professor raghunath anant mashelkar chairman of the national innovation foundation of india and president of the global research alliance defines it as any innovation that leads to affordable access of quality goods and services creating livelihood opportunities for the excluded population primarily at the base of the pyramid and on a longterm sustainable basis with a significant outreach mashelkar this is strongly contingent on innovation since providing high quality at a low price requires introducing new products rather than adapting existing ones it is even more complex from a global perspective encompassing developing emerging and advanced economies where the poorest have very different income levels