78 Smita Srinivas CHAPTER 3 Demand and Innovation: Paths to Inclusive Development Smita Srinivas* Introduction The world is so full of technological innovations, and countries such as India have so many of them that we might be tempted to forget the genesis and effect of such innovations on ‘development.’ What kinds of inclusive societies can we plan for through such innovations? While most of the chapters in this book are concerned with knowledge and technology capability accumulation in different industrial sectors in India, this chapter starts at the other end, with questions: Whom is it for? How does it permeate our societies? Will it be enough? What analytical frames may help us? This chapter analyses the different ways in which demand and needs are connected: demand for innovation is often assumed to exist, and innovative societies are assumed to satisfy 1 their internal needs, both of which may be overly strong assumptions to make. It shows how examining the process of development from the point of view of ‘demand’ has been a somewhat neglected pursuit in innovation studies and the economics of technical change. Examples drawn from cases in India, with a brief reference to some international ones, have been used to illustrate some categories of demand. This chapter is not exclusively on India but is intended to provide fodder for reflection on how the gamut of policies promoting knowledge and new technology generation in a country like India can better address the needs and demands of its citizens. 1* I thank Shyama Ramani for the invitation to submit a chapter and for her very constructive editorial commentary, which has helped this chapter take shape. Several of the themes here on markets and the political economy of demand and supply are more completely addressed in the book: Srinivas, Smita. Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012). I thank Oyebanke Oyeyinka for research assistance on electrification. Please cite as: Srinivas, Smita. (2014). Demand and Innovation: Paths to Inclusive Development, in S. V. Ramani (Ed). Innovation in India: Combining Economic Growth with Inclusive Development, Cambridge University Press, 78. Unproofed version