Acknowledgments

This book would have never materialised without the direct and indirect contribution and inspiration of numerous individuals. In 2004, Arindam Banerji, a scientist and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, wrote a series of articles in Rediff.com entitled ‘Innovation: Where has India succeeded and failed’. Banerji opened my eyes to the opportunities facing, and failures of, the current R&D ecosystem in India. Banerji helped me to answer a fundamental question I have long been thinking about, without which I could not have proceeded with the book: why does an Indian engineer or scientist do well in Silicon Valley, Bell Labs and at NASA and not in India? The answer was simply that Indian innovators lacked the ecosystem of resources – a network of government-funded agencies, labs, universities, an innovation-obsessed private sector, venture capitalists, financiers, market developers and a non-profit research sector. The inspiration to focus on ecosystem came from such individual writers and the discussions I have had with many of them.

Rita Teotia gave me several hours of her holiday time, for which I am very grateful. Rita’s understanding of rural development and issues at the grass roots level as a leading Indian bureaucrat provided priceless input to the book. I am grateful to my mentor and friend, Kenny Jeyachandran, who worked for IBM in India before the company left in 1978, for his diligent and honest review of the manuscript. Although Infosys, my employer, has had no direct involvement in this book project, the many lessons I learnt working in various roles at the company and its customers have contributed to my understanding of global innovation. My gratitude goes to my Australian managers, Ashok Mysore and Anand Santhanam, who have been extremely supportive especially during the final stages of the book.

My Editor-Publisher at Chandos, Glyn Jones, has been a motivator par excellence. He not only believed in the value of the book but he also believed that I could do it. In part it was his sole encouragement as I changed roles and countries that drove me to complete the project. I am indebted to him for being much more than my publisher. To Patrick Smith, copy editor at Chandos, thank you for making my ramblings presentable.

I have been deeply enthused by the work of organisations such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and UNDP and their relentless focus on innovation and India. Over the last 10 years, the media, notably Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune and the Economist, ran several cover stories and editorials on emerging India. Many of these articles have been stimulating and are quoted in this book. I am also grateful to Sivakumar Surampudi, Chief Executive of Agri Businesses at ITC Ltd, and Tony Surtees, former VP at Yahoo Commerce Division and CEO of Hyperlocaliser, for their reviews and timely comments. Both these gentlemen are innovators and lead entrepreneurial lifestyles solving problems through ingenuity and innovation. I would also like to thank my colleagues, well-wishers and friends whose genuine concern, critique, instant supply of references and tips on perseverance kept me going, notably Lily Efferin, Samit & Shailja Chandra, Samson David, Anant & Naintara Sahay, and Richard Watson.

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family. Dipti, my wife, will take the credit for what she calls the wind beneath my wings. She put up with me and shouldered the responsibilities of the family tirelessly during the days I battled with deadlines while juggling it with my day job. Ashish and Arpith also deserve a mention. The boys missed several of their weekend outings, play dates and holidays for the sake of this book. Sonny Zachariah, my father-in-law, not only read through the manuscript several times and offered suggestions, he also supported me with ideas on making the book an influential and pragmatic one.

Last but not least, I am indebted to the Author and Finisher of my faith who, though not having written a single word himself, has been the subject of countless books through the centuries, even the first book ever printed, and whose words have transformed more lives, even my own, than any author or innovator ever can. Thank you all.