World atlas of innovation

Why no country can claim monopoly on transformative tech & how it’s an opportunity India has to seize

- MOHIT HIRA

MEHRAN GUL'S THE New Geography of Innovation argues that the global distribution of breakthrough technology and innovative capacity is shifting rapidly, challenging long-held assumptions about where transformative innovation arises.

The author investigates how different regions around the world — from Silicon Valley and Shenzhen to London, Helsinki, and Seoul — have created fertile ground for new technology ecosystems, and what makes them sustainable orvulnerable to disruption.

While the world has habitually focused on the US (especially Silicon Valley) and China as dominant innovators, the map is changing. Many other countries and regions are becoming powerful engines of technology creation. Several instances that are cited such as Finland (Supercell), South Korea (Samsung, Coupang), Germany (DeepTech), and Southeast Asia (Singapore’s Sea Group, Grab) back this hypothesis, as does the extensive data collected and shared in the book. The author measures innovation both through the more obvious financial markers (number of billion-dollar startups, venture capital inflows, cumulative tech company market caps) and holistic indices (like the WIPO Global Innovation Index), while acknowledging the limits and biases of each. One insight that struck me is that innovation is not only defined by the number of startups or sheer funding, but also by the depth of the ecosystem, talent recycling, research output, policy environment, and societal attitudes toward risk and failure.