BANGALORE: Has India begun its transformation into a knowledge and innovation society? Participants at the second edition of the Design Public Conclave held recently agreed that the process is yet in its early stages. Design Public, a series of conversations on whether and how innovation can serve the Public Interest, brought together leading thinkers on innovation and design along with decision-makers including high-level representatives from the Government and the Public Sector, the Social Sector, as well as leaders of India’s Private Sector to discuss and ideate on how all they can collaboratively innovate to effectively solve the Grand Challenges of Indian Society. Notable speakers included, among others, Harsh Shrivastava of the National Planning Commission, Ashwin Mahesh of Mapunity, Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm, Rohini Nilekani of the Arghyam Foundation, M P Ranjan of Design for India, Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha, and eminent Sociologist of Science Shiv Vishwanathan.The high-level conclave was a locus for the divergent strands of expertise to come together in discussions on crucial questions of how innovation can serve the public interest, whether and how innovation can be routinized, how innovation and design are related, and how the various sectors of society can collaborate to bring about a culture of innovation in India.The debates were interactive and encouraged the greatest possible participation and collaboration. The morning sessions were structured as panel discussions where the audience was encouraged to participate freely, while in the afternoon, participants broke up into smaller groups to brainstorm on ways in which innovation could be used to solve the three focus grand challenges identified for the day: online higher education, improved maternal and child healthcare, and toilets and sanitation for all.In his opening remarks, Dr. Aditya Dev Sood of the Center for Knowledge Societies identified some of the Grand Challenges facing India as a society, and described how innovation in design could be better used to address these. Harsh Shrivastava of the National Planning Commission endorsed this effort, saying that Innovation is an integral part of the upcoming 12th five-year plan, and that “the Design Public Conclave is an essential forum for the conversation on how to best integrate innovation within the government’s plans for India’s future.”Rohini Nilekani, the noted philanthropist and social investor said “India must experiment with design and innovation in order to discover how to solve problems that we have no ready solutions for.” Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha reminded the audience of the need for a user-centred approach to innovation, particularly in areas of governance and civic administration.In a panel on ‘Start-Up Innovation’, Mahesh Murthy of the venture capital firm Pinstorm spoke about the need to use design to help young entrepreneurs better understand how to make their start-ups more viable and potentially successful in the marketplace. “Here in India people are either into marketing or into technology,” he commented, adding, “We need to cultivate design as a third capacity which can bridge these two existing areas of competence.”The noted social scientist and writer Shiv Vishwanathan discussed the relationships between social systems and technology in the afternoon session. In the final session, a number of decision-makers from funding agencies made positive commitments to investing in innovation-oriented social and welfare programmes. Anant Shah of the Gates Foundation announced the launch of the Bihar Innovation Lab in partnership with the Center for Knowledge Societies.
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