ABSTRACT
Innovation, social and technological, is the current buzzword – also in South Asia. High hopes are harboured for both types of innovation as an engine of economic growth in the area. By boosting ‘creativity, flexibility and adaptation’, innovation could ultimately make, for example, India ‘a global innovation leader’ (Chidambaram 2007; S. Datta 2011). The ability to innovate has become a key factor in determining the competitive advantage of national economies. In South Asia – as elsewhere – the main interest of innovation studies has either been the dynamics of innovation within industry, government, and academia,1 or innovation as an adoption process (Dearing 2009) or diffusion (Rogers 2003). However, innovations not only determine the competitiveness of national economies in the global market, but they also influence, and are influenced by, their particular local socioeconomic and historical contexts.
