Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010- A Great Show

India Innovation Summit- Season 6


It was the time for innovators to congregate for the annual CII event at Bengaluru, chaired by Kris (Infosys) the summit is becoming more popular and meaningful than ever. This time around the 2 day bonanza for the innovators & students was arranged at the Taj Residency. The venue was buzzing with activity for 2 days, where each session was replete with learnings for all. The event was also a perfect setting for networking. This summit was sponsored by many corporate and also supported by The Government of Karnataka. The days were split into sessions dedicated to various themes; the illustrious panellists would moot their ideas around the session theme building up the interest of the audience. The audience were then given an opportunity to question the panellists (though this backfired on day2 when the Q & A session was wavered and not related to the session topics).

On day 2, the topic of Session 4 was “Is India Innovating?”, a very interesting question to which the panellists univocally responded in positive. Without much ado, the session chair, Vijaykumar (Wipro) initiated and gracefully handed over the proceedings to the panellists, first on the list was budding entrepreneur Manoj Kumar Mandelia (Canopus India) who elaborated how his start-up ventured into waste water management and explained the Innovation attribute in the venture. Next in line was Arvin Baalu (Harman) who explained about his company’s exposure in audio Innovations. He went on to say that to sustain and grow their company is extensively innovating and believed that only innovation could allow them to sustain their current market presence. Rahul Basil (Villgro Innovations) then took the talk to a different level by explaining how there is Innovation in rural India; his talk was embedded with various examples of how the huge rural India is actively innovating. The session moved on to Preetha Reddy (Apollo hospitals) who charmed the audience with her elegance and clear thoughts. She pointed out to the audience that the whole world is watching India for healthcare innovation, she said success stories like the jaipur foot, narayana hrudayalay’s heart care, and various others are making other countries to sit up and watch us. Telemedicine has caught up so fast that today India is probably moving faster than others; she explained that healthcare in India is no more conservative; India is fastly adopting the latest in technology and is also investing heavily. The limelight then shifted to Chetan Maini, who unfolded the Innovation at Reva, Mahindra Reva. He explained that his company not only adopted product Innovation but also tried at business innovation. Reva sold their first 1000 cars in UK without investing a single pound on setting up a showroom, a true example of business plan Innovation. All the panellists related their field of work and explained to prove the point – “India is innovating”.

CII is doing a wonderful job by providing such a platform for innovators and alike. CII had associated with Global Investors Meet (GIM), probably the next GIM should be GLOBAL INNOVATORS MEET at Bengaluru. Cheers.