A section of rural people in West Bengal have devised a TV set around which people can sit and watch from all the four sides. Someone else has worked out a fishing rod that gives off an alarm when a fish bites the bait. A bullock cart with brakes and a cycle made of wood are other grassroots innovations coming from the same state. But most of such innovations continue to remain at rudimentary stages unless they catch the eyes of a venture capitalist.
Grassroots innovations hardly scale up
This is the main problem with grassroots innovations in rural areas in India. They hardly scale up. But by harnessing the creativity of its grassroots entrepreneurs India can sustain its long-term economic growth. Till now, no matter how innovative the initiatives are, their impact is confined only to local or regional markets. Tremendous amount of effort is needed to cross-pollinate and scale up these bright ideas among India’s large agricultural community which lives scattered across more than 600,000 villages.
Most grassroots innovations aim to solve a problem which the innovators and other people around them might be facing. But, due to lack of financial support, most of the innovations remain just within the circle of the innovator and those within the same small community.
Support from NGOs
To solve this problem Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network, popularly known as GIAN, was set up in 1997. This was soon followed up with the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – a venture supported by India’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. GIAN identifies promising innovations, does the market research, develops business plans and provides risk capital.
SRISTI is another non-governmental organisation set up to strengthen the creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ‘ecopreneurs’ engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems.
More and more such efforts can help make India an inventive and creative society and a global leader in sustainable technologies.
Watch a video on a case study in grassroots innovation and community led resource development.
