Linking grassroots innovators, tech systems

INDIA is not only a country with 1.4 billion people but also one with millions of problems. We can find solutions for these problems by effectively deploying science, technology and innovation. Solutions are required for a multitude of problems in the context of the basic needs of people — food, shelter, health, clean air, drinking water, communication, energy, education, agriculture and so on. It is not as if solutions or technologies don’t exist for these problems in India or elsewhere, but the available solutions may not be affordable, accessible or sustainable.

On the one hand, you have a technological fix — new devices and solutions based on high technology and, now, ‘deep tech’ for everything. High-technology solutions are usually based on advances in different branches of engineering. Deep tech refers to the new set of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things, haptics, robotics, blockchain, big data and so on.

On the other hand, you have innovative solutions coming from the grassroots which are frugal, affordable, sustainable and truly need-based. These are solutions to local problems developed by ordinary people, not scientists. Should deep tech and grassroots innovations grow in silos or is there a meeting ground for the two?

A beginning to address this vital question was made at the People’s Festival of Innovations, jointly organised by Bengaluru-based technology incubator Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms and Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network (GIAN), founded by Prof Anil Gupta. The idea behind this unique endeavour was to showcase both science-based and grassroots innovations on a common platform and encourage mutual learning as well as collaboration for societal applications.

One could see Dharambir Kamboj of Yamunanagar, who has developed a multi-purpose food processing machine, or Mushtaq Ahmad Dar of Kashmir with his foldable LPG cylinder carrier rub shoulders with Ramya Yellapragada and Lakshay Sahni of StimVeda Neurosciences who have developed a wearable device to address depression or Karan Rao of Swachh.io, with his micro air purifier that can be attached to a ceiling fan.

Such efforts to bring technology-driven and informal innovators on one platform are critical to bridging the chasm between these two streams of innovation. One set of innovations grows in formal systems — technology institutions, incubators, venture capital funding and access to professional design and marketing expertise. The grassroots innovators are from varied social, educational and economic backgrounds with little or no access to the formal system of testing and validation, funding, marketing, etc. Many of them do not have access even to formal schooling. Their ideas and innovations, however, are practical and meant to serve a felt need. They need technological inputs for further improvisation and help to grow.

Over the years, many of them have done very well with help and recognition from catalytic organisations like GIAN. For instance, Dharambir Kamboj has sold his food processor to hundreds of entrepreneurs who are not only providing employment but also generating revenues worth several crores of rupees every year. The food processor is also being exported to countries in Africa and South America. This is an incredible success story. Incidentally, Kamboj once used to pull a cycle rickshaw in old Delhi for a living.

Mitticool, a clay-based refrigerator, is another grassroots product that has achieved great market success.

The discourse on the use of technology to address societal needs is not new. It began in the 1970s when some conscientious scientists felt that the formal system of science and technology in India had failed the rural poor. They felt the need for alternative technologies for villages as the mainstream research organisations had got themselves aligned with elitist industrialisation. AKN Reddy, a professor of electrochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, formed the Application of Science and Technology to Rural Areas (ASTRA) Centre. Reddy developed a three-pan improved cook stove with high-energy efficiency. The technology was disseminated in Karnataka villages and other states as well.

In the 1980s, Rajiv Gandhi propagated that appropriate technology need not mean low technology. The government sought to deploy high technology for societal applications — computerisation of railway reservation, digital rural telephone exchange and the use of supercomputers for weather forecasting.

The digital exchange developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is a classic example of a high-technology solution for an Indian problem. The telephone density in rural areas was low and the network was not dependable. This was because the imported telephone exchanges were not designed for high temperatures or high call volume. They could be installed only with air-conditioning and would often break down because of high traffic. The C-DOT digital switch was based on low-power consuming circuits and, thus, the exchange could withstand temperatures up to 45 degrees.

Though technology began to be deployed for societal applications, the focus was still on the formal sector. Those working informally or in the non-government sector remained on the fringe. Prof Anil Gupta, then teaching at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, actively began working with the informal innovators and traditional knowledge systems. He launched the movement for promoting grassroots innovations in the mid-1990s. The movement led to a mechanism to identifying genuine innovators, validating their ideas and recognising them through awards.

A great effort was made to connect these innovators with formal science and technology systems so that their ideas could be scientifically tested and improvised. Over the past two decades, thousands of innovators from the informal sector have been scouted and their ideas and technologies widely disseminated or commercialised.

The innovation festival that has brought together innovators and startups from diverse sectors together should begin a dialogue between technology-based startups and grassroots-driven innovators. They can learn from each other, find new solutions or discover new applications for available solutions. The dialogue could, perhaps, lead to new kinds of partnerships and convergence, taking advantage of the developing ecosystem for promoting startups.

It is time to break the silos.