Businessweek's this issue is focussed on Innovation Economy - This way to the future.From energy to biotech, we may be on the cusp of a new age of innovation. In the last seventy five years,the world has been transformed by profound innovation and technological wizardry. Three-quarters of a century ago, there were no safe and effective antibiotics, no jet travel, no commercial television, and no computers. Many died of routine infections. A five-day ocean voyage was the main way to get from America to Europe, and "wireless" meant the wood-paneled Radiola in the parlor. Since then our mastery of the physical and biological world has strengthened remarkably. Life expectancy has soared, and most citizens of the planet can look forward to being around for 65 years or more. The Green Revolution has transformed agriculture, and the earth can now feed a global population that has tripled since 1929. We've left dusty bootprints on the moon, created the Internet, and learned how to read the human genome. as we consider the state of the Innovation Economy, it's clear that the march of technological progress has been uneven. In recent years, change has been far more rapid in information processing and health care than in energy, transportation, and manufacturing. In many industries we still depend on older technologies that date back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.But the future looks optimistic - Across the range of fields, from energy to biotech, and from software to autos, there are innovations brewing that could revolutionize our lives. In recent years scientists in different disciplines have been laying the foundations for nanotech, preparing the way for feats of engineering at the scale of atoms and molecules. Such small wonders could eventually lead to vastly faster computing devices based on carbon nanotubes, miniature medical probes, and new types of lights and solar cells.There are signs, too, that energy technology is about to make a dramatic leap forward, with the promise of efficient fuel cells, new approaches to solar power, and safer nuclear plants. Such advances have the potential, in the not-too-distant future, to overturn the economics of energy, making the world less dependent on oil and other fossil fuels. And in the biological sciences, the current limits on health and mortality may turn out to be a boundary waiting to be traversed.With more and more smart people around the world working on new technologies -- and the lure of riches if they succeed -- the odds are looking better than ever. The magazine has a lot of insightful, descriptive ,thought provoking or simply fun article about the innovation economy from a broad array of well known personalitis - we shall be analysing some of their views in the days/weeks to come. An index of the variety covered is the article Getting The Best To The Masses The article higlights innovation in Indian economy - examples cited include Tata Motor's low cost car,Aravind Eye Hospital, Jaipur Foot,Electronic Voting Machine,Computer Literacy Program from TCS,ICICI bank's successful securitzing microfinance loans.
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Sadagopan's Weblog on Emerging Technologies, Trends,Thoughts, Ideas & Cyberworld "All views expressed are my personal views are not related in any way to my employer"
