Search

Design is the act of transforming an existing situation into a preferred one. Taking this broad definition of design, the paper analyzes the process of grassroots innovations from a design perspective in the three phases of idea generation, experimentation, and implementation. The sample is chosen from award-winning grassroots innovations identified by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF). The different factors involved in each phase of design have been examined. The results indicate that most of the innovations which win awards belong to the mechanical innovations category and have application in the farming or agriculture sector. The innovations are designed using material resources from the surroundings of the innovators while personal savings often make up the necessary finance required to develop the innovation at the idea stage. Next, the different formal institutions involved in the experimentation stage providing technical and financial assistance for further design and development of innovations are also examined, to find that mostly technical institutions are involved in providing validation and modification services to the grassroots innovations. As diffusion of innovation is the preferred condition, the paper finds that most of the award-winning innovations are diffused through a market-based channel in which the innovator owns the manufacturing unit while in some cases the innovations are licenced to another entrepreneur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an ongoing research study funded by UKRI to map India's creative industries. Using an ecosystem framework, it has focused on strategy/policy; tangible and intangible infrastructure; funding and investment to understand innovation drivers and barriers across nine sub-sector value chains. The research established there is no one creative industries policy. Responsibility is split across 16 government ministries and 28 states. Much of India's economy is informal, with limited data on policy effects. Nevertheless, four important policies are shaping the creative industries landscape, supplemented by investment from global brands into textiles, media and advertising. These are driving innovation and design for social and ecological sustainability. At the time of writing the study is undertaking deep dives into CreaTec, Design for sustainability in fashion and textiles, and emerging geographic concentrations. It has identified a distinctive focus on how supply chains might inform UK circular fashion and media production policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations in the formal sector are by and large motivated by extrinsic rewards. However, such motives are not explored much in the informal sector innovations. Using effectance motivation theories, some previous research on grassroot innovators in India has found that much of these innovations are initially driven by 'intrinsic motivations', while the motivations shift to extrinsic factors during the innovation process. Thus, the primary objective of the paper is to understand the nature and determinants of grassroot innovators' motivations and their shifts, using econometric modelling. This research is exploratory in nature and based on primary data. It first identifies a set of socio-economic, demographic and psychological factors, which drive grassroot innovations in India. Furthermore, it explores how these factors explain the shifts in motivations from 'intrinsic' to 'extrinsic' in the course of the innovation process. The empirical results show that the socio-economic factors of innovators affect the grassroots innovation process significantly. Their effect on motivation varies at different stages of innovation. To the extent, roughly speaking, 'intrinsic' and 'extrinsic' motivations draw parallel with 'pro-social' and 'pro-market' motivations, respectively. These results may contribute to the growing body of policy research on the informal sector innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations in hydraulic technologies using a wide range of sources but with a special focus on Tamil "Caṅkam" texts, the earliest surviving textual corpus for the Dravidian language family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-income entrepreneurs operating in resource-scarce settings are typically referred to as subsistence entrepreneurs – informal, operating on a small scale, and selling products developed and produced by others. This study establishes the notion of a unique category of low-income entrepreneurs who have developed, commercialised, and scaled innovations and are self-employed by choice. Further, the paper investigates the scaling process of these innovative grassroots entrepreneurs. The sample consists of four grassroots entrepreneurs from India who founded an enterprise to sell their self-developed innovations. The study follows the grounded theory approach, which is suitable for the exploration of complex questions in unusual settings. The theoretical lens used in this study is entrepreneurial bricolage since the interest of the study lies in understanding action and the usage of existing resources. The contribution of the paper is twofold. First, it contributes to the literature on low-income entrepreneurship by bolstering the theoretical archetype of grassroots entrepreneurs and developing a process model for their scaling process. Second, the study contributes to the literature on bricolage by introducing the notion of grassroots bricolage as a behaviour to utilise and combine both locally available contacts and a broader network as resources in novel ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of key innovations for financial system reforms undertaken by successive governments in India since the 1990s. These are namely liberalisation, demonetisation, digitisation and implementation of GST. Out of these digitisation, demonetisation and implementation of GST demonetisation have been claimed as disruptive innovations by the experts. We examine the impact of innovations such as financial liberalisation, digitisation and demonetisation on some key macro-economic parameters of economic growth in India through available literature and secondary data. The analysis is done over a period of 1970-2014 to test whether innovations such as digitisation and demonetisation had a statistically significant impact on the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of local health systems in developing countries in health biotechnology innovation. The heath systems encompass the final users of health biotechnology products and services. In innovation studies in general, users have been identified as playing vital roles as sources for innovation and in shaping the innovation process. It is therefore of interest to cast light upon the role of users in the health biotechnology innovation in developing countries. This paper briefly reviews literature on science and technology based health innovation in both industrialised and developing countries. It then examines to what extent the focus of developing countries is on their local health problems and explores the linkages between the organisations involved in research and development of health biotechnology products and services with the local health system, and thereby identifies the main roles of their own health systems in the innovation process. The paper bases this analysis on research on publication patterns and case studies on leading developing countries in health biotechnology and focuses particularly on health biotechnology development in Brazil, Cuba and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the entry of Indian information and communication technology–information technology-enabled services (ICT-ITES) companies on the Dutch service outsourcing market. Using this case study, the paper integrates two academic debates: the rise of emerging country-based multinationals and the international dynamics in the ICT-ITES sector. Indian ICT-ITES firms can no longer only rely on cheap labour in their home country and need to build global delivery capacity in order effectively to compete with Western ICT-ITES multinationals. By examining their entry strategy in the Dutch service outsourcing market, this paper highlights the difficulties of latecomer multinationals in entering the more profitable domains of the ICTITES market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is crucial to regional economic competitiveness and to productivity growth. A salient feature of the Indian economy is the geographic clustering of both economic activity and innovation. In this paper, I study to what extent the spatial distribution of economic activity drives innovation. I analyse patent applications between 1999 and 2007 across districts in India and my econometric findings suggest that R&D expenditures, industrial diversity and the distribution of human capital endowments can have an important effect on generating innovation. The estimates are robust to omitted variables bias, to different model specifications and to the type of applicant. RÉSUMÉ L'innovation joue un rôle de premier plan dans la compétitivité économique régionale et l'expansion de la productivité. Une des principales caractéristiques de l’économie de l'Inde est le regroupement géographique de l'activité économique et de l'innovation. Dans la présente communication, j'examine la mesure dans laquelle la distribution spatiale de l'activité économique détermine l'innovation; j'analyse des demandes de brevet déposées entre 1999 et 2007 dans différents districts de l'Inde, et mes conclusions économétriques permettent d'affirmer que les dépenses en R&D, la diversité industrielle et la distribution des dotations en ressources humaines peuvent avoir un effet considérable sur la production de l'innovation. Les évaluations sont robustes sur le plan de la subjectivité des variables omises, des différentes spécifications de modèles, et du type de requérant. EXTRACTO La innovación es crucial para la competitividad económica regional y el crecimiento de la productividad. Una característica sobresaliente de la economía india es la agrupación geográfica de la actividad económica y la innovación. En este trabajo, estudio hasta qué punto la distribución espacial de la actividad económica impulsa la innovación. Analizo las solicitudes de patentes entre 1999 y 2007 a través de distritos de la India, y mis descubrimiento econométricos sugieren que el gasto en I + D, la diversidad industrial y la distribución de las dotaciones de capital humano pueden tener un efecto importante sobre la generación de innovación. Las estimaciones son firmes frente al sesgo por variables omitidas, diferentes especificaciones de modelos y el tipo de solicitante. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years China and India have achieved tremendous technological progress and development in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. Using case studies, this paper analyses and compares the technology progress in the solar PV industry in China and India, and discusses the role national innovation systems played in sustaining technology acquisition, adaptation and development. It illustrates that both countries adopted a strategy of mixing and sequencing different technology transfer and indigenous innovation mechanisms. The experience of both countries also suggests that a functional national environmental innovation system is important in sustaining and advancing technology acquisition, adaptation and development. This paper provides an alternative pathway for developing countries to follow in catching up with developed countries in the emergent green industries and in leapfrogging towards an internationally competitive green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the effect of trade facilitated R&D spillovers on the productivity of manufacturing firms in India, inter-sectoral variation in the effect on productivity and the importance of firms' investment in R&D, technology imports and plant and machinery in enhancing the productivity effect. Using firm level panel data, the study shows that R&D spillovers have a significant effect on productivity and that this effect is greater in technology-intensive industries. The paper also shows that firms' investment in plant and machinery enhances the productivity effect of R&D spillovers. The paper provides detailed micro-level evidence on the argument that trade openness promotes technological progress in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the contribution of legal pluralism scholarship to the field of socio-technical transition studies. Making use of a case study on the changeover to ring seine fishing in India, it pays particular attention to the implications of legal pluralism – or the co-existence of multiple legal systems in a societal field – for the stability of such transitions. Ring seine fishing developed in particular niches in the 1970s to spread swiftly throughout the subcontinent, dividing the fisher population into fervent protagonists and antagonists. Arguing that socio-technical innovations are often contested and that rival parties make use of alternative legal systems to advance their rights, the paper suggests that so-called regimes function as arenas for deliberating and battling alternative futures in fishing. Rather than creating stability for a particular socio-technical transition, such regimes may actually mask deep socio-legal divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarship on innovation hitherto has prioritized exchange value, scalability and large scale commercialization, overlooking the other significant human centric values discussed in 'value theory'. Consequently, innovations in the informal economy are often undermined due to their inability to generate exchange values. This paper identifies and examines the suitability of the nuanced set of values discussed in value theory for informal sector grassroots innovations. Based on ten years of ethnographic research in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir in India, we find that these innovations generate a diverse set of values, ranging from use value to socially embedded reciprocal exchange value to different forms of relational and non-relational intrinsic values. At a juncture when strengthening alternative innovation approaches occupies a priority, these findings have important bearing on innovation policy scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy and academic circles in India put forth the argument that the country's demographic dividend puts it in an optimal position to win the race between education and technology across nations by expanding higher education opportunities. This article examines the recruitment practices of 13 leading corporations in highgrowth sectors in India. Based on detailed qualitative interviews, it explains why these corporations are unlikely to increase the demand for graduates in ways imagined by policy-makers or proponents of skills-biased technological change. Companies in India are locked into an intense 'war for talent', but only for graduates in India's top-tier universities. We argue that there is a close correspondence between India's highly elitist university system and corporate talent management strategies, creating a narrow pool of highly mobile Indian corporate elite, but resulting in limited prospects for the wider Indian workforce. In this talent market, the success of the top corporate elite rests on keeping the elitist character of higher education, rather than widening labour market opportunities. This paper also seeks to explain why top corporations in India engage in this 'war for talent' when they are not always certain their investments pay off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of patent protection on biomedical innovation has been a controversial issue. Although a 'medical anti-commons' has been predicted as a result of a proliferation of patents on upstream technologies, evidence to test these concerns is only now emerging. However, most industrial surveys that shed light on this issue are mainly from developed countries, making it very difficult to predict the impact of patenting on biomedical innovation in developing and least developed countries. This paper develops a framework of analysis for the impact of patent rights on biomedical innovation in 'technology follower' developing countries. Based on the framework developed in the paper, empirical data collected in an industry-level survey of the Indian pharmaceutical industry between November 2004 and January 2005 is used to analyze the impact of patent rights as recognized under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) on biomedical innovation in technology followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the sectoral systems of innovation (SSI) framework for analysing shifts in technological trajectory and economic growth has evoked a great deal of interest. Many researchers working on the National Systems of Innovation (NSI) concept have welcomed the approach and shown interest in the interplay between national and sectoral frameworks and related policy prescriptions. This paper attempts to analyse emerging and missing linkages between SSI and NSI in the biopharmaceutical sector in India. It does so in the light of major expansion in the Indian pharmaceutical industry and the new efforts to incorporate strategies targeting biotechnology innovation. The paper studies the policy regime facilitating this new era and discusses the future growth prospects of the Indian biopharmaceutical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of how Indian pharmaceutical firms have transformed themselves from reverse-engineering firms focused on the domestic market to research-driven firms with global presence. It analyses the crucial and changing role of national, then international, innovation and regulatory policies and their impact on growth, performance and technology evolution of Indian pharmaceutical firms. The paper argues that although public policy increased market turbulence, it also provided new opportunities for firms to expand and build new technology, knowledge and market capabilities. From the 1950s Indian firms have pursued a variety of research, marketing and internationalization strategies to tackle changes prompted by policy, markets and knowledge complexities. The paper traces firm strategies that vary both in time and by firm, and argues that the successful firms have evolved substantively towards knowledge-based strategies. The paper then attempts to identify future directions for strategy, knowledge and markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India continues to urbanise rapidly tinged with sub-standard living conditions of a growing 'slum' population. Improving the living conditions of slum-dwellers remains a gargantuan and intractable challenge requiring solutions at scale grounded on households' real experience of the process. The State of Odisha, in Eastern India, is currently implementing a state-wide land-titling initiative to improve the tenure security of a million slum-dwellers through legal, institutional, and technical innovations based on the Odisha Land Rights to Slum-dwellersAct 2017 (OLRSD). Given the known negative consequences of titling that grants 'full property rights', such as the speculative sale of the titles, the facilitation of elite capture,and disruption of community life and social networks, the OLRSD has fashioned the title as a 'limited instrument' that still assures the possibility to inherit and aims at facilitating mortgage for housing-backed lending. The paper discusses early learnings from Odisha's 'intermediate' aspects of its titling policy in nine settlements researched across three districts. As per people's accounts of their experienced reality, the titling, complemented by slum upgrading, has already facilitated improvements in the housing conditions of households subject to extreme poverty. However, concomitant challenges are surfacing for instance, although the OLRSD formally permits the titles to be used as collateral for housing loans, the non-acceptance of the title by mainstream banks forces the recipients to borrow from spurious private lenders, thus increasing their vulnerability. Understanding such and related challenges is relevant for better addressing the dimension of de jure land tenure security in slums at scale across India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative case study investigates the contrasting approaches to telecommunications standard-setting adopted by two developing countries, China and India, using the 3G standard as a case study. Despite facing comparable opportunities in the form of fast-growing markets, and comparable challenges in terms of meeting consumer demand and fostering industrial development, the two countries adopted sharply different standards strategies, with China investing heavily in its home-grown Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access standard, and India allowing operators to choose any international standard. In this paper, we trace the antecedents of this divergence to the different policy approaches that the two countries adopted to their respective electronics industries in the early to mid-1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to assess quantitatively the importance of biological technology in increasing the productivity of Bangladeshi land in terms of foodgrain production following the 'Green Revolution'. The main purpose is to apply the innovative empirical study by Diwan and Kallianpur (1985) in a new context, namely Bangladesh, to see whether the empirical results conform to those obtained from India and to comment critically on the method employed by Diwan and Kallianpur (1985, 1986).
First of all this paper briefly reviews relevant literature and following the methodology employed by Diwan and Kallianpur (1985), specifies the analytical framework adopted. The model is specified empirically in order to estimate the contribution of biological technology to Bangladeshi foodgrain productivity per hectare of cultivated land. The empirical findings are compared with those of the Diwan-Kallianpur (D-K) study for India. In contrast to the D-K study, it is argued that the fertilizer input has made a significant contribution to productivity increase in Bangladeshi foodgrains. This follows from the conclusions reached via reinterpretation of the D-K model and is supported by other evidence. It is contended that the D-K approach is subject to severe limitations and that it can give a misleading view of the contribution to production of the new technology associated with the 'Green Revolution'. But before beginning detailed analysis let us first note the main features of the technological transformation that has occurred in Bangladeshi agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At various points in its existence, the Indian state has deployed technologies to govern the nation. Recently, the state has undertaken a number of large-scale projects to make use of digital technology. The most controversial of these is the Unique Identity (UID) project, which is registering biometric, along with demographic, information about residents. This paper seeks to understand what is at stake politically in this technological intervention. It aims to explore the political logics and consequences of such a biometric system. It argues that UID re-imagines the economy and the state–citizen relationship as a series of transactions. Theoretically, the main thrust of this paper is to understand the “general economy of power”, as Michel Foucault calls it, which is unfolding in India around the issues of capitalist growth, inequality, social protection and terrorism—and UID signals the technological potential for the convergence of these concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the nature and strategy of product innovations of two SMEs in two different economic environments - one each in Japan and India. While the background of entrepreneurs and internal environment are similar, what distinguishes the two is the external environment. Though external sources of support appear similar outwardly, Indian external sources lack the much needed reputation for the capability of delivering productive assistance for technological innovations in manufacturing enterprises. That is why the Japanese SME could take advantage of its external sources but not the Indian SME. Further, the domestic market has ably supported and absorbed innovated products of the Japanese SME whereas the Indian SME has increasingly targeted its innovated products at the international market[i]. [i] The Japanese and Indian case studies used in this paper have been earlier used separately for two different papers in two different journals, namely, (i) Asia Pacific Tech Monitor (2006) January-February: 40-44, and (ii) International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (2005) 5(5/6): 401-420, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses sectoral systems of innovation framework to examine the relationship between technology policy and industrial development by comparing the emergence of the wind energy industry in Denmark and India. Since the late 1970s Denmark has led the development of a global wind energy industry and in 2004 wind energy supplied 18.8 per cent of Denmark's electricity consumption. India was however a late entrant that managed in a few years to establish itself as the fifth largest producer of wind energy in the world. We suggest that India's unique policy of “interactive learning” with international and especially Danish actors, instead of imitation of foreign technology policies and institutions, was a substantial contributor to India's success in developing their wind energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the seminal work of Archibugi and Michie (1995) on the globalization of innovation, several authors have attempted to understand the complex relationship between innovation and internationalization. However, most tend to focus on industrialized countries, just one mode of globalization of innovation and often one traditional indicator of innovation, such as patents or R&D investment, thus ignoring the complexity and multiple aspects of the phenomenon. This paper explores empirically the linkages between different modes of globalization of innovation and firms' micro-characteristics in two of the fastest growing emerging economies. We analyze three distinct modes of globalization of innovation: the global exploitation of innovation, the global sourcing of technology and global research collaboration. We then use primary data from Chinese and Indian firms belonging to three sectors (automotive components, software and green biotech) to explore the differences in the ways in which the firms located in these two economies globalize their innovatiton activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay explores the rapid expansion of small handloom centres in Western India between 1930 and 1970. It attributes the transformation of these places into larger cities to the role of local weaver-capitalists, who developed new markets for local textiles and introduced significant technological innovations into the industry, and who forged strategies for combatting the growth of labour resistance. The essay also highlights the role of the late colonial and early post-Independence states, which promoted the growth of weavers’ co-operatives and which imposed extensive regulations on larger enterprises. The paper argues that the powerloom centres of Western India sustained a ‘hyper-industrial’ quality, with limited economic or cultural diversification, restricted urban amenities and public services, and the extensive concentration of poor urban migrants in slums. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines a project in India that aimed to empower the poorest of rural villages by giving them access to knowledge via networked ICT. The case discussed shows a model of success and the means by which seemingly intractable problems of technological complexity, network connectivity and user illiteracy have been overcome. The key factors to success were the following: the enabling experts are local; and the needs of the villages were carefully assessed and agreed upon by stakeholders before any technology was introduced. The success of the project was illustrated by its growth and developed over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the many tasks elected representatives perform, constituency service is among the most difficult to observe and, therefore, to measure. However, a burgeoning literature uses digital tools such as email to experimentally evaluate the responsiveness of political elites to requests for constituency service. To date, this literature has overwhelmingly focused on the developed world. In this article, we describe the results of an email experiment in which we sent plausible, but fictitious constituency service requests to national legislators in India to evaluate their responsiveness, helpfulness, and possibly discriminatory behavior. While the overall response rate to our request is quite poor, those that do respond tend to offer "meaningful" responses. We find scant evidence of legislators discriminating on religious lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the co-creation of ICT Innovation. To do this we first review key innovation literature with the argument that each set of innovation literature considers the world of innovation from a sterile perspective, normally linear in nature. We propose an alternative view encapsulated in our idea of 'Co-creation of ICT Innovation'. To illustrate the nature of Co-creation of ICT Innovation, we present three case studies from India and show the distinctness in the nature of problem solving in each case. We then use this distinctness to develop a dual interactive framework. One framework is at a Meta level that develops the conceptual theme for the process of co-creation. The other framework, that populates the conceptual theme with operational drivers, is aimed to populate the Meta level with ideas that can initiate the process of Co-creation of ICT Innovation. Our contribution in this paper is this dual interactive framework that we argue explains the nature and process of co-creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some industrially advanced developing countries have, in the last decades, built substantial pharmaceutical scientific and industrial capabilities. The more advanced of these countries have built chemical and biological R&D, generic and reverse engineering, and drug discovery capabilities. There have been tremendous barriers to entry but nevertheless a range of imitative approaches have evolved, with some significant scientific, health and industrial advances. Opportunities in India are in part created by the problems of maturity being faced by big pharmaceutical firms in developed countries. Big pharmaceutical firms are searching for novel approaches to retain a high value-added model of innovation for drug development. These difficulties provide opportunities for innovative companies in developing countries. This paper explores the challenges faced under these circumstances by Indian pharmaceutical companies. Are they attempting to 'catch-up' by chasing a failing model of innovation? Do they have an alternative model? Or can they become an important part of a transformed new global model of pharmaceutical innovation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid 1990s the Indian pharmaceutical industry has emerged as a leading supplier of generic drugs to both developing and developed countries.The movement of the Indian pharmaceutical industry along the R&D value chain represents a remarkable shift from an importer to an innovator of drugs. The Indian government's industrial and technology policies along with changes in regulation of intellectual property rights played a crucial role in shaping this development of R&D capability. Using the 'capability creation model' this paper discusses the learning processes and stages involved in this dramatic accumulation of technological capability. This analysis shows that the Indian pharmaceutical industry has followed a trajectory from duplicative imitation to creative imitation to move up the value chain of pharmaceutical R&D. Finally as a result of changes in patent law the industry is learning to develop capabilities in innovative R&D. The basic and intermediate technological capabilities gained from imitative learning gave these firms a solid base for development of competence in advanced innovative R&D. These findings have implications for government policies as well as firm strategies in other developing countries albeit with some limitations due to global harmonisation of patent laws being promoted by the World Trade Organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological advancement in smart cities can have adverse effects on the environment. Timely monitoring of smart cities to preserve environmental sustainability is a thrust area of research. It can be done by using change detection with multi-temporal satellite data. The success of these methods solely depends on the calibre of the backend image segmentation and Land-use Land-cover classification technique. The limitation of using cutting-edge classification algorithms is the availability of a proper dataset and identification of the edge structure of different LULC classes. In contrast, a segmentation algorithm cannot detect LULC classes automatically. In this research, we eliminated these shortcomings by considering a hybrid approach. We proposed a multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) and ISODATA-embedded large-scale change detection method. This method can automatically segment, detect, and perform LULC change analysis. We have considered the multi-sensor dataset of Barasat, West Bengal, India, obtained from the WorldView satellite sensor for the experimental study. The proposed method is validated concerning three different cutting-edge methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to use the translog cost function approach to test the 'monetization as technological innovation' hypothesis for the Indian economy for the period 1950-74. This approach has the advantage of enabling us to obtain separate estimates of factor augmentation due to time and real cash balances, for both capital and labour, and not just the differences, as is the case with the Subrahmanyam-Cosimano paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have drastically improved global connectivity and pervaded into most aspects of modern human life. To appropriate the benefits from ICTs, access to the required technology is an essential prerequisite. India's ICT adoption has been fast since 2000, but with sizeable disparities across the country. This study identifies the diffusion pattern of digital communications services in India, while accounting for technological augmentation. The study also surveys the factors influencing the variations in regional ICT adoption in India and supports Rogers theory of innovation diffusion by investigating how the social systems impacts technology adoption at different penetration levels. The findings will be useful for infrastructure capacity planning, taking policy decisions and projecting the diffusion process of emerging consumer technologies for advancing digital inclusion to support inclusive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out the analytical framework of this special issue and outlines the development of BBC radio broadcasting in South Asia. It analyses the ways in which the BBC in South Asia is integrally and indissolubly intertwined with 'critical events' and shifting geopolitical priorities: from the imperial and diasporic imaginings of the Empire Service, to its dissolution and the expansion of South Asian language services during World War II for the purpose of countering 'enemy broadcasts'; from independence, partition and decolonisation, including the BBC's subsequent role in mediating postcolonial conflicts and wars and Cold War tensions, to its most recent 'war on terror' phase with its unspoken aim of promoting a British version liberal democracy around the globe. The article highlights how the often intimate engagements of diverse audiences in South Asia and its diasporas with the BBC have changed in response to technological innovation and geopolitics. We emphasise the distinctiveness of the BBC voice, especially the 'right kind of diasporic voice', and its acoustic power and presence in South Asia. We highlight how the rapid expansion of South Asian mediascapes - especially in India is unsettling the privileged position that the BBC South Asian services have enjoyed for nearly eight decades. Digital technologies are facilitating the emergence of 'digital diasporas' as South Asians across the world log on to consume news with alternative perspectives to news providers in South Asia and to engage in diasporic debates, often with unintended and unforeseen consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the tremendous economic potential of the Brazilian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese (BRIC) economies, few studies have compared technological innovation in these countries. This study investigates three main issues related to technological innovation in BRICs: 1) indicators of technological innovation were evaluated and used to compare capability of technological innovation between the four countries; 2) differences in innovative configurations were mapped based on constructs of "fundamental vs. applied innovation "and "incremental vs. radical innovation "; 3) the absolute and relative innovative strengths of these four countries were examined in 31 different technological fields. The empirical findings are based on analysis of a patent and citation data set comprising all utility patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to BRIC inventors from 1976 to 2006. These findings elucidate the comparative development of technological innovation in BRIC countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassroots innovation (GRI) holds significant potential to support the growth and development of national economies, particularly in emerging economies where majority of the people live under difficult economic conditions. The innovation potential of grassroots innovators can bring many advantages to an individual and community in the resource constrained environment. However, scarcity in the literature which examines the nature of grassroots innovation intensifies the need for knowledge creation in this yet unexplored domain. Specifically, lack of empirical work exploring the conceptual boundaries of GRI, further motivates this research to seek and understand the perception of grassroots innovators towards grassroots innovation. This study reviewed existing literature and collected data from grassroots innovators to delineate the domain of grassroots innovation. Three determinants of grassroots innovation, namely (i) new grassroots learning practices, (ii) local solutions and (iii) networking capabilities are identified and validated empirically in the Indian context. This study enriches the innovation literature by highlighting that grassroots innovation has the potential to translate innovation into entrepreneurial activity and steer the economic and non-economic benefits aspects of entrepreneurship development as distinct from the existing literature that emphasises mainly on economic benefits. The finding of this study has implications for entrepreneurship development and policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, the importance of access to affordable finance has inevitably been recognized as a critical component of developing the third world. Against the backdrop of huge under-penetration of the housing finance sector in India, this study reflects on the functioning of Affordable Housing Finance Companies (AHFCs), which are among the important stakeholders providing affordable housing loans to the low-income segment households. However, the process through which these new entrants have been able to down-market housing finance remains a black box till date. In light of this research gap, this study proposes a conceptual model that succinctly captures the business process of AHFCs across three main dimensions: Outreach Approach, Lending and Underwriting Practices and Risk Management Interventions. This model reflects on the kaleidoscope of process innovations that the AHFCs have embraced to cater to the housing finance needs of the low-income customers, while achieving profitability and social impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs have generated creative ideas for many centuries, and across a range of industries. Two books have recently appeared addressing the issue of entrepreneurial creativity from different perspectives. They are compared and contrasted in this article. Historical precedents for innovation are examined in one, while contemporary examples are the focus of Tsang’s volume. Strategies used to encourage innovation in medieval and early modern towns inform on contemporary debates on the role of traditional industries in India. Experiments in new forms of production were encouraged, rather than deterred, and investment in training helped traditional crafts to retain a reputation for quality and develop regional specialisms. Both books highlight that necessity can encourage innovation, a situation which has parallels to current debates on frugal innovation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1978, the year the first in vitro fertilization (IVF) baby was born in the United Kingdom, a research team in Kolkata reported that it too had successfully produced an IVF baby in India. However, the claim was dismissed at the time, because the experiment was conducted outside authorized institutions and recognized centers of innovation—in short, because it was an innovation ‘out of place.’ Tracing controversies over the case between 1978 and 2005, I show the importance of space or place in processes of knowledge production and recognition. Further, I explain the initial repudiation and subsequent partial recognition of the claim through shifts in the landscape of legitimate spaces of innovation. By discussing this specific case of the production of science and technology in the Global South, I challenge conventional narratives of diffusion that are prevalent in studies on the worldwide proliferation of reproductive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

India has witnessed an exponential growth in its news media in contrast to trends elsewhere, lending urgency to the study of its journalists. This article presents a profile of India's journalists, including their views on personal careers, organisational dynamics and the economic-political-technological forces impacting journalism, from interviews conducted with 145 journalists in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. The project within which this study is situated had the common goal of comparing the views of journalists by online/ offline media and by cities. For India, comparisons between online and offline journalists' views were made minimally because independent online journalism is still in its infancy in India, resulting in the inclusion of a few journalists working mainly on online versions of offline news media. In fact, interviewees considered traditional news media more prestigious, employing reputed journalists and serving the watchdog function, and deemed online news media to be younger, for young readers, and implemented by younger, less experienced journalists, but also more innovative and fast paced. For comparisons by city, the analyses indicated no major differences in the opinions of journalists. Still, the data are rich in the profile they provide. Most respondents shared an endearing passion for journalism and acknowledged the increasing number of women journalists. They indicated corporatisation, infiltration by political elites, and increasing use of new communication technologies in their profession. A news media ecology impacted by such trends has resulted in practitioners engaging in paid news; political forces corrupting news content; and technology making access to news easy for audiences, and news sourcing and feedback easy for journalists. What has not changed is the rather fierce adherence of these journalists to freedom from government control; most respondents wanted no government control of news media and mobile phones, but made exceptions for reasons of national security, pornography, communal relations and terrorist activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are China and India emerging as innovative technological powerhouses in the twenty-first century? This essay reviews the interdisciplinary debate that has been inspired by this question in recent years. It begins by considering recent studies that are relatively impressed with China's and India's recent accomplishments and potential in this regard. Next, it reviews works that are less impressed with their track records and prospects. It then considers a series of more equivocal studies that remain more or less undecided about China's and India's technological trajectories. The final section evaluates the debate as a whole and proposes new directions for scholarship in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1993, the prognosis for Urdu newspapers in north India was dismal. The readership was aging and dwindling as the new generation learned Hindi in Devanagiri script. Urdu calligraphers (katibs) were not passing their skills on to a new generation and writers skilled in Urdu were becoming increasingly hard to find. Fifteen years later, Delhi is home to a prosperous and expanding Urdu press. The number of newspapers had tripled, circulations were often higher than they had been in the past, profits were up and the atmosphere at Delhi's major Urdu newspapers was upbeat. A large part of the explanation lies in the intersection of language ideologies and new writing technologies. On the one hand, Urdu indexes crucial politically urgent populations, leading to a renewed interest in it from many sectors. On the other hand, new more flexible technologies allowed the retiring katibs to be replaced by computer typesetting that strongly resembles north Indian calligraphic styles and new software allows an entire daily newspaper to be assembled and sent to press using a single laptop. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in 1993 and 2008 at some of New Delhi's Urdu dailies and interviews with several editors, this article describes the mutual influences of Urdu language ideologies about Muslim identity and technological innovation in the revival of the Urdu daily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation by a firm is vital in attaining a competitive edge over other firms in an industry, particularly in high- and medium-high-technology industries. The present study captures the innovative activity of Indian firms investing in research and development (R&D) and further on the output in the form of patenting simultaneously. The data cover firms of high-tech and medium-high-tech sectors during 1995–2010. We employ Heckman’s two-step procedure to study the determinant of R&D equation and Hurdle count data model for patenting. The study finds that patent policy changes significantly influence R&D and patenting intensity. After the introduction of patent policy changes in India, foreign firms are relocating their R&D units into India and taking patent from Indian patent offices. However, the study does not find any direct evidence of R&D-oriented patenting activity in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fair trade regimes and organic agricultural systems are 2 innovations that increasingly play an important role for agriculture in developing countries. Whereas fair trade regimes have their origin in the developing countries, organic agriculture was started in the rich countries and has only recently become popular in the Third World. Both innovations can be mutually reinforcing as fair trade often combined with organic production standards opens up new market prospects. In this article we explore the opportunities and constraints of marketing organic products from developing countries under fair trade regimes. Based on available literature, we review evidence of the magnitude of organic production and fair trade systems in developing countries. We also propose a framework for studying the impact of fair traded organically produced commodities using the case of black pepper in India. The framework will generate testable hypotheses regarding the 2 innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the labour market experiences of Indian hi-tech professionals in the Waterloo tech cluster (Ontario), also known as Canada's Technology Triangle. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theorisations, I show how Indian technology workers, although disadvantaged to some extent by their embodied social attributes and their ‘lack of Canadian experience’, exercise their agency to strategically convert theircapitalsto enter and progress in the labour market. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with Indian immigrants, technology companies and relevant organisations and immigrant-serving agencies in the Waterloo Region, I argue that the stereotypical association of Indian nationals and technology work contributes to theirtransnational habitusthat yields some advantage in Canada's technology labour markets; a foot in the door. This stereotypical association, however, simultaneously contributes to new forms of oppression and restrictions to labour market entry for Indian nationals seeking to enter occupational sectors other than IT; a double-edged sword. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in China and India are compared by employing an analytical framework that combines national system of innovation (NSI) concept and a modified TBI integrative framework. Two research questions are investigated: (I) What are the management polices cè practices of and incubation services offered by the TBIs in China and India? (2) How successful are the TBI's in China and India? Data are gathered through interview and questionnaire survey and from secondary sources using 'triangulation' technique to increase the validity of the results. Our findings reveal that there are a number of similarities (including objectives, selection criteria for tenants, funding of new ventures, and various basic services provided) and differences (including ownership/ legal status, nature of structure and governance, funding, value-added and specialists services provided to the tenants, incubation period, and number of TBIs, tenants, employees, and revenues) between the TBIs of China and India. The findings also suggest that both systems evolved in a particular path way due to specific national context, which led to most of these differences. Our study is important as it provides comparative insights into TBI systems fostering entrepreneurship development in two large and fast growing emerging economies, which show not only how both can learn from each other but also provide policy lessons for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intense pulse light (IPL) with square pulse technology is one of the latest hair removal technologies to be marketed in India. However, there is no literature on use of IPL in Indian skin. Objective: A preliminary descriptive study to ascertain the efficacy of an IPL device with square pulse technology for hair removal in Indian patients. Materials and methods: The IFL i200 system (Cyden Ltd, Swansea, UK) was used for hair removal on 12 patients of skin type III, IV and V up to a maximum of six sessions. Hair removal efficacy (HRE) was calculated and photographs taken after each session. Results: Treatment was done for 12 patients. Mean HRE was 69.6%; 83% were satisfied with the procedure; 66% had excellent results; 16% had good results. No permanent adverse effects were seen. Conclusion: With standard precautions, IPL is a safe and effective tool for hair removal in Indian patients. Further studies to compare square pulse technology with traditional IPL systems and lasers are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the short term, in a developing country like India, the GDP growth rate is dependent more on innovation capacity than on scientific strength. But if a high growth rate is to be sustained over a long period, the country must also lay a strong foundation for basic research. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser identifies programs in critical areas for technological self-reliance and develops initiatives to fill the gaps in India's scientific and technological development scenario. Enhancing academia-industry interactions to help make India globally competitive in various technology sectors is essential. Attracting talented young people to careers in science and technology and encouraging international collaborations are also important focus areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the growth of China as a major science and technological (S&T) power as compared to India. It points out that while China may have experienced shortfalls in its quest for technological independence, it succeeded in having a formula that permitted its transition to a major S&T power status. It cites some the lessons that India can learn from China's strategies such as the pursuit of technological upgrading for its own sake and reforms that will involve more reliance on market incentives and increased governmental outlays.