Cheap Laptops, Low Cost Cars…..Is India at the Innovation Tipping Point?

Kudos to the Tata Group for delivering on its promise to manufacture the cheapest car – Nano – at half the price of the cheapest Chinese car. This feat was achieved through some ground-breaking work by the Tata team in putting together cost effective designs, using cost effective material, and (as News reports suggest) optimizing distribution and sales channels. Another recent news that was relatively much less celebrated (unfortunately Tatas hogged all the limelight) was HCL’s launch of a Rs 14,000 laptop (approx $350). Though these two news items were quite unrelated, they definitely point towards the fact that the Indian industry is finally spreading its wings and coming out of the shadows of the West dominated technology terrain. After decades of benchmarking its technology and manufacturing advancement against the West, the Indian industry is setting new standards. This makes me think if we are at the Technology Innovation "Tipping Point" (thank Malcolm Gladwell for the term).

Till now the technology and to some extent manufacturing in India has largely followed an "incremental" approach towards improvement. And, this "incremental-ism" is what causes a linear-sloping growth in technology improvements. While engineers in the developed countries mostly considered a "step" approach to technology (Germans in engineering; Japanese in technology; and now Chinese in low cost manufacturing!), Indian industry was happy to register gradual improvements in technology and process fine-tunings in manufacturing.

Thanks to the courage of Mr Tata and some other great business leaders, the industry seems to be evaluating a "Stepped" approach to technology/manufacturing innovation (and breaking the linear growth pattern). And as Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book "The Tipping Point," I sincerely hope this quest for setting new benchmarks in technology and manufacturing is infectious and spreads like wildfire in the Indian industry!