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India faces the fear of the middle income trap as we are growing at 7-8% and one way to avoid this is by building startups that innovate for India and the world’s 5 billion people.
Sharad Sharma, the co-founder of iSPIRIT along with two other entrepreneurs - Jas Gulati, the CEO and co-founder of Nowfloats and Anu Acharya, the CEO and co-founder of MapMyGenome - discuss what India needs to drive innovation on #IndiaHangOut. They are also joined by Samder Singh, Stanford GSB Fellow working with the Ministry of State for Finance in New Delhi.
Here are their mantras for innovation in India:
1. Go digital. Smartphones, along with the internet, have been one of the biggest game changers in the past couple of years. If you give people simple tools that utilise the behaviours that they already follow, they will innovate.
2. Focus on the middle and bottom of the pyramid. Understand what works for small businesses as the opportunities they provide are immense.
3. Invest in areas outside of e-commerce. Healthcare, energy and manufacturing are different areas that are emerging and revolutionising the way people live.
4. Envision and create unique solutions. A combination of individual mindsets, disciplined processes and public goods is the way ahead for innovation.
5. Build network of innovation hubs. A platform, like the MIT Media Labs, where engineers can interact with students from law, management or medical schools will lead to innovation.
6. Inculcate a spirit of learning from each other. India is slowing seeing environments and communities in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad which are driving innovation.
7. Build products in India to deliver to the world. India can become a hub for innovation for the next 5 billion people in the world.