India: The uneven innovator
Indian science confounds easy clichés. Many Indias coexist, all moving at different speeds. World-class science exists alongside grinding poverty. But India’s uneven innovation brings significant strengths as well as weaknesses. Flows of people, ideas and culture, both within India and across its global diaspora, are generating new businesses, new opportunities and a growing sense of national confidence.
Understanding the future of science and innovation in India is not simply a matter of benchmarking its success against that of Europe or the US. Instead, it depends on recognising how India can pioneer an interdependent model of knowledge creation, drawing on its distinctive cultural and historical resources.
The UK risks squandering a historic opportunity to be part of this future: India’s emerging strengths as a global centre of innovation require a new approach to collaboration.
This pamphlet forms part of The Atlas of Ideas, an 18-month study of science and innovation in Asia, with a focus on opportunities for collaboration with the UK and Europe. The project is funded by the UK government and a consortium of public and private sector partners.
The Atlas of Ideas is a set of four reports edited by Charles Leadbeater and James Wilsdon. Download the other three reports:
China: The next science superpower?
Korea: Mass innovation comes of age
The second phase of The Atlas of Ideas begins in April 2007. As well as deepening our analysis of innovation in Asia, this will explore countries including South Africa and Brazil, and examine cross-cutting themes such as scientific diasporas, low-carbon innovation and science in the Islamic world. To find out more, or to download the other project reports, visit: www.atlasofideas.org.
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