Sridhar Vembu rates product innovation in India: Would give ourselves about 35%

Zoho chief scientist Sridhar Vembu stressed that India has a lot of work to do in technology innovation and that it has to be a major focus for the private sector.

Billionaire entrepreneur Sridhar Vembu on Thursday rated the capability of product innovation in India at 35 percent, underlining the massive scope for improvement. Listing how he would assess the country's capabilities in terms of innovation, the Zoho co-founder shared a lengthy post on X.

"I would give ourselves barely passing marks [on product innovation], about 35 percent and that might even be optimistic," he said. " Innovations like UPI show we _can_ do it, but there is still so much work to do. Our industry needs product people (envisioning new trains and new train lines) in addition to effective project managers (running the trains on time)."

Vembu mentioned three more parameters: innovation in process and technology, and scientific breakthrough.

He said the Indian industry is world-class in process innovation. "For example, our airlines, hospitals, retail, and financial services are excellent. We have to adopt process innovations in smaller and mid-sized companies. Overall, I will give ourselves 70 percent on this," he wrote.

The Zoho chief scientist stressed that India has a lot of work to do in technology innovation and that it has to be a major focus for the private sector. "Today, we export most of our technology innovation talent. We have to first retain that talent, and that talent will only stay if they have challenging opportunities. We can also attract talent back if we create and fund ambitious projects," he said.

On scientific breakthroughs, Vembu noted that India has been lagging, but there is a strong pool of promising young scientists. "They have to be funded adequately," he said, adding that the government has to play a strong role in providing funds to researchers.