By Rajdeep Sahrawat

Less than a third of Indias homes have a toilet and only half of five lakh villages are connected to the electricity grid. Falling agriculture productivity is threatening to turn India into a net importer of food for the first time since the green revolution.

Read any recent publication or listen to any business or political leader, you will often find them extolling the virtues of innovation. India needs to innovate, India needs an innovation ecosystem, everyone innovates are some of the common exhortations frequently repeated with messianic zeal. Innovation seems to be a panacea for most challenges, faced by Indian firms, public institutions and even the society at large. With everyone, including the firms from the new and old economies, start-ups, staid government research institutions, public sector behemoths busy innovating, innovation is certainly a part of the Indian spirit today.

I do believe that a heavy dose of innovation is required to address both business and social problems as the old approaches are not being able to deliver. With the factor based competitiveness of many sectors of the Indian industry are gradually eroding, possessing an innovation capability is sine qua non for the survival and growth of firms. Similarly public institutions will need to innovate to address the growing challenges of healthcare, primary education, agriculture etc.

However, a thought, which niggles away is that while India undoubtedly needs innovation, perhaps global innovation equally needs India