It was an honour to have Prof S Sadagopan, Director IIIT Bangalore, as the chairperson of the Meltingpot2020, a landmark movement, an initiative by CL Educate, that is working towards bringing youthful, research-oriented entrepreneurial education institutions and innovation fostering industry players.

(Prof Sadagopan interacting with Dr. Mashelkar, former chairperson of CSIR, the keynote speaker at MeltingPot2020)

Prof Sadagopan, in his opening remarks spoke about how the time has come for both, educational institutions and industry, to work together with technology playing the role of innovation amplifier to solve problems that will change the nation.

• IT as innovation Amplifier
  • Core competence of most of us who started in 1960s –
  • We digitized everything over the forty years
  • Changed industry after industry
  • 2Ts were the largest exports
    • Tea, to drink
    • T for textile
  • IT is the largest now
    • 8bn dollar revenues today
    • MMT changed how travel industry works
    • Today innovation has changed how governments functioning
    • IT has been enabler and amplier of innovation
    • Kapital needs is much smaller in tech space compared to other spaces

NEXT PRACTICE, from CK Prahalad, one of the foremost thinkers India has produced in the modern times spoke about how next practice is what we need to focus upon

For the youngsters, your time has come, with all humility we can change the world

• Our generation went to the US, worked for the best, for the US and Europe
• We contributed a lot, that shows up… GOOGLE and Microsoft
• SATYAM, SIVAM, SUNDARAM….soon we will have a SIVAM joining Satya of Microsoft and Sundar of Google

Solving problems in India

• From 2010 things have changed
• Indians solving India’s problems, in India
• They have global reach
• Tweak the innovations with price-performance parameters
• Examples
  • Railway reservation
    • A 60 kg human being had  to go 16kms for reserving his seat, one day gone
    • Now we can have it in a jiffy, from anywhere. With millions doing reservations every day; imagine the man days saved, at one-tenth cost
  • Travel-khana
    • Food delivered at Train stations – priced at 29,49,69 rs
    • Delivered to your seats – breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • 33 million people travel every day on trains
    • Investment is a pittance
  • Redbus
    • Organizes small bus operators
    • Handling 2 buses to 6000 buses today
  • A Stanford undergrad student of sociology
    • Heard about India’s innovation explosion
    • Landed in Blore at my office
    • She was fascinated how they were using Egipura
    • They were using missed call
      • Husband comes up picks her on cycle when he receives a miss call
      • Missed call service offered by banks
        • 1 for balance in account… 2 for ….blah blah
    • She starts a business in Thailand and Malyasia – Valerie is her name

Can we make a difference to our neighborhood, that is happening

It can make a big difference

We need to make a delta difference, not just an epsilon