Bengaluru: The subject of innovation took centre-stage at the CII-promoted 11th India Innovation Summit 2015 here on Thursday with Infosys co-founder S. Gopalakrishnan underlining its importance in economic growth.

The theme of the summit is ‘Realising the National Dream – Scaling local innovation’.

“Creating a vibrant start-up ecosystem in rural areas is the key to achieving the goals and more companies should move from the startup stage to small and medium enterprises stage and into global MNCs,” Gopalakrishnan, also the chairman of India Innovation Summit, said.

He praised e-commerce player Flipkart for achieving valuation worth billions of dollars after starting out on a small scale.

Gopalakrishnan said CII has come out with the tools and techniques needed for addressing the question of how to create a vibrant start-up ecosystem in tier two and three cities.

V. Manjula, principal secretary, department of information technology, bio-technology and science and technology, Karnataka, said India exploited only a fraction of its innovative capability despite being a nation known for its improvisation.

“There is a lot to accomplish and the silver lining is the demography of India,” said Manjula.

Manjula said the Karnataka government established a start-up warehouse and proposed to set up an innovation fund. The Karnataka government has also launched nine innovation centres for engineering colleges.

Mohan Sekhar, senior MD, Accenture highlighted on the need of frugal innovation and praised Tata Group for implementing it in some of its products.

He specifically focused on Tata Chemicals water purifier Tata Swachh for not using electricity and just rice husk for purifying water frugally.

“It is all about innovation, where ever you stay — whether in the Silicon Valley or anywhere else. Innovation is shaping the future of mankind and the future of corporate India and the Indian government,” added Sekhar.

The two-day summit, brainstorming on innovation, has scheduled panel discussions on ‘Make in India’, agriculture and agro products, smart cities, financial inclusion, infrastructure for transportation, entrepreneurship and Clean Ganga Misson by eminent speakers and industry experts.