Indians are 'innately innovative': Kiran Karnik

Dispelling the romance of the quintessentially Indian “jugaad”, the practice of making more out of fewer resources, prominent technocrat and former

NASSCOM

president

Kiran Karnik

said it can hardly be considered innovation all by itself. He was discussing his fresh-off-the-press book '

Crooked Minds: Creating An Innovative Society

' with foreign policy think tank Carnegie India’s managing director Shivnath Thukral at the

Times LitFest Delhi

.

Karnik said the Indian jugaad is at best a subset of innovation. “Real innovation is what makes a difference on a large scale. Most jugaad is what one does for oneself. Innovation is disruptive and disrupts positively in a way to make things better for everyone,” said Karnik, whose book studies innovation in technology, business, and society. He cited the example of international startups like Uber and AirBnB, saying that these had been innovative and disruptive enough to change the way business in conducted in the fields of public transport and hospitality.

Both the audience and moderator Thukral brought up the issue of the factors that hold back Indian businesses from innovating like their global counterparts. Besides over-regulation and the social stigma of failing as an entrepreneur, the rote-learning based education system in India was the one important cause Karnik identified in this regard. “We learn how to answer questions. Innovation requires you to question the answers,” Karnik said to a packed hall at IHC. Recalling his conversations with the top scorers of the Indian Institute of Technology, he said that when he asked them who their role model was, about 76% said it was Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. “At one level, I was pleased. Dr Kalam is after all, such a great figure. But it also worries me, because this was such a diverse set. Somewhere, they have been brainwashed into groupthink!” exclaimed Karnik to an amused audience.

Despite these factors, Karnik says he believes Indians are “innately innovative”, for two reasons: “One, unfortunately, is adversity. When you have a problem you have to innovate to get out of it. Two, there is diversity. You shouldn’t be put down by a group saying ‘this is how it should be’. Living in India’s diversity, you get used to the idea that there are different ways of being, doing, and thinking.”