Sunday, March 18, 2007

Inclusive Globalisation via Innovation(part-3)

The essential difference is that work is not merely being transferred from one location to another -- as is done, for example, in traditional out-sourcing of manufacturing-but that it is being done differently. It is this difference, this innovation in solving a process or design problem, which makes for exceptiola1 value-addition and enables sharing of benefits for mutual gain. Thus, innovation-driven, global knowledge trade creates, in effect, new wealth which enriches all.

In the past to the world has witnessed the economic impact of innovation. New technologies --electric power; the steam engine, the aero plane, new strains of wheat, vaccines- have transformed not just countries, but the world. The twentieth century saw an abundance of such technological advances, making life everywhere better - though (due to the weapons of war), not necessarily safer. Disparities have grown, as have the super-rich, who have cornered a hugely disproportionate share of the world's wealth; yet, most of the poor are better off than they were a century ago, and a large new middle-class has developed.

We are now on the threshold of an even more substantial change. Innovation, combined with large scale global trade in the knowledge sector, is creating wealth and new opportunities. IT has made it possible to disaggregate work, get it done at remote locations and then reintegrate it; more importantly, it has created tools and platforms for simultaneous location independent work Innovation can, therefore, be a team effort involving multiple locations in different countries; increasingly, it often is.

This form of collaboration is resulting in a new model of globally inclusive innovation, with immediate gains to participating countries, and the final gains going to all through greater global wealth. The success of this model depends upon free and easy movement of ideas data and people, for it is only then that collaborative innovation is possible. It converts customer-client and vendor-supplier relationships into partnerships. Cooperation, collaboration and inclusiveness are the keywords. India has both the opportunity and responsibility of re-shaping thinking on global trade and globalisation. As we export this concept of inclusive innovation for inclusive globalisation, we can benefit equally by importing it into our own domestic system

No comments: