Kashmir: Riding the Wave of Innovation | Rising Kashmir

Kashmir: Riding the Wave of Innovation

According to renowned economists such as Deirdre McCloskey, innovation is the most significant story in the history of nation-building

 The story of innovation economy is a constant in the progress and development of any nation in the modern era. Countries that are currently at the forefront of the global economic race have a long history of investing resources and human capital in commercializing technologies both locally and globally. According to renowned economists such as Deirdre McCloskey, innovation is the most significant story in the history of nation-building. Developing countries such as India are also taking steps to foster a culture of growth in the country through the innovation economy, and many policy frameworks are being developed and implemented to incentivize the institutions responsible for innovation and technological growth. In the nomenclature of innovation studies, the country is attempting to generate a wave of innovation, which is typically recognized by rapid technological growth and widespread disruption of innovations.

In the beginning, innovations such as the wheel in agrarian societies were accidental, but with the industrial revolution, innovations became more need-based and customer-centric. Current innovation academia focuses on addressing human problems or needs and developing a tech-based solution to solve them.When discussing the landscape of innovation in Kashmir, everyone talks about the problems we face due to institutional ineffectiveness and political instability, and as a result, our society has built a defunct culture of learning and knowledge creation, which has consequently built non creative environments in our institutions. Society evolves through the stories that are passed down from generation to generation, and it is the stories that are responsible for establishing a proper working culture in any institution.While the problems cannot be ignored, they can be addressed by telling the right stories. Since the innovations in current dynamics revolve around problems, we need to tell stories about how innovative models can solve them.The country’s attempt to create a wave of innovation would be impossible without effective knowledge dissemination by effective institutions.Collaborations between academia and industry are required, which has been a lost link in Kashmir for many years.

In terms of the current landscape of innovation in Kashmir, we already have numerous incubation centers in institutions such as NIT, University of Kashmir, or IUST, among others, which support and nurture new ideas. Recently, NIT Srinagar received Rs 5 crores grant from the Department of Science and Technology to build its state-of-the-art incubation and entrepreneurship development centre, exhibiting the state’s efforts and resources spent in the region to foster the ecosystem of innovations and startups.This indicates that the central government is investing significant resources to help Kashmir ride the wave of innovation that it is attempting to create throughout the country. To successfully ride this wave, the region’s innovation ecosystem must be strengthened. Aside from knowledge dissemination and awareness, we require institutions that will collaborate with one another and have strong working policies.

Since we are already in Industry 4.0, education and academia are changing in response to the transformations that are currently taking place, and our region is nowhere near modern day teaching practices in schools or universities. Some scholars believe that current traditional education practices are obsolete and should be outlawed forever, and that a more skill-based and practical-based education should take their place. While innovation revolves around the creative environment in any institution, our entire focus should be on boosting individual creativity.Aside from that, the stories of success that we have been telling must change. The standard of success that we have established for our students is to become a doctor, an engineer, or a civil servant, and our thinking never extends beyond these parameters, rendering all individuals defunct or obsolete who fail to pass the exams that lead to those professions. There is no talk of success when it comes to learning a new set of skills or doing something never done before. From the government to educational institutions the stories must be changed.

It is understandable that investing resources in the innovation economy is risky, but history shows that investing in an uncertain future pays off for any nation. Be it Columbus’s perilous voyage to America, which brought riches to Spain, or the first moon landing, which forever changed the US tech markets.We live in a context where every investment is scrutinized for guarantees, whether it is choosing a career for children or making any other change. We usually say, “If I do this, will it give me this?” and only after that do we choose those paths. Such narratives must change if we are to ride the wave of innovation. Only by building courage and daring to fail will we be able to compete and race with the current unprecedented global transformations.

(Author is M.Sc. Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, NIT Srinagar Twitter: @fmuzailbhat)