Organization:Centre for India & Global Business
| Type | Research Centre |
|---|---|
| Established | March 2009 |
| Director | Jaideep Prabhu & Marvin Fernandes |
| Location | Cambridge Judge Business School, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, UK [ ⚑ ] : 52°12′01″N 0°07′17″E / 52.200224°N 0.121461°E |
| Website | www |
The Centre for India & Global Business (CIGB or Cambridge India Centre) is a research centre that was launched in March 2009 as part of Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, England , to support the university's growing engagement with India.[1]
The Cambridge India Centre acts as a platform for research and engagement with key partners in industry, academia and policy in India, the UK, and across the world.
Its primary focus is to understand, promote, and engage with innovators and innovations in India and the world.
History
The founding academic director of the Cambridge India Centre is Professor Jaideep Prabhu, the first Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise at the University of Cambridge, who took up the post in September 2008.[2] The founding executive director of the India Centre was Navi Radjou, who served between January 2009 and June 2011. The Centre has other academic members including Cambridge Judge Business School faculty and PhD students.
Dr APJ Kalam, the then President of India, delivered the inaugural lecture at the Cambridge India Centre in 2009. [3]
The India Centre is currently led by co-directors, Jaideep Prabhu and Marvin Fernández.
Research activities
The Cambridge India Centre's current research focuses on three primary areas:
1) Jugaad innovation: How can India's talent for jugaad — frugal, flexible, and inclusive innovation — be scaled up and done systematically across the board to develop and deliver radically affordable solutions in health, education, energy, agriculture, and finance?
2) Digital public goods and government innovation: How and why are firms and other Indian organizations leveraging digital public goods (India Stack) to create innovative products, services, and business models at a population scale? How can the success of digital public goods in India be replicated across the world?
3) Sustainability innovation: How and why can global innovations in climate change, natural resources, intergenerational equity, and the broader ESG segment be adapted for India and then "round-tripped" to the rest of the world (and vice-versa)?
The Cambridge India Centre's research is conducted by a team of world-class faculty and students affiliated with the University of Cambridge.
Outreach and networks
The Cambridge India Centre also hosts organizes and seminars that bring together academics, corporate leaders, and policy-makers from all over the world to discuss and disseminate the latest research findings as well as policy and industry best practices. These events are hosted both in Cambridge as well as in major Indian cities. For instance, in March 2009, Professor Jaideep Prabhu, director of CIGB, delivered his inaugural lecture in New Delhi, which was chaired by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Indian Planning Commission. In May 2009, CIGB hosted in Cambridge a major conference titled “Innovation in India and China: How to Create Value from Emerging Markets,” which explored the rise of India and China as both fast-growing global markets and world-class sources of innovation.[4][5] In 2023, the India Centre supported the inaugural Cambridge India Conference organised by the students of the Judge Business School.
Since its inception, the Cambridge India Centre has also hosted a number of speakers including: Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), architect of India's digital public infrastructure, and former chairman of Infosys Technologies (April 2009); former Indian president Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (June 2009);[6] Ravi Kant, vice-chairman of Tata Motors; and Dr Ramesh Mashelkar, former director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.[7]
Online engagement
In November 2009, at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit, CIGB launched Indovations.Net, an interactive, multimedia website that educates users worldwide about innovations in India across five domains: business, social, energy/environment, art/culture, and science & technology. This website addresses fundamental questions such as, What can the world learn from India-inspired innovation – or Indovation – and how people can benefit from it, etc.
Prof Jaideep Prabhu and Navi Radjou have written blog posts on innovation, emerging markets, and global leadership on the Harvard Business Review website.[8]
In September 2023, the Centre created a Linkedin presence [9] to be its primary online platform for engagement and impact.
References
- ↑ Cambridge-India Partnership.
- ↑ Appointment of the first Jawaharlal Nehru Professor at Cambridge , press release from Cambridge University
- ↑ President APJ Kalam delivering the inaugural lecture at the Cambridge India Centre
- ↑ "Latest news". University of Cambridge. http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009050105.
- ↑ Proceedings from the “Innovation in India and China” conference , CIGB website.
- ↑ Cambridge-India Partnership, Cambridge-India Activity, September 2008 onwards, University of Cambridge Creative Leadership in the Global Knowledge Economy , Dr Abdul Kalam’s lecture at Judge Business School, 9 June 2009.
- ↑ Visit of Dr R.A. Mashelkar to Cambridge , CIGB website.
- ↑ Blog posts by Prof Jaideep Prabhu and Navi Radjou, HBR.org.
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7107346174180745216
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