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Honey bee publish details |
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NIF Awards |
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President Honours Grassroots Innovators |
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The Third National Grassroots Technological Innovation and Traditional Knowledge Award function, hosted by National Innovation Foundation (NIF), was held at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad during January 5-6, 2005. Honourable President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam graced the occasion on January 5 to honor the spirit of creative India. He conferred the national and state level awards on innovators, traditional knowledge holders, students and representatives of communities.
The National Award for innovation in different categories was conferred on 19 people. In addition to this, five state level awards and 45 consolation prizes were given. Scouts from six different states- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat and Karnataka- were awarded. Nineteen traditional knowledge holders in the field of herbal knowledge were recognized and appreciated. These herbal healers were not awarded at the national level because their claims were not experimentally verified, and awarding them might put the stamp of approval on hitherto unverified claims. Prizes worth Rs 16, 8500 lakhs were given in categories like farm machinery, energy, utility and general machinery, agricultural practices, livestock management etc. Several members from different states were honored for their involvement in scouting and mobilizing some of the outstanding innovations and practices in the third competition.
Dr R A Mashelkar, Chairperson, NIF, in his welcome address recalled the message which the Honorable President had delivered on the eve of the second award function, that innovation cannot remain only as a subject of curiosity, but must be spread and utilized by the entire country. Dr. Mashelkar reiterated the importance of the same, and highlighted the continued efforts being made in this direction by NIF through networking, development of various Memorandum of Understanding, linkages with defence forces and so on. Likewise, the corporate world has also started taking interest in testing and commercialization of some of the innovations. He also remarked that the day was particularly significant because of the fact, on the same day, the city of Ahmedabad was witnessing two major events i.e., the National Science Congress where thousands of formal scientists had gathered and this function which was a congress of grassroots innovators.
Honorable President emphasized upon the importance of recognizing the innovators through such functions. ‘Celebration of innovations is also celebration of knowledge’, he said. While the grassroots innovations enriched the nation with knowledge and wealth, these also helped in elevating the country intellectually. He believes, creativity is a result of education process which is achieved by learning. Therefore, “learning uses creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes one feel great!” The intensity with which he put forth his penchant for the different dimensions of creativity was infectious. Nothing could have conveyed the message better. For him, Grassroots does not mean living with old unproductive small time mindsets - but to move fast towards knowledge society.To achieve this, he added that one must have absolute passion towards serving the society with a view to finding positive solutions to the persistent problems.
The President also drew attention towards the importance of networking in taking the innovation movement forward at the national level. Since knowledge systems are multi-disciplinary in nature, its products and services are also complex. Therefore it is often not possible to have a loner as an innovator. Several discoveries and innovation succeed as a result of team efforts. Students must have an opportunity to play the role of a team member as well as a team leader so that they see both sides of the fence. The management of knowledge therefore must move out of the realm of the individuals and shift into the realm of the networked groups. When the information is networked, the power and utility of the information grows as well, and information that is circulated creates innovation and contributes to national wealth.Lastly, he stressed that though NIF had mobilized thousands of innovations and practices from the rural sector, a lot of design input and counseling was needed to make them into marketable products. It would be useful to have a collaborative venture between institutes like National Institute of Design and National Innovation Foundation to work on converting the promising innovations into a commercially viable venture. This can lead to creation of a number of enterprises in the rural sector leading to large scale employment opportunity and wealth generation in the rural areas.
An exhibition of the innovations had been organized at the venue. The Honourable President, along with Dr. Mashelkar and other members of the Governing Council visited the exhibition and interacted with the innovators and traditional knowledge holders. The President congratulated all the awardees personally.
The Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the innovation exhibition on January 6 and was interested in the technical innovations which had wider applications in Gujarat. He also advised his colleagues in the government to visit the exhibition.
A business clearing house was organized in a separate enclosure at the venue, on January 6, with the help of GIAN and SRISTI. The objective was to link innovation, investment and enterprise. Various 'ready for commercialization' innovations were displayed and about 20 interested entrepreneurs visited the event. Many business leads got generated through the clearing house. An entrepreneur from Mumbai was interested in commercializing the Modified Tricycle Rickshaw developed by Sheikh Jabbar. A group of ‘Dal’ millers wanted to commercialize some new pulse varieties scouted by NIF. The samples of the pulses have been sent to the millers for final evaluation. One leading distributor for drip irrigation systems in the state of Gujarat wanted to commercialize various herbal pesticides and growth promoters. A senior official from State Bank of India identified the innovator of the Motor Protection Device as a candidate whom they could support with training and funds to help him develop into an entrepreneur. A expatriate Gujarati from Kenya identified the potential of the low cost milking machine in Kenya and was interested in the transfer of technology. The Cycle Operated pump and the Prime Mover ( a pump that operates without external power sources) were identified for their potential application along the Narmada Canal in Gujarat.
Several group discussions were organized with the different stakeholders like grassroots innovators, traditional knowledge holders, development professionals, scouts and academicians to reflect on the concerns of grassroots innovation and traditional knowledge and discuss ways of strengthening the Honey Bee Network.
Many suggestions emerged for the strengthening of NIF activities all over the country. The award function of NIF should be conducted in other states also, this will help in spreading the mission of NIF in different states. Innovators must organize among themselves at district and state levels. This will help in coordinating the activities of NIF at local level with the government functionaries. At village level or at district level, full fledged workshops should be organized for testing the ideas and prototypes. Different schools in the country can also be involved in the activities of NIF. The awardees can also be engaged in spreading their innovations within their own social circles. NIF may nominate volunteers and scouts in each district with Identity cards. These members can maintain the continuity of providing information on innovative ideas, linking themselves with NIF, which would also be useful in strengthening the network. It was suggested that NIF could have a small committee at the state/district level for facilitating financial transaction and providing support to the innovators. The committee may include innovators, scientist, technological experts, NIF representative and the regional collaborator of the respective states. State level committees could be formed for discussing and solving immediate problems of innovators, except the complicated issues which can be dealt at the level of NIF.
Many suggestions were put forward for strengthening the activities of NIF at the village level. It was suggested that groups of like minded people should be formed from different disciplines like welder, mechanics, garage worker, electrician, healers, students, lecturers, who can discuss and brainstorm over general problems of the village and thus motivate common people to innovate. Small farmers must be encouraged for further experimentation for developing herbal pesticides, pest repellants, storage technologies, new variety etc., for assessing their efficacy. Journalists in rural areas can also play a major role in uncovering local talent and in documentation.
There were various suggestions to involve local communities in validation and value addition. Active participation of conservators/innovators must be ensured wherever possible for generating ideas as well as validating some. While documenting indigenous practices, there should be some mechanism established to associate the regional formal institutions for validating and preserving these practices. This can ensure that validation is done in a time bound manner. Some private workshops like Modern Technology Institution at Pune are coming forward to assist in various functions, viz., fabrication/designing etc without any charge. Such service stations should be introduced for innovators at a large scale. The results obtained from validation experiments must be shared with the knowledge providers and other interested stakeholders. The discussants suggested guidelines for valorizing innovations, which are need based. They felt that only those products should be selected for value addition that have some social and economic value and have low cost. NIF should propagate such practices on priority. After a certain level of validation, the relevant institutions and entrepreneurs can take charge of diffusion and dissemination of the technology.
It is also necessary to recognize the merit of innovators, who might not have won an award. Innovators who are not awarded should be given certificate of participation by NIF. Entries related to soil/water conservation, organic farming, agriculture may be given priority. Innovators may be provided an identity card by the network with details like, registration number, status with complete name and address. If any entry is not considered for any award or any other kind of support, the status must be informed to the innovator and the regional collaborator or scout.
It was also suggested that those who are engaged in preserving environment creatively must also be felicitated. Attempts to conserve local land races and traditional varieties, which survive often better in unfavorable conditions, need to be supported and encouraged. Opportunities must be given to the traditional healers and agriculturists for pursuing their innovations. Thier plans for conservation of biodiversity and associated knowledge should be supported, a goal which has not been pursued adequately so far.
The function culminated with a cultural program, jointly organised by NIF and students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in aid of tsunami victims. The cultural program was conducted by a popular vocalist group from South India. The event proved to be an apt conclusion for the function and the awardees thoroughly enjoyed it.
(The report has been compiled by Ms. Riya Sinha, Chief Innovation
Officer, NIF, with inputs from her colleagues). |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 16(3):20-23, 2005 |
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