face to face
“Academia’s conservatism
has to give way to enhanced
industry engagement”
In an exclusive freewheeling conversation with the BioVoice News,
Dr Anil Wali, Managing Director, Foundation for Innovation and
Technology Transfer (FITT), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D),
shared his frank views on the innovation, technology transfer, current
startup ecosystem, issues that are holding us back, way forward and
much more. Read the detailed interview below:
BY RAHUL KOUL
How do you define
innovation? Given
the fact that there
are numerous
methodologies of
discovering and
inventing novel
entities, can it be
really kept limited
to one definition?
Innovation cannot be
straight jacketed into a
singular connotation.
It’s is a continuous
process of value
creation whether in
new products (example
molecular entities,
devices etc.), new
technical processes,
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BioVoiceNews | July 2017
new business models,
in social impact
etc. The innovation
paradigm will keep on
expressing in newer
forms so long these
are valuable and
sustainable.
How do you view
the India’s rise to
66th position in the
Global Innovation
Index 2016? What
are the challenges
that hold back our
innovation at the
broader level?
While this is
encouraging, we
should be in a position
to rise further from
here. Only that other
nations too are doing
their bit to improve or
maintain their ranks.
Personally, however,
I believe we should
be more involved in
strengthening the
underlying capacity.
As a nation we a have
a huge potential to
unlock. These rankings
are important and
give a sense of our
competitive strength.
But, it’s important
to also recognize
that this ranking
framework depends