From innovation policy, to green technology, to social sustainability, scholars from across the globe have convened at CC as Dan Johnson, associate professor of economics and business, hosts “Innovation and Sustainability: Lessons from the History of India and Hopes for the Future” on campus this week. Sessions are June 9 and 10 and many are open to the public and the CC community: view the full program.
This multidisciplinary celebration of international scholarship about India brought scholars from India and around the world to CC to join in a conversation to further the regional initiative, IndiaLICS (Learning, Innovation, and Competence-building System), which aims to connect scholars who use the concepts of learning, innovation, and competence-building systems as their analytical framework.
The conference is already building community, both on the international and the local levels. Jay Patel has lived in Colorado Springs for 38 years and is a leader in the Indian community here, which he says has grown over the years. After hearing about Johnson’s proposal for hosting IndiaLICS at CC, and opportunities for the exchange of ideas, best practices, and innovations it would offer, Patel and the Colorado Springs Indian community jumped in to help fund it. The Colorado Springs South Asian Community puts on an annual Diwali event, celebrating the rich cultural heritage of India with festivities similar to Christmas in the U.S., to raise money each year for a local charity or nonprofit. This year, the event’s net proceeds helped fund the IndiaLICS academic conference.
Patel says he’s excited about the energy and ideas the conference brings to CC and Colorado Springs. “The world is not a small place anymore and ideas move quickly,” says Patel. “Who knows what ideas and innovations will be sparked here? This could really be putting [CC and Colorado Springs] at the forefront.”
Lakhwinder Singh, professor of economics at Punjabi University in India, is participating in the conference. He says his core teaching and research interest lies in the areas of innovations and development, and the theme of this conference coincides with his personal research work as well as the research work in progress at the Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies, of which he is a founding coordinator.
Singh says that with economists and other social scientists participating and presenting their work, the conference provides an opportunity for interaction with experts in the areas of innovation and development. “Hearing from them will allow me to better understand where public policy interventions in India are required,” he says. “The idea of collaborative research is to build capacity and identify gaps so that in the future, suitable public policy can be designed to meet the challenges that act as stumbling blocks in achieving India’s long-term sustainable economic development.”
One of the challenges Singh hopes to address is in India’s private industrial sector. “India’s national innovation system has some very big achievements, such as space technologies and pharmaceuticals,” Singh says, “but manufacturing and agriculture innovations lag behind, which is a big contributor to the poverty that persists in India.”
Singh adds that conferences, like IndiaLICS, help to begin collaborative efforts that can make a big impact. “There is an ample scope for collaboration across manufacturing and agriculture sectors where India direly needs new innovations, including various science and technology institutions and also with manufacturing firms and national governing organizations.” Representatives from those various sectors are convening on campus now and most sessions are free and open to the CC community and general public.
Patel says he’s hopeful many members of the local Indian community are in attendance; he plans to be. “I’d like to meet some of the intelligent people coming out and get a sense of what’s going on in India,” says Patel. “Much of that information-sharing could potentially affect Indians living here in Colorado Springs, many of whom have families and homes in India. By sharing ideas, putting something on the table, getting new thoughts, that really triggers innovation in its best form. So this will be terrific.”
