Melnick, Daniel (Author)
Melnick, Vijaya L. (Author)
Comparative Technology Transfer and Society
Volume: 5
Issue: 2
Pages: 202-223
Edition Details: Special issue: Cultures of Innovation
Language: English
Innovation is the key to transforming people's lives. Scientific research and novel technologies deliver real benefits only when innovators appropriately apply them to improve the lives of ordinary people. Innovative approaches anchored in the local context assume a truly transformative power. This essay discusses the role of innovation in development and uses examples from India that illustrate how that country has facilitated innovation to transform how people live, work, and overcome problems by drawing upon critical resources. Changed values and decisions—highly personal and specific factors—emerge as key. These innovations critically involve the diffusion of new ideas and their acceptance by new users. Innovation and technology transfer are vital elements in this story. Examining how innovations are implemented reveals the tension between national advances and delivering the benefits of change to all parts of Indian society. Making technology accessible to a wider Indian public involves the diffusion of new approaches, the internalization of new ideas, and transfer of these approaches from the technological cadre that is a product of India's elite scientific and technical institutions to the broader public. The essay describes a number of efforts to disseminate advances to disadvantaged groups and to involve them in the development process. The questions that remain are: Will this effort be sufficient to retain the support of Indians for advances that demand change and a renewed commitment to excellent efforts? What is the appropriate balance between growth and social justice? Clearly, these are issues that the current Indian government has at the top of its agenda.
...MoreArticle Hicks, Esther K. (2007) Can the African Virtual University Transform Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa?. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 156-177).
Article Lemelson, Robert (2007) Introduction to Special Issue: Cultures of Innovation. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 105-107).
Article Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla; Singer, Peter A.; Daar, A. S. (2007) Innovation Cultures in Developing Countries: The Case of Health Biotechnology. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 178-201).
Article Carlson, W. Bernard (2007) Diversity and Progress: How Might We Picture Technology across Global Cultures?. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 128-155).
Article Inkster, Ian (2007) Technology in World History: Cultures of Constraint and Innovation, Emulation, and Technology Transfers. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 108-127).
Article Molella, Arthur P. (2007) In This Issue: Editor's Introduction to Special Issue -- Cultures of Innovation. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society.
Article Tummala, Krishna K. (2007) Notes from the Field: Innovation and development in India. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society (pp. 202-223).
Similar Citations
Article
Tummala, Krishna K.;
(2007)
Notes from the Field: Innovation and development in India
(/isis/citation/CBB845985059/)
Book
Smritikumar Sarkar;
(2014)
Technology and rural change in eastern India, 1830-1980
(/isis/citation/CBB027833378/)
Article
David S Jones;
Kavita Sivaramakrishnan;
(August 2018)
Making heart-lung machines work in India: Imports, indigenous innovation and the challenge of replicating cardiac surgery in Bombay, 1952-1962
(/isis/citation/CBB096330389/)
Book
David P. Billington, Jr.;
(2020)
From Insight to Innovation: Engineering Ideas That Transformed America in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB511648181/)
Book
Anne Marie Balsamo;
(2011)
Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work
(/isis/citation/CBB272473814/)
Book
Nowotny, Helga;
(2006)
Cultures of technology and the quest for innovation
(/isis/citation/CBB001181551/)
Book
Dietmar Harhoff;
Karim R. Lakhani;
(2015)
Revolutionizing innovation: Users, communities, and open innovation
(/isis/citation/CBB698417511/)
Book
Schiffer, Michael B.;
(2011)
Studying technological change: A behavioral approach
(/isis/citation/CBB001180809/)
Article
Ellen Harlizius-Klück;
Vivek S. Oak;
Annapurna Mamidipudi;
(2022)
Conflicting Threads. Technological Innovation and the Socio-technical Ensemble of Weaving
(/isis/citation/CBB762748665/)
Book
Bouneau, Christophe;
Burigana, David;
Varsori, Antonio;
(2010)
Les trajectoires de l'innovation technologique et la construction européenne des voies de structuration durable? (Trends in technological innovation and the European construction: The emerging of enduring dynamics?)
(/isis/citation/CBB001181583/)
Book
Phelps, Edmund S.;
(2013)
Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change
(/isis/citation/CBB001213139/)
Book
Lee, Rupert;
(2002)
The Eureka! Moment: 100 Key Scientific Discoveries of the 20th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000302207/)
Article
Serge Paquier;
(2011)
From following to improving technology: the case of the Swiss gas industry in the 19th century
(/isis/citation/CBB771776947/)
Book
Dewey, Peter E.;
(2008)
Iron Harvests of the Field: The Making of Farm Machinery in Britain since 1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001201105/)
Chapter
Tedeschi, Paolo;
(2011)
Notes on the Marshall Plan in Lombardy. Technological Innovation and Vocational Training
(/isis/citation/CBB001201965/)
Book
Benoît Godin;
(2017)
Models of Innovation: The History of an Idea
(/isis/citation/CBB245620351/)
Chapter
McCray, Patrick;
(2012)
From L5 to X Prize: California's Alternative Space Movement
(/isis/citation/CBB001201074/)
Article
Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla;
Singer, Peter A.;
Daar, A. S.;
(2007)
Innovation Cultures in Developing Countries: The Case of Health Biotechnology
(/isis/citation/CBB630823610/)
Book
Edgerton, David;
(2007)
The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900
(/isis/citation/CBB000741907/)
Article
Prasad, Amit;
(October 2019)
Burdens of the Scientific Revolution: Euro/West-Centrism, Black Boxed Machines, and the (Post) Colonial Present
(/isis/citation/CBB115115842/)
Be the first to comment!