Upen Barve, The Fusionist – innovation strategist and tech diplomat – in conversation with Kseniia Chernikova, Strategic Communications expert and Woman in Tech.
A Conversation Between
Upen Barve & Kseniia Chernikova
Kseniia Chernikova:
Upen, I’ve been watching and hearing about the Innovation Corridor for a couple of years now – and I can see the latest developments right here in Germany. But I’m very curious: where did it actually come from? What was the motivation?
Upen Barve:
It came from a very specific moment — around mid-to-late 2022. We were crawling out from the pandemic, and while everyone was celebrating the “new normal,” a chilly wind was blowing through boardrooms worldwide. Those shiny innovation outposts — Innovation Centres, Hubs, whatever they were called — that companies had spent years building, especially in Silicon Valley, were suddenly facing hard questions. Budgets slashed, locations repurposed. But the need for growth? Completely unchanged.
So I started asking: what comes next? What would a model look like that isn’t just another isolated, one-to-many effort?
Kseniia Chernikova:
The so-called “Innovation Island” model – where one company or country builds its own ecosystem bubble and calls it done?
Upen Barve:
Yes, something like that. Plant a flag in Silicon Valley or elsewhere, hire smart people, call it an Innovation Hub — or Arena, or Centre, or Outpost — invite stakeholders from central units regularly. It worked when optimism was high and money was available. But it was always limited and fragile. One budget cycle, one new CFO, and gone. True breakthrough innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens at the intersection of diverse ecosystems. You don’t need more isolated efforts — you need a constant, structured flow of multi-value vehicles. A superhighway. That became the seed of what I call the Innovation Corridor.
Kseniia Chernikova:
“Corridor” isn’t entirely new terminology though — was it too generic when you first started using it?
Upen Barve:
Of course — fair point! As a Fusionist, you’re always inspired to combine existing and new concepts and redesign them for context. My working definition became:
An Innovation Corridor is at least bilateral in nature, focused on accelerating innovation and business growth in identified sectors — deep tech, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, mobility, aerospace — by orchestrating collaboration between innovation enablers, creators, and receivers: academia, industry, startups, investors, and governments.
It creates a full-stack, fast-track environment where ideas are implemented with real business and investor participation from the start. Expert networks, infrastructure, funding, talent — all flowing toward actual outcomes. The underlying purpose is Co-Creation: shared, responsible value creation. And critically, reducing innovation waste by giving players real context and real opportunities.
Kseniia Chernikova:
That’s a precise definition. What makes it genuinely different from existing cross-border expansion programmes for startups or SMEs?
Upen Barve:
Two key differences. First, it’s a highway for innovation — not just a meeting point. Second, innovation doesn’t only come from startups. The Mittelstand, mid-size industry, large corporate innovators, policymakers — they all belong here too.
The model rests on five non-negotiable principles:
And critically: defined timing. Not open-ended, but focused. That’s what creates urgency and real accountability.
Kseniia Chernikova:
Why is the bilateral aspect so fundamental?
Upen Barve:
It’s the whole architecture. Think of a corridor with doors on both ends, supported by bridges — both must be open, both sides must be active. The moment it becomes one-directional, you’ve built an outpost again, not a corridor.
Bilateral means shared stakes: shared risk, shared reward, shared decision-making. And you’re drawing from the strengths of two distinct ecosystems — that’s precisely where the real fusion happens.
In practice, it delivers three things. First, speed with context: the relationships, regulatory groundwork, investor networks, and thematic focus are pre-built — you don’t spend eighteen months constructing the runway, you land on it. Second, access to complementary capabilities: the German engineer gets the Indian scale-up ecosystem; the Indian tech company gets precision industrial partners and the European regulatory framework. Neither could unlock that alone. Third, reduced innovation waste: when both sides are genuinely committed, there’s no room for pilots that quietly fizzle or hackathons that produce nothing.
Kseniia Chernikova:
You launched the German Indian Innovation Corridor — the GIIC — in 2024. Is this the first real test of the concept?
Upen Barve:
We started officially at the end of 2023 — but yes, it is the first formal, lead implementation., There’s quite a di between having a compelling global concept and making it actually livable and implementable. I was fortunate to meet Jan Lachenmeyer and Sidharth Bhasin at exactly the right moment. Extraordinarily talented professionals, both so passionate about the Germany-India potential — I genuinely learnt a great deal from them. We became co-founders, each bringing complementary skills. The core team grew from there, with Luke Lalor and board members Anandi Iyer, Head of Fraunhofer India, and Shobha Purushottam, CEO of Hardskills. The GIIC e.V. now has a growing, bilaterally committed network of members, partners, sponsors, and real support from politics, corporations, and industry. There are even some trilateral discussions already underway, but I can’t say more on that just yet. With GIIC, we’ll always be incubating something new whilst delivering real value simultaneously.
Kseniia Chernikova:
Why Germany and India specifically?
Upen Barve:
I believe It’s one of the most compelling bilateral pairings for shaping the EU-India story of the future — grounded in shared democratic values.
They’re not competitors, they’re complements. Germany brings precision and industrial depth. India brings speed and scale. Fused properly — not confused — through a structured corridor, you get something neither could see the value in building alone.
The German Indian Innovation Corridor (GIIC) is Europe’s premier member-driven platform connecting German and Indian businesses, startups, investors, and institutions. Learn more at giic.co.
Upen Barve — The Fusionist – Innovation Strategist · Tech Diplomacy · Bilateral Corridor Builder Co-architect of the GIIC. Former VP Strategy, Research & Innovation at SAP SE. Inventor of the Slingshot Model of Innovation. Contributor to 2 patents and a DIN.
Kseniia Chernikova:
Where does GIIC stand in 2026 — still a pilot, or a real running strategy?
Upen Barve:
GIIC is running, and I believe we’re firmly on the right path, with a long-term vision of “Germany + India for the World.” Yes, it’s bold. In 2026, our theme is “AI for Industries”, with focused work across AI in Manufacturing, Mobility, Aerospace & Defense, and Health. Just last week we went live with the India Desk Germany in Berlin at NLND — an integrated platform combining physical landing infrastructure, a curated pipeline, and structured market entry support for Indian startups, scale-ups, and businesses entering Germany and Europe via Berlin. That’s not a concept. That’s real.
Kseniia Chernikova:
Upen, hearing all of this — the model, the GIIC, the vision of interconnected corridors — what genuinely excites you most about where this is heading? And what else are you working on?
Upen Barve:
We’re only just scratching the surface — and I truly believe we’re at the beginning of something significant. The potential hasn’t been fully written yet, and that is honestly the most exciting part. I’m working on a few things we’ll save for another conversation — but you’ll see soon enough. I’m inspired and humbled every day by the people around me and the possibilities at the intersections. As a true Fusionist, I’ll always find a way to add a little spice to the convergence.