http://www.lifestylentrepreneur.org/2010/11/30/incubating-a-generation-of-innovators/Incubating a generation of innovatorsLSE Lifestylentrepreneur.org

With 241 million people currently enrolled in its education system, India has a challenge of its lifetime to create a workforce which can raise the country and the world to the next level. People singed up with the education system, and below 30 in age, far exceed the total population of number of countries. It’s a mammoth task. That is why I say that the challenge for India is to incubate a complete generation. So, what would happen? Is India’s national innovation system capable of handling the enormity of the task? Does notoriously archaic education system of India have the capacity and promise to respond to the challenge? These are some areas which I will touch upon in this letter from India.

Anyone who knows India up, close and personal would agree with me that the challenge which we have here is not as difficult to tackle as it appears from numbers. The reason requires a bit of context. Commerce, trade and entrepreneurship are an integral part of Indian social structure. India has a long tradition of family managed businesses. Incubation, spinoff and succession are a naturally woven part of the family business. From a small road side kirana (grocery shop selling day to day items) to giant corporate houses like Reliance; Indian organizations have managed the challenge of incubation in their own unique, but satisfactory way. Strong family system and mutual respect are the foundations for success of this system. Over the past decade I have had an opportunity to work very closely with a number of successful SME entrepreneurs. Every time I thought, who would manage and lead the business after him/her? I saw the next generation coming out and getting incubated. The succession process runs over a decade or so under the observant eye of the first generation entrepreneurs. They make sure that this transition is smooth and organic without attending any management development programs on succession planning.

Every time though the process is not smooth and tension free. The next generation of a successful first generation entrepreneur faces a number of choices in this rapidly developing country. It is trained in the best of the education institutes and is exposed to the world. They are often not ready to take over the same business and almost never ‘as it is’. From these obvious strains arise structured spin offs with varied rates of success.

If this was a small background of people who already have business, India has a large working middle class whose next generation has no business to join or lead, but, is still bubbling with numerous ideas. That’s where the scientifically structured incubation process comes in play. India’s emphasis on incubation can be traced back to The Scientific Policy Resolution, 1958, which states that, “The wealth and prosperity of a nation depend on the effective utilization of its human and material resources through industrialization. The use of human material for industrialization demands its education in science, and training in technical skills. Industry opens up possibilities of greater fulfillment for the individual. India’s enormous resource of manpower can only become an asset in the modern world when trained and educated.” Based on this vision, India in the later years created Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) which has made significant mark on India’s entrepreneurship spectrum. The growth of IITs and IIMs was complimented by quite robust skills development initiatives led by Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and other private engineering institutes. IITs and IIMs are often blamed for promoting ‘brain drain’ from India and creating highly skilled manpower which would serve abroad. This definitely was not the objective of creating IITs or IIMs.

Somewhere in late 80s and early 90s, government decided to create more inclusive models for incubation. The Ministry of Science and Technology has taken numerous initiatives to strengthen India’s incubation program since then. Establishment of The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) in 1982 with the aim to convert “job-seekers” into “job-generators” through Science & Technology (S&T) interventions was a right step in the right direction. Another major project launched in 1998-99 in collaboration with IIT Bombay was The “Technopreneur Promotion Programme” (TePP). TePP is operated by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) to tap the vast innovative potential of the citizens of India.

The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) is another mechanism initiated by the NSTEDB to provide advisory, training and information services, management and marketing support, linkages to research faculty and facilities, access to capital, thereby greatly enhancing the chances of success of the early stage technopreneur. Government also provides initial seed fund for companies being setup. TBIs are located almost across breadth and length of this country and there is strong private participation seen in TBIs. Apart from all these initiatives, universities which are backed by business houses also have their own incubation structures.

Though all these initiatives look very encouraging, there are two fundamental issues still unanswered. One, India has a large scale drop outs from its education system, and country again has a large population which never gets enrolled into the education system. What about their entrepreneurial skills? This becomes a pertinent question when we see India’s large corporate houses built by people who are school / college dropouts (like Dhirubhai Ambani). Another very important point lost in this whole glamour of technology is that Indian economy has large dominance on manufacturing and agriculture. Where are the initiatives which promote, leave alone incubate, entrepreneurs from manufacturing / agriculture? Schemes by ministry of SMEs are frequently blamed of supporting existing organizations rather than creating new ones.

We cannot and should not simply rely on the social fabric to take care of one aspect, and focus on so called ‘sunshine industries’. This is even more relevant when we have the responsibility of incubating a generation.

Incubation story of India is as interesting as the country itself, with its own successes and challenges. But one thing is sure, that, if India wants to become a developed nation, it needs to have a strong incubation mechanism catering to the entire range of entrepreneurship possibilities lying amongst Indians.

Hardik Vachhrajani

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