Innovation has a long way to go in Bangalore

As the headlines proclaim Bangalore to be the next Silicon Valley, more critical voices are often drowned out. This one will hopefully fare better. NASSCOM and BCG recently published a report on the innovation ecosystem for the Indian IT system. The following graphic from the report basically sums up their conclusions: India has a long, long way to go.



In addition, the authors found that the willingness and initiative of Indian IT firms to invest in firm-level innovation could use a massive increase.

The Indian innovation system has a lot of potential for improvement. Given that the the Bangalore IT cluster developed in response to foreign (not domestic) demand, one could ask whether other elements could also be "imported" into the local innovation system. For example, it appears that much of the more fundamental research in Bangalore's corporate R&D labs is being conducted by US-trained researchers. On the one hand, the knowledge and relationships that these researchers bring with them may help accelerate the development of Bangalore's innovation system. On the other hand, relying on foreign research training is definitely not sustainable.