'The whole world is but one family' - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

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April 2010 Vol. 7 No. 10 Backyard Innovations Three Idiots, the immensely entertaining Bollywood movie, was a super-hit. Though certain sections were impractical, on the whole the film was enjoyable --- and it also made a very valid point: the Indian education system encourages rote learning and puts little premium on actual learning. The film, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, also stressed on the significance of low-cost, backyard innovations like the ones that were developed and marketed by the protagonist of the movie, Rancchoddas ‘Rancho’ Shyamaldas Chanchad aka Phunsukh Wangdu. To drive home the point about innovations, the film used low-cost gadgets made by backyard innovators. The brains behind the innovations in Three Idiots were Remya Jose, a student from Kerala, who created the exercise-bicycle-cum-washing-machine, Mohammad Idris, a barber from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, who invented a bicycle-powered horse clipper, and Jahangir Painter, a painter from Maharashtra, who made the scooter-powered flour mill. Even though India’s education system does not encourage innovators, the country has a thriving network of backyard innovators. Unfortunately they get very little support from the government and the private sector. “In 2000, the total fund available for the National Innovation Foundation was Rs 1.6 crore. Ten years down the line, it’s still the same,” says Prof Anil K Gupta, Executive Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation (NIF). The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, set up the Foundation in 2000 for “scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up grassroots green innovations and helping their transition to self-supporting activities”. Even though NIF funds have not increased, the number of innovations has gone up considerably in the last 10 years. In 2000, NIF had a database of 10,000 innovations; today it has 1,40,000. - KumKum Dasgupta* But do we need these innovations? Do they serve any purpose? Prof Gupta, who also the runs the Honeybee network of innovators, says: “These backyard i n n o v a t i o n s are important for inclusive d e v e l o p m e n t , a f f o r d a b l e technologies and easy-to-repair products”. Backyard innovators face myriad problems: first, there is no research and development support for testing their products; second, the technology testing fees are same for individual innovators and private companies; and third, there is no support for demonstration and advertisements. “Why can’t public channels like Doordarshan and All India Radio, both run by the government, advertise these products,” asks Gupta. The other problems innovators face are: designing and product development and capital investment to scale up their production. “Under the member of Parliament Local Area
Development Scheme [MPLADS], at least 20 per cent funds should be dedicated to support the local innovations for increasing livelihood, generating entrepreneurship,” added Gupta. To encourage new innovators, the NIF undertakes Shodh Yatra’, a journey for the search of knowledge, creativity and innovations at grassroots. “The Yatra aims at unearthing traditional knowledge and grassroots innovations that have not only simplified the lives of men, women and farm labourers but have also significantly contributed towards the conservation of bio-diversity,” explains Gupta. The Yatra also seeks to compile and disseminate the knowledge, which is fast disappearing, and establish a dialogue between the old and new generations. During the Yatra, certain activities like night meetings, bio-diversity competition, recipe competition for the women and felicitation of creative villagers are taken up. All these efforts have not been in vain: the NIF has received a large number of requests from around the world for various products, either for technology transfer, non-exclusive marketing/ manufacturing rights or for purchase of the products. The demand has been overwhelming for products like Exercising Swing, Milking Machine, Coconut Tree Climber, Motek Treadle Press and Garlic peeling Machine. “The challenge is to get more and more products developed in modular manner so that the same product can meet needs of different client segments with minor modifications,” says Gupta. Till June 2009, NIF received more than 581 product enquiries, including 126 queries from abroad. The NIF has succeeded in commercialising various products in five continents and it has filed 219 patent applications in India and seven patent applications in the US. Out of these, 33 patents have been granted in India and five in the US. Other than these, 15 trademark applications have been filed, out of which three have been granted in India. Gupta says that his mission is to “demonstrate the potential of knowledge rich, economically poor people in taking developing societies out of the morass of mediocrity and lead these onto a path of sustainable progress”. A path India would do well to follow. * KumKum Dasgupta is a Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times, New Delhi. She is keenly interested in environment and development issues.
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'The whole world is but one family' - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

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