Second Annual Report of the National Innovation Council

The National Innovation Council was set up by the Prime Minister of India to lay a roadmap for transforming the country into an innovation nation, with a focus on inclusive growth in keeping with the Government’s commitment of turning the next decade (2010-2020) into a ‘Decade of Innovation’.

• The National Innovation Council is focused on encouraging and facilitating the creation of an Indian Model of Innovation by looking at five key parameters: Platform, Inclusion, Eco-system, Drivers and Discourse.
• The core idea is to innovate to produce affordable and qualitative solutions that address the needs of people at the Bottom of the Pyramid, eliminate disparity and focus on an inclusive growth model.

National Innovation Council’s initiatives are also aimed at fostering an innovation ecosystem across domains and sectors to strengthen entrepreneurship and growth, to facilitate the birth of new ideas and enhance collaboration.

‘Report to the People 2012’

The National Innovation Council (NInC) presented its second Annual ‘Report to the People 2012’ to the President of India at the second Global Innovation Roundtable (GIR), held on November 1 and 2in New Delhi, India. The NInC, chaired by Sam Pitroda, adviser to the prime minister, hosted the second GIR, which sets the agenda for global cooperation in innovation. The roundtable saw participation from heads of innovation policy from 20 governments across the world as well as leading global innovation experts.

The Report highlights the activities and initiatives the Council has undertaken to strengthen the innovation eco system in the country.

It builds on the previous work of the Council and outlines the new initiatives in the past year.

Live video communication was established during the event from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Moradabad Cluster and Kanpura Gram Panchayat in Ajmer District of Rajasthan showcasing National Innovation Council’s Innovation Cluster Initiative as well as Rural Broadband Connectivity programme.

Important points form President Speech about National Innovation Council

• ‘Innovation’ is the key driver of growth and development. An innovative approach becomes even more imperative in our context, where there is a huge reservoir of unmet needs in areas such as health, education, water, food security and energy.
• Not only does our demographic dividend and thriving democracy provide fertile ground for innovation, but our population of 550 million persons aged below 25 makes it imperative that we innovate to meet their needs in a sustainable manner, while also creating new opportunities for them.
• We have to evolve our own model of development – which must be based on our unique needs and challenges, especially the challenge of equitable growth. The prime focus has to be on affordability, sustainability and scalability. India today needs to innovate products and services that are affordable and which do not compromise on either efficiency or quality. It can also serve as a model of sustainable development for the rest of the world.
• National Innovation Council has undertaken several initiatives to set the country firmly on the path to innovation, with a special focus on inclusive growth. The Council has been working towards creating mechanisms to finance innovative enterprises focussed at the bottom of the income pyramid and is geared to launch the India Inclusive Innovation Fund. The Fund is proposed to be operationalised with an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crore. Government of India has already made a provision for allocating Rs. 100 crore as seed money for the Fund.
• India has an estimated 5,000 small and medium scale regional industry clusters which are unable to utilize their full potential and whose productivity needs to be optimised. The National Innovation Council has been working towards seeding innovations in these industry clusters, while focussing on small and medium enterprises, by facilitating the creation of Industry Innovation Clusters to drive job creation and productivity.
• National Innovation Council has also been taking steps to nurture innovation in schools and colleges through improvements in curriculum, spotting talented innovators among students, and awarding Innovation Fellowships. The Council is also working closely with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to give shape to these initiatives. The Ministry plans to launch 1,000 scholarships under the National Innovation Scholarship Scheme from the academic year 2013.
• National Innovation Council and the Ministry of Human Resource Development have been working together towards the creation of a Meta University, as a global first. The Meta University will ride on the National Knowledge Network and will promote multi-disciplinary learning. The Ministry has already facilitated the establishment of a Meta University in Delhi, in which Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi University and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi are participating.
• Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is working on the rural broadband plans of the Government, which aim to connect all 250,000 panchayats in the country on a broadband network. This rural broadband network will constitute an unprecedented opportunity for unleashing grassroots innovation by empowering rural citizens not only through access to information, but also through relevant applications in areas such as education, health and skill development.

The National Innovation Council too has been working to create an institutional framework for promoting innovations in Government by facilitating the setting up of State Innovation Councils in each State, and Sectoral Innovation Councils aligned to Union Government Ministries.