India Inside: The Emerging Innovation Challenge to the West

This is a very good attempt to bring to context the kind of innovations that come out of India. The title aptly chosen as 'India Inside' indicates that how most innovations from India are invisible, similar to the processor in your laptop, but powers visible innovations and performance. The four types of invisible innovations that the book identifies are 1) globally segmented innovation (modular approach), 2) outsourced innovation (R&D on demand), 3) process innovation (cheaper, faster), and 4) management innovation (global delivery model). For each innovation type, the authors supplant numerous examples from Indian firms as well MNCs. Further, the book argues that for such innovations to be visible, Indian firms need to invest onto real talent pool, intellectual property protection, and venture financing, One of the most insightful contributions of the work is the identification of elements of frugal engineering (innovation). These being: Robustness (operable under harsh conditions), Portability (small and lightweight), Defeaturing (reduced to bare essentials), Leapfrog technology (scarcity pushing the search for new technologies), Megascale production (high reach and low prices), and Service ecosystem (sustainability in collaboration). In essence this book is a good effort in highlighting the innovation happening in corporate India, but doesn't do justice to grassroots level innovations. Perhaps an area that would have truly made this book not just India Inside, but also Inside India.

Really good book for business interested students....