India is dreaming of becoming an innovative society. Everybody in every nook and corner is talking about innovation, but are we talking to ourselves as to how it will happen, what it will take to make it happen. There are so many challenges in terms of our culture which we have to face. How do we plan to address these issues? How serious are we?
Indian culture is plagued with many prejudices. Its deep religious ethos, caste system which remains deeply entrenched, a patriarchal culture, a culture which has always propagated respect for elders, where elders think taking decisions and mentoring is their birthright only.
To fulfill this far fetched dream of having an innovative culture, there is need to create an eco system to support the system. Though it is believed that Indians possess some of the most creative best brains in the world, yet in India we hardly get to see the glimpse of this creativity. Our cultural prejudices are so deep rooted that people can hardly utilize their creative quotient (CQ). To create an innovative culture, the need is create a learning culture, an environment to where exchange of knowledge is done freely, the need to create a learning culture needs to be appreciated by all.
To have an innovative culture, we need to be creative, we can be creative by continuous learning and we can continuously learn only by asking questions, then there is a pertinent question, does our culture allow us to ask questions? How many of us encourage our children to ask questions, instead we stop them if they ask too many of them. In this way we kill the very basic instinct of creativity, the curiosity, the inquisitiveness in the child.
Time has proven Indians who have moved abroad for higher studies, research and jobs have fared very well there. It is not only the support for resources they got there, it is the eco system, which allowed them to grow there, the eco system which promotes creativity.
In India, who ever questions too much, is actually dreaded. how little do we realise, that questioning continually alone is the road towards opening up new avenues, shake us out of complacency, create a thinking environment, create an open culture, create a learning environment, create a true knowledge driven society- an innovative India.
