India ranked second in Asia for innovation centres

Vantage point: Insights from cutting-edge research

India is now among the top two destinations for innovation centres in Asia and ranked fourth in newly opened innovation hubs during 2017 in the world. This was revealed by “The discipline of innovation: Making sure your innovation centre actually makes your organisation more innovative”, a report by Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute. The report which surveyed 1,700 employees at 340 organisations across eight countries highlights the prevalence of innovation centres and investigates their value to businesses. India’s rapid progress as an innovation destination with the nine new innovation centres opened in the last year (November 2016–October 2017) has secured it the second rank in Asia and fourth globally.

India now accounts for 25 per cent of innovation centres in Asia. It harbours 7 per cent of newly opened innovation centres globally. Hyderabad, Chennai (not a tier-II city) and Pune have opened one innovation centre each. But the limelight is on Bengaluru this year. Bengaluru, which has six out of nine innovation centres, is often dubbed as the “Silicon Valley of India” which employs over a million in the local technology sector and remains the most favourite destination within the country. With the opening of six new innovation centres in the city it moved up to the fourth position as against fifth in 2016 and became the fourth most popular innovation centre destination in the top 10 city rankings. The report also highlights that several other cities in India have become attractive for innovation centres with Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune each opening one centres this year. This growth is due in part to the presence of a very strong digital talent pool in Asia and India’s largest supply worldwide of digital talent.

Indian job seekers put flexibility at a premium

Representative Image

 

The Indian market is smitten by the gig economy with job seekers increasingly looking for “work from home” opportunities, according to findings of the job search portal Indeed’s first-ever Year in Job Search report for 2017 in India. With companies offering competitive salaries and generous perks along with great flexibilities, employees are increasingly exploring flexible career opportunities that allow time for growth in personal capabilities. Further, with the Ministry of AYUSH stressing alternative medicine and encouraging preventive health care practices, India has witnessed an impressive track record. Job search for Ayurveda saw a growth rate of 56 per cent in 2017.

However, the pharma sector, surprisingly saw a huge dip in searches, witnessing a 40 per cent decrease . This could also be indicative of the impact of a larger social trend of Indians looking at adopting alternative/natural healing methods. Global technology disruptions coupled with the Indian government’s aggressive focus on digital has seen its impact on the local labour market. With more companies in India wanting to increase their digital presence, there is a visible surge in job searches for digital marketing jobs with core technology opportunities in the domains of machine learning, data scientist and data analytics being the hot favourites. While globally tech jobs are the most sought after, in India aspirants are inclining towards the public sector. The thrust of “Make in India” and other government initiatives has led to an increasing interest in government jobs.