Indovation ― Innovation and a Global Knowledge Economy in India

How should we understand the many reports that poverty is the mother of innovation in India? What has the role of austerity been in the development of India's knowledge economy? In this critical study of Indian innovation, or 'Indovation', Thomas Birtchnell explores how the complex mobilities of 'globals' with stakes in India have transformed discourses and imaginaries about innovation in the region. He adopts a critical eye to the notion of Indovation by focusing on the various circuits of globals where India's knowledge economy is concentrated: expertise, entrepreneurship and community. Birtchnell traces the various discourses and counter-discourses around an Indian way of working and illustrates how differences in the international dimensions of austerity allow India's knowledge economy to prosper.

Thomas Birtchnell is Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Wollongong, Australia. Previously he was a Research Associate in the Centre for Mobilities Research in Sociology at Lancaster University, UK in the ESRC Technologies and Travel project with Principal Investigator, Distinguished Professor John Urry. Thomas is also an Associate of the Lancaster University India Centre. He was awarded a PhD in Sociology at The University of Sydney, Australia.