A high five from Innovate Publishers

If you needed to meet the most brilliant minds in Bengaluru, well, you had to be at the Innovate Bengaluru Festival on 11/4/19, at WeWork, Residency Road. Over 300 people with diverse talents converged at the event which brought together Icons, Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Emerging Leaders, Enablers and Investors.

The highlight was the release of ‘Innovate Bengaluru’, a unique book on the city’s innovative ecosystem. Featuring the TOP 100 innovators in the city, this is the first book in the Innovate India series. Heralded as the future of MediaTech, Innovate Bengaluru is an AR-enabled book + web series (https://innovationsoftheworld.com/india/). The book is available at Sapna Book House, and on Amazon and Flipkart. For more details, see here:https://raintreemedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/an-impressive-deep-dive-into-bengalurus.html.

The Festival was high on energy; beginning with crisp presentations by two young innovators and entrepreneurs, the sessions moved briskly between individual presentations by established industry leaders and thought-provoking panel discussions.

Sandhya Mendonca, Founder Raintree Media, said, “This is the first edition of the Innovate Book and the Festival in India and we will be taking them to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi. We will also be connecting innovators in India with their counterparts across the globe on the website innovationsoftheworld.com.”

Featured Speakers & Topics at the Innovate Bengaluru Festival were:

• As humans look at making their homes in space, Rohan Ganapathy, Co-founder & CEO, Bellatrix Aerospace talks about “Reaching the Final Frontier”
• HealthTech is journeying towards “Precision & Personalized Medicine” says Pooja Venkatesh, Co-founder, Next Big Innovation Labs.
• “Can humans live forever?” Yes, says, Dr BS AjaiKumar, Chairman & CEO, HCG Hospitals, in his talk on “The road to immortality”.
• Stressing over breakthroughs and bottom lines? Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds shows you “The happy way to success”.

• Partnering for Progress”: Her Excellency, Dana Kursh, Consul General of Israel to South India
• “The future of MediaTech is AR” say Sandhya Mendonca, Founder Raintree Media & Chief Editor, Innovate India & Carel Van Graan, CEO, Global Village. 
• Dr. Jitendra Kumar, Managing Director, Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre makes a compelling case for ‘Destination Bangalore’

• Spaces for Future Communities” : Discussion with Nirupa Shankar, Director, Brigade Hospitality & Brigade REAP, Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Chairperson, Smart City Tumakuru, & Principal Secretary, Planning Programme Monitoring & Statistics Department, Government of Karnataka, Vinit Bhansali, Vice President & Chief Environmentalist, Orios Venture Partners, & Amit Gupta, CEO, Yulu Bikes. Moderator: Revathy Ashok, Co-founder, Strategy Garage

• “The Journey of Creativity : to Eureka & Beyond”: Discussion with Bindhumalini, Musician & Composer, Rajlakshmi Borthakur, Founder & CEO, Terra Blue, Veekshith Rai, COO, Finly.io, Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director, C- CAMP. Moderator: Dr. CV Natraj, Technical Advisor, SID, IISc.

Media Coverage:

 

Innovate Bengaluru AR embedded special edition is launched at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy releasing special edition of Innovate Bengaluru at the Bengaluru tech Summit 2018, with Ministers KJ George, RV Deshpande and Priyank Kharge, along with Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder Infosys, Kate Jones, Queensland Minister for Innovation and Tourism, Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France, Riho Kruv, Ambassador of Estonia, and other dignitaries. Also present are Sandhya Mendonca and Aditya Mendonca of Raintree Media

Unveiling the future of print, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy released ‘Innovate Bengaluru’, an Augmented Reality embedded book at the inaugural session of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018 on Nov 29, 2018. Aptly, this innovative media tech product published by Raintree Media and Global Village World is all about Bengaluru’s innovators and innovative ecosystem.

Mr. KJ George, Karnataka Minister for ITBT, Science & Technology, and Large & Medium Scale Industries, says in the book, “We are happy to see Bengaluru's startup and innovative ecosystem being promoted globally in the Augmented Reality Innovate Bengaluru. It is an excellent initiative. Bengaluru is the Startup Capital of India, and we want it to become the Startup Capital of the world.”

Heads of C-CAMP, Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre & ABLE  with the book and the Raintree Media team 

Sandhya Mendonca, Founder, MD & Chief Editor, Raintree Media says, “We are excited to bring the Innovate series of Augmented Reality embedded books to India. We are on a journey to connect innovators across the world and Bengaluru is the starting point in our journey in India. Being a homegrown company, we are thrilled to be at the Tech Summit, which is the ideal launch pad for our Media Tech product. We are now gearing up for the full-fledged edition that will be out in a few months and invite nominations of innovative companies to be featured in Innovate Bengaluru."

Dr.Kiran Mazumdar Shaw appreciating the book, with Sandhya Mendonca, Chief Editor

To experience the Innovate Bengaluru book, readers have to download the Global Village AR app to their smartphones, available free of charge on both IOS and Android app stores. They simply focus the phone on the pages which have the AR symbol and presto, the book starts playing a video.

Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director, C-CAMP

The special edition of ‘Innovate Bengaluru’ contains 30 stories of innovators in Deep Science, Manufacturing, AgriTech, BioTech, Space, Education, Social Impact, Ecommerce and Brick & Mortar, investors, incubators and enablers along with AR videos. It is also available as an ebook.

The stories are also on the web at innovationhubindia.com . The full-fledged book that will have a 100 stories, to be published in March. Innovative companies can nominate themselves to be featured in the Innovate series in Bengaluru and India, at innovationhubindia.com/form/

“A good entrepreneur in Bangalore will find money" - Pradeep Kar

Pradeep Kar, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of Microland  and serial technology entrepreneur

The entrepreneurial climate of Bangalore created legendary start-ups in the 1990s. Today, the city is abuzz again with successful start-ups across diverse verticals and starting a new business has never been easier here.

Read more in the BEST OF Bangalore Innovation Edition, which Kar describes as “very relevant to Bangalore”. CLICK HERE to buy online

“Not a Kodak moment: Innovation has to be pervasive” - Ashok Soota

Ashok Soota

“Innovation is a lifetime survival strategy. If you are not adopting the latest disruptive technologies, you will be disrupted”, said Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds.

Speaking about ‘Innovation as a key business differentiator’ at the launch of the international book BEST OF Bangalore Vol. 2 Innovation Edition, Soota asserted that innovation was not just marketing or product strategy.

Nobody would know better: He worked in the manufacturing industry before leading the growth of Wipro’s IT business from a run rate of $2 million to $500 million. He then co-founded MindTree and led it to a run rate of $350 million, before starting Happiest Minds which is on course to becoming the fastest Indian IT services company to achieve $100 million in revenue. Soota is also an industry leader; he was President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and also President of Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology. He has served on the Prime Minister's Task Force for IT and on the Advisory Council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva.

According to Soota, “The only reason why, in a city of mushrooming IT companies, Happiest Minds has been successful is because of innovation”.

To underline the pitfalls of lagging behind, he cited the example of Kodak. Though the company pioneered digital cameras, the new technology was a one-off development for Kodak which did not follow through on innovative thinking. Eventually, the company stagnated due to the inability to ‘catch the next wave’. Similarly, Nokia that had led the mobile phone market, completely missed the smartphone wave and is now playing catch-up, he said.

Soota talked about the two main types of innovation – Technology Innovation and Market Innovation. The former is about adopting the latest design and architecture while the latter is about mobilising data and services through the use of disruptive communication and storage media like Cloud and Social Analytics. “It is a pervasive process and must become part of the company’s philosophy,” he said.

He wrapped up his speech on a high note, reminding the audience that Bangalore is one the top 5 entrepreneurial hubs in the world. “There is always a sense of adventure and courage to the businesses founded in this city and that is going to be the key differentiator in the times to come”, he said.

For more on disruptive technologies powered by Happiest Minds, read Connecting happiness in the BEST OF Bangalore Vol. 2 Innovation Edition: available in leading book stores. To buy the book online CLICK HERE

“For the people, of the people and by the people” – Sakala Egovernance

Unbelievable as it might appear to people who have waded through years of red tape, the Government of Karnataka has introduced an online system that addresses problems and helps resolve them within a fortnight. What’s more, it is a single-window system that spares people of the ordeal of running between different government departments.

Dr. Shalini Rajneesh

Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Karnataka spoke about ‘Innovation in Governance’ at the launch of the international book BEST OF BANGALORE Vol. 2 Innovation Edition. “Innovation is the need of the hour in industry and government alike”, she said.

In particular, Dr. Rajneesh spoke about the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act, 2011, popularly known as Sakala. Meaning ‘in time’ in Kannada, Sakala is a new system of empowerment that  stands true to the three fundamental axioms of democracy: for the people, of the people and by the people.

It also enables entrepreneurs and corporate businesses to obtain licenses quicker and without having to bribe anyone. “People are happily surprised to find ‘helpful’ government employees,” she quipped as she summarised the reach and efficiency of the programme.

Over the past 25 months, 53 million people have availed of the services in Sakala – a number that in itself proves the need for such a system. Currently, Sakala spans across 50 departments and 669 services. It is a herculean effort, and it has already won the Google Innovation Award for its novel approach to governance. Dr. Rajneesh urged the corporate world to work closely with the government in bettering the society and urged that CSR initiatives should prioritise women’s empowerment in the state.

For more on Sakala, read Transforming governance in the BEST OF BANGALORE Vol. 2 Innovation Edition: available in leading book stores. To buy the book online CLICK HERE

How does Bangalore fare as a business hub?

"The spirit of innovation is the most important aspect of the city" according to Sandeep Maini. He is the Chairman of the Maini Group of Companies, which was started in 1973 by his father, the pioneering industrialist Sudarshan Maini. A premier engineering and manufacturing entity, the Group has a global presence in sectors like Automotive & Aerospace, Plastics and Composites, Material Handling Equipments, Storage Systems, Electronic vehicles and All Terrain vehicles.The Maini Group has made history by producing India's first electric car, REVA.

Sandeep Maini is also Chairman of CII Karnataka State Council which works to create a better industrial climate in the state. “Bangalore is ideally suited for business, with its vibrant social and cultural environment”.

Sandeep Maini

Maini was speaking on the topic of ‘Bangalore as a Business Hub’ during the launch of the international coffee table book, BEST OF Bangalore Vol. 2 Innovation Edition on July 23 in Bangalore.

“The secret behind Bangalore’s success is that it is the most congenial city in the country,” said the long time Bangalorean. Bangalore has had a history of being a land of opportunity, he said, and cited the example of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), India's premier aeronautical complex as embodying the city's spirit of innovation .

Tracing HAL’s origins, Maini said that it was founded in Mysore during the pre-Independence era as part of the Royal Indian Air Force. The Second World War drastically changed the face of this organisation and during the war, it served as a major repairing hub for United States Air Force (USAF). When the war ended, HAL emerged as one of Asia’s largest and renowned aircraft repair centres. From then on, HAL has continued to redefine itself.

The Reva electric car that the Maini Group had built (it has been acquired by the Mahindra Group) and said that the “Reva is our best example of adopting innovative thinking”.

The city undoubtedly has several challenges and there has been a noted degradation of civic values, but he was optimistic that citizens could overcome the hurdles if they pooled their resources together and take responsibility. Harking back to the growth of the Mainis, he said, “I can honestly say that we have grown with the best of Bangalore".

For more On Doing Business in Karnataka, and detailed interviews with Soumitra Bhattacharya, former Chairman of CII Karnataka State Council about the Agenda for Business and with Sandeep Maini about CII as a Business Enabler, read the BEST OF BANGALORE Vol. 2 Innovation Edition : available in leading book stores. To buy the book online CLICK HERE

“The Best among the Best – Best of Bangalore Innovation Edition.”

“This is the best among the best,” said Mr Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds at the launch of the latest in the BEST OF series of international books, and the fifth in the series in India.

Ashok Soota with Sandhya Mendonca

Fittingly for a book that pegs itself as setting the benchmark for books on Bangalore, the launch was a statement of both substance and style. It was an evening of understated elegance and unaffected affirmation of accomplishment.

Kicking off with two sets of short contemporary dances that were specially choreographed for the book launch by Natya & Stem Dance Kampni, the event moved seamlessly to an audio visual journey of Raintree Media’s journey of consistent growth and innovation.

The original number 'Ocean Flute' by CHAKRAFONICS, a world music band, playing in the background set the mood for a book launch like never before.

Dancers of the Natya & STEM Dance Kampni 

Sandhya Mendonca, Managing Director & Editor-in-Chief of Raintree Media, spoke without a prepared text, stating, “The AV has said it all, and the rest is for you to read in the book”. It was a moment to give warm thanks, and her speech was brief. In fact, brevity marked the company’s presenters, Aditya Mendonca and Capt Seshadri Sreenivasan saying just enough.

The focus was after all on the panel of eminent speakers who had been assigned, after much deliberation, topics that drew out the best from them.

Some of the Founders & CEO's of the organisations featured in the book

The first of the illustrious speakers of the evening was Mr. Sandeep Maini, Chariman of CII Karnataka State Council & Chairman of Maini Group of Companies. Heading the company that pioneered many engineering products, including, the Reva EV, he was the perfect person to speak on Bangalore as a business hub. He has lived through the various changes of this dynamic city and he intertwined that invaluable experience into his speech. An eternal optimist, he outlined the challenges facing companies today and how they are currently being overcome.

Dr.Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary for the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms and two other departments, spoke on ‘Innovation in Governance’. As the Project Director of Karnataka’s pioneering e-governance initiative Sakala, she stressed the importance of cooperation between the government and the corporate world.

From L-R: Sandhya Mendonca, Ashok Soota, Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Zubin Songadwalla & Sandeep Maini 

Mr. Ashok Soota, Chairman of Happiest Minds, spoke about “Innovation as a Key Differentiator” to an audience eager to lap up his words, gleaned from years of valuable experience. Having worked in both manufacturing and information technology, Mr. Soota had excellent insights into what makes an organisation tick. “Innovation has to be pervasive and permanent”, he said, citing several case studies to reinforce his point. *A more detailed report of the three speeches are in the next post.

Following those enlightening speeches, the chief guests unveiled the elegant, red case-bound books and were joined on stage by CEOs and Founders of companies that have made their mark with innovative thinking. These are the superstars of the business world and it was a proud moment for everybody present, as these illustrious Bangaloreans came together to celebrate the launch of the book.

Enthralling World Music by Aneesh Vidyashankar

The final act was as fitting as it was beautiful. A musical performance by Aneesh Vidyashankar and his accompanists, the trio of young and very talented musicians; they expressed their imaginative interpretation of innovation. Fusing Western and Indian classical music, they created a lilting confluence. From Bach to Thyagaraja, their knowledge of music was evident as they weaved through their performance with ease, breaking conventions to create magic. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening.


 By V Rajagopal