Whitesides is the highest-cited living scientist in the world today. He has scaled the highest peaks of excellence in fundamental scientific research. At the same time, he has floated companies based on his research, whose combined market capitalization is about $20 billion. Langer from MIT has over 700 scientific research papers and over 400 patents. His pioneering research has earned him the Fellowships of the US national science, engineering and medical science academies-the only individual to achieve this feat. He too has floated a number of companies. He recently won the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in technology. What is so special about Whitesides and Langer? Both Whitesides and Langer have done great science; have created great applications, which, in turn, have created great jobs and wealth for their country. In India, we seem to treat Saraswati and Lakshmi differently. We need to learn to see the route to Lakshmi through Saraswati. Academics from research-led universities lay the foundation of this route.

According to a study by Zinnov, a consulting firm that helps multinationals craft global product-development strategies, India's R&D scene is not only still gaining momentum, it's also becoming more strategically important. This is happening even though the average cost per employee rose 16.2% annually in the past three years. Offshore R&D has mushroomed into a $9.35 billion annual industry, Zinnov reports, and is growing at a 23% annual clip. By 2012, the firm predicts, this business will reach $21.4 billion. The findings are based on interviews with senior managers of 120 India-based R&D centers of foreign companies. The key drivers are multinationals. Roughly two-thirds of the work is done at R&D centers owned by tech giants such as Cisco, Motorola, General Electric, and Hewlett-Packard, as well as a growing number of small- and midsize U.S. companies. The number of such foreign-owned centers has surged from 180 in 2000 to 594 this year. What's more, the India R&D bases of multinationals increasingly are becoming the leading sites for developing particular products sold globally, whether they be new chips, software packages, or telecom devices. That means they often are responsible for all of the engineering, strategic direction, and even the profits and losses of a product line. Currently, 10% of offshore centers have "full ownership" of product lines, Zinnov estimates. By 2012, that will reach 30%. Since 2000, U.S. patents awarded to inventors filing from India rose more than fivefold, to around 550 a year. India's R&D workforce is steadily gaining the experience to produce innovation.

> Top Moradabad Hotel and Bottom inside of Ludhiana resort

According to the 2008 edition of the RK Swamy BBDO Guide to Market Planning, 51 districts in India have at least one town with a population of more than 500,000. Together, they have twice the market potential of the four metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata) combined. According to a study by the Future Group, the Indian retailer, and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the ratio of spending to earning is higher in Tier II towns such as Nagpur, Jaipur, Surat and Coimbatore than it is in the metros. An earlier NCAER study, in 2004, had shown a higher percentage of the rich in Middle India than in some metros. For instance, the North Indian state of Haryana had a small-town crorepati density of 280. (Crorepati density is defined as the number of families who annually earn more than Rs1 crore -- about $250,000 -- per 1 million people.) The relative numbers for Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai were 180, 191 and 291, respectively. The Bunty Syndrome study provides examples of how companies are adapting to the needs and demands of Middle India. ·Grasim, a brand of suits, through the message of "be self-made," has saluted the "We'll get there no matter what" spirit of the youth. The message is enhanced by the use of a celebrity (the actor Akshay Kumar) who has made a name for himself on his own in a field where relatives already in the profession are seen as a prerequisite for creating equity in the industry. ·Idea, a mobile-services brand, has propagated caste equality, while Tata Tea has tried to appeal to the young in Tier II cities with a call to "wake up to the issues." ·Durables brand Voltas has challenged the monopoly of Korean brands in the air-conditioner space by projecting itself as "India's own AC." ·The concept of being able to give back to parents has been used to good effect by MasterCard and HDFC Bank. The Dhoni Effect identifies a phenomenon where rapidly growing small towns of India are taking center stage. Spending power moved from downtown Mumbai's Marine Lines to the distant suburb of Malad many years ago. Now it is going further, to Madurai and Moradabad. And demands are different. One example: In the last few years, the male skin whitening category, which didn't even exist a decade ago, has grown 150% annually to $100 million. Most of this growth has come from Middle India. Of the 80 million households that constitute the Indian middle class, only 25 million are in Tier I cities. Close to 55 million belong to the smaller towns. Mercedes sells more cars in small-town Ludhiana than it does in Mumbai. For products such as Vim Bar dishwashing detergent and Head & Shoulders shampoo, the Indian market easily absorbed price hikes of 13% and 18%, respectively, in 2007. Yet for years, candy manufacturers have been trying in vain to increase prices from 50p to Re 1. Value sensitivity, not price sensitivity, is the buzzword. And look at the Titan's experience. Last year Titan had a high-priced collection called Raga Crystals as part of its sub-brand Raga, which is aimed at women. This collection, which was studded with Swarovski crystals, was priced at around $200 at the top end of the range. We estimated a certain amount of sales, most of it from the metros. But when we actually introduced the product, we found that it was selling right down to smaller towns. "While the realities of the Middle India consumer may be different from the urban or metro consumer, his expectations and aspirations are the same,"

"As the warrior king who defeated the Mughals and founded the Maratha Empire of Western India in the 17th century, Shivaji Bhosle is remembered as a tactical genius as well as a benevolent ruler. The direct descendants of his Malva-caste soldiers are also developing a reputation for organisational excellence. Using an elaborate system of colour-coded boxes to convey over 170,000 meals to their destinations each day, the 5,000-strong dabbawala collective has built up an extraordinary reputation for the speed and accuracy of its deliveries. Word of their legendary efficiency and almost flawless logistics is now spreading through the rarefied world of management consulting. Impressed by the dabbawalas' "six-sigma" certified error rate-reportedly on the order of one mistake per 6m deliveries-management gurus and bosses are queuing up to find out how they do it."

Suguna Poultry Farm has spawned about 15,000 rural entrepreneurs across 10 states from whom it sources chicken and eggs. Suguna's promoter brothers B. Soundararajan (Class 11) and G.B. Sundararajan (Class 12) might not have been to IIMs or for that matter any college, but have mastered the management practices, and know how to convert a crisis into an opportunity, how to benefit of forward and backward integration, and the importance of risk management. Suguna claims to be the largest player in the Indian broiler market and fourth largest in the world in that segment. Suguna operates 35 hatcheries with an aggregate capacity of 350 million eggs per annum, has 132 "grandparent" and "parent" farms and 15,000 broiler farms*, and sells 8.5 lakh branded eggs a month. By 2013, Sugana foresee a network of 60,000 contract farmers across India and totally integrated facilities from feed mills to ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products. ------------- * Big poultry players buy 'grand paren't stock and breed the parents. The eggs laid by parents are hatched and the day-old chicks are sent to broiler farm for growth and ultimate consumption as chicken meat. Some of the'parent' farms are owned and rest are contracted. Grand parent farm is owned by the company.