Innovation for India Awards Announces Winners

New Delhi, Delhi, India , 2006-06-26

The Innovation for India Awards have announced their winners in the categories of Business Innovation and Social Innovation. These awards are the first ever attempt to acknowledge the role of Innovation in businesses and in a social context.

The Awardees in The Business Innovation Section are:

-- Product/Process Innovations – Tata Motors ACE, Divya Bhaskar and Bharat Biotech
-- Business Model Innovations – Wipro (Global Command Centre) and Cranes Software

And, In the Social Innovation Section are:

-- Non Business Organisations – M V Foundation, Kudumbashree and Trichy Policy
-- Business Organisation - ITC IBD eChaupal, Kegg Farms and AP Online.

The Innovation for India Awards were instituted by The Innovation for India – Marico Foundation, Erehwon Innovation Consulting and Business World to formally recognize the greatest innovations to come out of India in the recent past whether it is a company, organization or a government body. Innovations that have positively impacted our lives and have at their core a great idea coupled with a unique insight.

The Categories under which the Awards were adjudged and awarded are Business Innovation and Social Innovation

The winners were chosen from a large number of companies who had sent in their entries. Some Business Entries: Tata Steel, NIIT, Mahindra,Godrej Agrovet, GAIL, Reliance Infocomm,Apollo Health Care, ABB, Amity, Dainik Bhaskar, Pepsico, Tata Teleservices, TCS, Perfetti, Taj Hotels, Infosys, Candico, Cavin Kare, UB, Su-Kam, Star TV, Tata Tea, Titan, Wipro, Tata Motors, APCC, Hughes.

Some Social Entries: Shantha Biotech, Aravind Eye Care, Asian Paints, MV Foundation, Population Services International, IIT Madras, Art of Living, Delhi Police, Janaagraha, Kudumbashree, Honey Bee Network, Kegg Farms, Ispat India, Azim Premji Foundation, Trichy Police, Narayana Hrudyalaya, Mahila Bank, Tata Motors, Hughes Escorts Communication.

All entries went through a rigorous process of evaluation pioneered by Erehwon and had two jury sittings along with an ‘in-context insight process’ conducted by Erehwon Innovation Consulting.

The jury comprised of Ranjan Kapur (Country Manager, WPP), Rajiv Narang (CEO, Erehwon Innovation Consulting), Ashwin Dani (VC and MD, Asian Paints), Anu Aga (Ex Chairperson, Thermax), Arun Maira (Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India), Dr. Ashok V. Desai, Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar (Director General, CSIR), Rama Bijapurkar (Strategy Consultant), Bhupendra Sharma ( Director Erehwon Innovation Consulting), Harsh Mariwala (Chairperson & Managing Director, Marico Industries), and Dr. M L Shrikant ( Dean SP Jain Insititute for Management).

The Innovation for India – Marico foundation, promoted by Marico in partnership with Erehwon, a global innovation consulting company, was created in March 2003 under the stewardship of Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar (Director General, CSIR), with a single mission to fuel innovation in India.

The goal is to put India on the global map by leveraging Indian knowledge and know-how. By arming ourselves with two things:

-- A belief that Innovation is possible and is the way to leapfrog India into the centre-stage of global business leadership.
-- A framework to leverage innovation for quantum growth

Erehwon, a two-decade old Bangalore based company, operating internationally, enables its clients to create greater value through Quantum Innovation. Over the years Erehwon has worked with some of the largest and best names both in India and globally, cutting across projects that are high-end value as well as ones that cater to the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Companies like Wipro, UB spirits and Bharti in India; Nokia, Novartis & Borealis in Europe and Kanbay in the US acknowledge Erehwon‘s pioneering model on quantum innovation and have engaged them in their search for business breakthroughs.

Some Additional Information on process and evaluation at the Awards:

Stage one was the call for entries. Some 163 organizations applied -102 for the business category and 61 for social.

Four reviewers at Erehwon Innovation Consulting screened the entries in detail. (Stage two).

The filters used in the business category were to look for an innovation, which was unique for its sector, the impact it had based on triple bottomline objectives, and its leverage (higher than usual output with lower than usual input). I

In the social sector, the innovation was judged on the basis of impact (number of lives impacted and degree of impact), uniqueness, leverage and whether it was scalable and sustainable.

The four reviewers then presented their finding to a panel of other Erehwon consultants who finally selected 36 entries (21 in business and 15 in social) for the third stage of the evaluation process.

The entries were also further subdivided into business product/ process, business model, social (business) and social (non business) categories.

In stage three, the jury met with the 36 shortlisted organizations, judged them using the parameters from stage two, and then individually marked them. Twenty outfits (12 in business and 8 social) made the cut.

The six- member jury included Anu Aga, Ex Chairperson, Thermax, Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group and Ranjan Kapur, Country Manager WPP amongst others.

Stage four was the ‘in- context insight process’

Seven Erehwon Consultants fanned across the country to see the innovations at work first hand.

Following this, another jury met to select the winners (stage five). Of the 20, 11 made the cut. And they are all the winners of the first innovation for the India Awards.

Contact

Sudha Sarin, INSIGHT Communications, +91 (011) 295 32948 / +91 98100 91066
[email protected]