Tata group innovations translate to $1 billion of economic benefits

The Tata group has for the first measured the economic value of the benefits delivered by the innovations showcased at Tata Innovista 2014, a group-wide programme to encourage innovations, and it stands at $1 billion.

"Of the 1,010 entries received for Promising Innovations, 43 innovations reached the final round of Tata Innovista 2014. For the first time we have tried to measure the economic value of the benefits delivered by these innovations and the combined benefit of these 43 finalist innovations is estimated at $1 billion on an annual basis," Mukund Rajan, member-group executive council and brand custodian, Tata Sons, said.

The group is keen on spreading the culture of innovation in India. Rajan shared some figures to put it in context.

Tata group's R&D spend as a percentage of turnover for the group as a whole has increased from 2.3 per cent in 2011-12 to 2.5 per cent in 2012-13.

"As a group, in 2012-13, we spent Rs 13,223 crore or $2.43 billion on R&D. This was a growth of 23.8 per cent rupee terms and 8.0 per cent in $ terms over 2011-12. As against India's R&D-GDP ratio of 0.76 per cent, the Tata group's R&D-turnover ratio is substantially higher. We would like to see these ratios increase, both for the country and our group," Rajan explained.

The Promising Innovations awards in the 2014 edition went to Jaguar Land Rover for new product innovations, two teams from TCS an one team Tata Steel for new service innovations, Tata Steel Europe and Tata Consulting Engineers for core process innovations and Tata Power Delhi Distribution for support process innovations.