The Power Of Innovation.

(From Business Today (India))

Byline: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

National pride to me symbolises the convergence of the aspirations of our people with the political vision of the country. Over the last decade, there has been a great shift in national pride-for the better. In the 1990s, national pride emphasised our past achievements. Today, it's about our confidence in the future. In the past, we basked in the glory of our forefathers, but today we perceive ourselves as creators of new history, directing our own destinies. The ''Made in India'' label is no longer something that we need to defend. Rather, it is something that we can project with a sense of national pride. Information technology has provided India with a powerful branding platform, which has raised national pride to an all-time high. We've gone from being a non-brand to being a known-brand.

In the coming decades, Brand India will only get more powerful. As information, innovation, and imagination will be the prime drivers of the new knowledge economy. And India-as a rich reservoir of these attributes-is ideally placed to emerge as its new leader. Today, biotechnology is playing an increasingly important role in addressing unmet medical needs, augmenting food and agricultural production, and addressing environmental sustainability. Therefore, I perceive biotechnology as the next big economic opportunity for Brand India.

Research and development (R&D) is the soul of this emerging domain and India exhibits global advantage …