India’s Innovation Opportunity

10/07/20 • 21 min

India is at a crossroads, a moment that may determine whether its economy can grow fast enough to support its rising population. To survive—and thrive—will require new ways of thinking.
Rachna Singh, IT deployment program manager at Amazon in Bengaluru, discusses how the IT business has changed in India over the course of her career, what lies ahead—and the skills project professionals need to succeed in the sector.
Ankur Jain, founder and CEO at Bira 91 in New Delhi, talks about some of the challenges he’s faced while scaling up his craft brewery and how cross-functional teams are helping his company innovate.
Key themes

[01:14] A time of growth in India

[03:03] Change of mindset and innovation in IT

[05:40] Focusing on communication, risk and technical skills

[08:06] Bringing craft brewing to India

[13:43] How cross-functional teams help Bira 91 innovate

[01:14] A time of growth in India

[03:03] Change of mindset and innovation in IT

[05:40] Focusing on communication, risk and technical skills

[08:06] Bringing craft brewing to India

[13:43] How cross-functional teams help Bira 91 innovate

Previous Episode

Plants: The Food Industry’s Next Big Trend

There’s a lot riding on the future of food—our personal health, the health of our environment and the growing issue of food security. One potentially promising solution? Plant-based foods.
Giulia Braghieri, head of growth and expansion at NotCo, discusses how the Chilean company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to create plant-based versions of food staples like mayonnaise, milk and more. She also talks about how NotCo uses agile to turn the founder’s ideas into reality.
Troy Swope, co-founder and CEO of Footprint, discusses plant-based packaging for food. He shares how each project pushes the U.S. company to innovate and iterate its products.
Key Themes

[00:56] The plant revolution in the food industry

[03:00] Using AI, machine learning to create plant-based food

[07:26] Using agile to turn ideas into reality

[10:45] Effect of consumer climate awareness on the food industry

[12:51] From microprocessors to food: Creating plant-based food packaging

[15:48] Focusing on customers and their products

Next Episode

Delivering Innovation in Healthcare Tech

Innovation in the healthcare sector takes time—with companies devoting long hours to research and clinical trials while adapting to regulatory changes along the way.

Leo Rapallini at Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA discusses how his team upgraded the world’s smallest pacemaker for a bigger share of the market. He talks about how company culture and a passionate, multidisciplinary team helped the organization deliver disruptive innovation.

Andy Molnar at UVD Robots in Boston, Massachusetts, USA shares how the company scaled up to meet a global increase in demand for its autonomous disinfection robot. He also discusses how he sees bots helping humans do more strategic work in healthcare.

Key themes

[02:16] Staging development: Starting pacemaker innovation with the Micra VR

[06:08] Micra AV: Giving a tiny pacemaker an upgrade

[08:25] Company culture, passionate team key to disruptive innovation

[12:07] COVID-19 shines spotlight on sanitation across industries

[14:13] How UVD Robots scaled up to meet spike in demand

[19:06] Robots not taking over—helping humans do value-added work in healthcare