The Fourth India Innovation Summit being organized on 20-21 June 2008 at Bangalore will have as its theme “Innovation in the 21st Century”.

CII Karnataka in association with Infosys Technologies Ltd and supported by Government of Karnataka, is organising the Fourth India Innovation 2008 on the theme Innovation in the 21st Century on 20-21 June 2008 at Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore. Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO & Managing Director, Infosys Technologies is the Summit Chairman.

To capitalize on the emerging opportunities and address challenges, organizations and governments need to leverage emerging technologies and collaborate with stakeholder communities across geographies to co-create value. Sustainable growth is possible only when innovations are integrated with ethical business practices and care for the environment. The conference will present many insightful case studies that have addressed these issues.

The two-day Summit, chaired by Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO & MD, Infosys Technologies Ltd, will present many insightful case studies on seven different themes - Innovations in Emerging Markets ,Services Innovation ,Systematic Innovation for the Competitive Edge, CSR Driven Innovation ,Innovations for Rural India, Leveraging & Nurturing the Indian Innovation System, Innovation in Public Sector / Government.

On 20th June, Shri Katta Subramanya Naidu, Minister for IT & BT, Excise, Information and BWSSB, Government of Karnataka will speak at the Summit. Shri Murugesh Nirani, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, Government of Karnataka is also expected to address the Summit on 21st June.

The other eminent speakers addressing the Summit will be Dr. Shekhar Mitra, Global R&D Vice President – Beauty Care, Procter & Gamble, Abhinanda Sarkar, Quality Leader, GE Global Research, Bert O’Donoghue, Managing Director, 3M, Dr Anil Gupta, Executive Vice Chairman, National Innovation Foundation, Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi, Director, NARI, Dr. Homi Bhedwar, Director R&D, DuPont Knowledge Centre, Devendra Bharma, Executive Vice President, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Harsha Purasinghe, Managing Director & CEO Microimage, Sri Lanka, Kentaro Toyama, Co-Founder Microsoft Research India, Kush Desai, Managing Director, SAP Labs India, Madhabi Puri-Buch, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, Makoto Ono, Director & Senior Vice President - External Affairs & CSR Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt. Ltd, Manik Thapar, Founder CEO, Eco-Wise Waste Management, Prof Amarnath, Member SINE Governing Body, IIT Bombay, P.L. Vaishampayan, Chief Designer, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Ram Vaidya, Regional Product Development Director, Johnson & Johnson Medical, Asia-Pacific, Raj Datta, Vice President, Knowledge Management, MindTree Ltd, Sriram Raghavan, President & Founder Comat Technologies, Samson David, Vice President & Delivery Head -CME (US), Infosys Technologies, Rajesh Mishra, CEO – India Operations, UFO Moviez, Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman & Managing Director, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd, Vivek Aggarwal, IAS, Collector & Executive Director, Indore City Transport Service.

The Summit will close with a Panel Discussion on “Innovation in the 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges for India” with a high-profile panel comprising Dr. Rekha Shetty, Author/Entrepreneur/Managing Director Farstar Distribution Network, Rajiv Mody, Chairman & CEO, Sasken Communication Technologies, Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman, Co-Founder & CEO, Strand Life Sciences, Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman & CTO, REVA Electric Car Company and Pradeep Tagare, Director, Intel Cap India Technology Fund

The Summit is supported by leading innovative companies such as Canon, Google, GE Research, Microsoft Research, Nokia, P&G, SBI and Xerox.

A new dimension to the Fourth India Innovation Summit is The Innovation Challenge contest which will provide a platform to present to individuals and corporates to present commercially viable solutions to the theme of the contest which focuses on Urban Issues in Bangalore City.

To maintain continuity to the initiative of organizing the Innovation Summit, CII Karnataka plans to organize bimonthly meeting with practitioners in Innovation Management to share, learn and develop best practices.

Organised by CII Karnataka since 2005, the Innovation Summit has been very successful in bringing together practitioners from across the developed and developing world to share their actual experiences on Innovation and insights into how they steered the innovation course in their organizations. The Summit provides an ideal platform for Indian Industry to understand the various nuances of innovation, the critical role innovation played in business success and the imperativeness for Indian industry to ingrain innovation across its spectrum of business activities and processes.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had organised 3 earlier summits .The 3rd India Innovation Summit 200 covered topics like Innovation is required for a long-term future and India has all the potential to become the Innovation and Knowledge capital of the world. India can give the world the best talent and innovative minds for a global growth as 65% of the population is under the age of 30-35 years

The second Indian Innovation summit was held at Leela Palace, Bangalore on 16th and 17th June, 2006. The summit organized by CII covered innovation in business, governance and social causes worldwide. The objective was to provide a forum for the organization to learn and interact with those who have ‘Lived’ the innovation journey from concept to realization and help trigger business aspiration among budding innovators.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised its first global two-day 'innovation summit' in Bangalore on June 16 and June 17, 2005. "The summit aimed at uncovering new perspectives on innovation, bust myths, and demystify this oft-quoted, rarely-practiced word.

Place: Bangalore

Date: 17 June 2008

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CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organisation, playing a proactive role in India’s development process. Founded over 113 years ago, it is India’s premier business association, with a direct membership of over 7500 organisations from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 83,000 companies from around 380 national and regional sectoral associations.

CII catalyses change by working closely with government on policy issues, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and expanding business opportunities for industry through a range of specialised services and global linkages. It also provides a platform for sectoral consensus building and networking. Major emphasis is laid on projecting a positive image of business, assisting industry to identify and execute corporate citizenship programmes. Partnerships with over 120 NGOs across the country carry forward our initiatives in integrated and inclusive development, which include health, education, livelihood, diversity management, skill development and water, to name a few.

Complementing this vision, CII’s theme "India@75: The Emerging Agenda", reflects its aspirational role to facilitate the acceleration in India’s transformation into an economically vital, technologically innovative, socially and ethically vibrant global leader by year 2022.

With 63 offices in India, 8 overseas in Australia, Austria, China, France, Japan, Singapore, UK, USA and institutional partnerships with 271 counterpart organisations in 100 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community