To generalise heroically, two big stories have been told about the geography of innovation. The first, popularised by the New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, is that the world is flat: modern technology is so cheap and connected that anybody with internet access can invent a product or service that can scale globally.
The second, articulated by Professor Richard Florida from the University of Toronto, is that the world is spiky: innovation takes place in relatively few metropolitan areas, often clustered around a powerful company or university.
Although these stories appear to be contradictory, they may be simultaneously true. Technology may have democratised access to knowledge, enabling a poor teenager in Lucknow to dream up a potentially world-beating idea. But the ability to turn that idea into a global business still depends on networks of people, finance, and organisational resources that remain highly concentrated.