Steve Wozniak, the Co-founder of Apple, referring to Indians hard work and opulence, raised a question over creativity by asking “but where is the creativity?” during Marico Innovation Foundation Awards event, held in Mumbai on February 23.
The Wozniak’s observations perhaps are true when comparison is drawn on the number of innovations coming out of the Silicon Valley in the US. These innovations have resulted in the creation of multibillion-dollar companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter,
The bi-annual awards ceremony marked the presence of eight organizations that are creating a substantial impact on society by means of their innovative business ideas being felicitated. Some of these companies include ideaForge, a pioneer in the unmanned aerial systems segment that has a 95% share of domestic market with regards to drones; Forus Health, which has built a light and portable device to identify eye defects in premature babies; and Incredible Devices, which has developed a catheter reprocessing system that enables cardiac patients to re-use catheters safely and efficiently, and productively reduce the cost of the medical equipment by 99%.
Further, the other companies that were acknowledged at the awards function are Rivigo, a technology-enabled logistics supplier that uses a ‘driver relay’ model to operate a fleet of trucks resulting reduction in lead time of delivery; Tonbo Imaging Designs, that assembles and deploys advanced imaging and sensor systems; Ecolibrium Energy, which has built systems and devices based on Internet of Things that help in preventive maintenance at manufacturing sites. IndiaStack, a set of application program interfaces that allow government and businesses to develop digital service delivery platforms; and Reliance Jio, , which has revolutionized data usage in the country, jointly won the Global Game Changer award.
However, the spotlight of the event was on young Harshwardhan Zala, from Ahmedabad, the Founder and CEO of Aerobotics7. This 15-year-old CEO makes drones which assist in detecting and defusing landmines with a precision rate of more than 90%.
While delivering the keynote address at the awards functions, Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Google India made some fascinating forecasts with regards to Indian technology and start-up environment.
Initially, he said that he anticipates a number of Indian technology startups going on to build big businesses on the universal scale over the next five to ten years. “Technology and the internet allow anyone to build a business from anywhere, with an addressable market size of 3.5 billion people (those connected to the internet globally),” Anandan said. Also, he pointed out that, a big business opportunity lies in serving connected devices, as there are 20 billion devices around the world that are connected to the internet 24 hours a day.
Later, this active investor among start-ups predicted that the first $100 billion-transport company from India wasn’t probably to be a cab aggregator, but one that will make bus travel more reasonable and extensively accessible.
Head of Google India also estimates that India would see the first “voice-driven internet” in the world. To validate his point, he disclosed that 28% of searches on Google engine in India come through Google Voice.
Offering Google’s viewpoint, Anandan said that the single biggest technology that will outline the next 15 years is machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). “Computers are getting smart and at Google, we are applying machine learning to all our core products,” he added.