Saturday, December 29, 2012
home Minister must resign,
home Minister must resign,: what a tragedy that we out up with a home minister who has mindset of a petty bystander rather than a leader who understand the beats of heart of youth. i dont know how can one be so insensitive and yet continue in position. We need innovative and constructive ways of channelizing this anger. we are missing the plot.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
March 25, 2010
CSQ Issue:
20.1(Spring 1996) Voices From the Commons
An assumption behind most approaches to the alleviation of poverty is that poor people are too poor to be able to think and plan on their own. The result is that most interventions are designed by others: civil servants, technocrats and NGOs. Despite much discussion of the wisdom of participation by the poor, they have seldom been given the opportunity to articulate their own agenda and visions and to determine the terms on which outsiders could participate. Even where people have solved problems through their own ingenuity there is seldom an institutional window available to recognize, respect and reward their creativity and innovation.
The problem is particularly acute in high risk environments such as droutht-proe areas, flood-prone regions, hill areas and forest regions, where both market forces and public sector institutions are weak. These are regions with extensive common resources; the resource of knowledge is particularly valuable. In such high risk situations, poor people have to be very inventive to survive. The difficulties they experience are reflected inn high rates of unemployment, illiteracy, female headed households and other indicators of socio-economic stress. Despite such constraining environment, there are sings of hope in the knowledge and experience of innovative people. And these signs indicate tremendous potential that exists for turning around the economy and ecological balance in these regions by building upon what people already know and their capacity to learn from one another.
About a decade ago, questions, of these kinds arose in our minds and led to the Honey Bee Network, which now reaches about 75 countries but is still primarily based in India, particularly Gujarat. The basic thrust of our work is to build upon what people know and do well. This approach has positive consequences even for professionals such as ourselves, because it generates humility; many solutions to the problems experienced by farmers and others have been generated without any contributions from outsiders. Also, it strengthens our respect for the experimental and inventive ethic of poor people, who can achieve so much with so little. We are led to ask, "What would be their potential in solving problems if the existing constraints could be relaxed?" The Honey Bee Network is an attempt to help remove some of those constraints, by facilitating communication among creative farmers, artisans, pastoralists and other grassroots innovators.
"Honey Bee" is a metaphor for certain ethical and professorial values. A honey bee does two things which development professionals usually do not do: it collects pollen from the flowers in a way that does not cause them to complain; and it connects flower to flower through pollination. When we collect knowledge from farmers or indigenous people, they certainly have a right to complain. When we communicate this knowledge only in English, French or another global language, we do not connect the sources of that knowledge with one another. Through the Honey Bee Network, both biases are corrected. Knowledge collected from farmers and other rural innovators is credited to them, and any benefit arising from the knowledge is shared with them. Similarly, we insist that this knowledge be shared in vernacular languages so that people-to-people communication can take place.
The Honey Bee Network pools the solutions developed by people across the world in different sectors; it links people and ideas. It also pools and links both formal and informal science and scientists. It is obvious that people cannot find solutions for all problems, nor are the solutions they find always optimal. Much scope remains for improved knowledge and effectiveness. But it is definite that a strategy of development, which does not build upon what people know and do well, cannot be ethically sound and professionally accountable or efficient. Alternatives to development: from grassroots to global
SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) is an international NGO established to provide organizational support to the Honey Bee Network. SRISTI has developed a database on local innovations, emphasizing methods and approaches can be used around the world without much difficulty. Today, we have on of the largest databases in the world on farmers' innovations with names and addresses of the innovators/communicators of ideas, whether these are drawn from traditional knowledge systems or come from contemporary creativity on the part of individuals and collectivities. These innovations have been collected from different parts of the world but mostly from India, and within India from Gujarat. We neither use nor approve of any of the Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) or Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods. These methods, represent short cuts to exploitative relationships between people. We believe that learning has to be mutual, patient and in categories that people use for defining their world view.
What we have done is very simple. We ask university students during their summer vacations to serve as innovation scouts, looking for "odd balls" or eccentric people in the villages and learning from them. These are the farmers and others who experiment and do things differently, such as trying to control aphids in cotton by spraying them with lemon juice, an experiment done by Samantbhai Dharamsinhbhai Dholakia, in Surendranagar, Gujarat. An emerging theme of SRISTI and Honey Bee is that cooperation and competition go together. Thus, SRISTI has been involved in organizing competitions - among grass roots functionaries in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and among students of various schools - to scout innovations. Prizes are awarded for the number and creativity of innovations found. The competition for scouting innovation also helps in reorienting the thinking of the grassroots functionaries. Instead of focusing on the "lab-to-land" approach to applied science, they begin to see the importance of "land-to-lab-to-land." Further, the developmental alternatives are explored in terms of what people have and not what they do not have. As a consequence, the process generates humility and respect for indigenous and local innovators.
More than 2000 villages have been surveyed with the help of undergraduate students during summer vacation. Other nodes of the network are active in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in India; and in Bhutan and Colombia. We have also collaborated with Gujarat Agricultural University; Jai Research Foundation; LM College of Pharmacy; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore; MS University, Baroda; and other institutions in order to add value to peoples' knowledge systems. Our goal is to develop such products which can be either commercialized or disseminated directly among the farmers to reduce the costs and move towards non-chemical sustainable agriculture and resource use. We realize that this transition is not going to be easy, given the massive influence that chemical pesticide and other input industries have on the public administrators, policy makers and the scientific establishment. Yet, we are confident that through the coalition among public spirited scientists, grassroots innovators and conscientious entrepreneurs, value added protects can not only be developed and commercialized. The part of the profits so generated will need to be shared with the innovators, and with the research institutions and networks, so that this coalition can evolve and survive through its internal dynamics. The fate of coalition will not depend upon the benevolence or bureaucracy or aid agencies. The science and technology establishment in the country has not even started thinking in these lines.
What kind of innovations are these? These are technological, socio-cultural, institutional and educational innovations that contribute to the conservation of local resources and generation of additional income, or reduction or prevention of possible losses. Farmers have developed unique solutions for controlling pests or diseases in crops and livestock, and for conserving soil and water. They have developed novel farm implements and methods for farm operations. They are involved in methods to store grains, conserve land races and local breeds of livestock, and conserve aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity.
The innovations often remain localized, sometimes even unknown, to other farmers to the same village. Through the Honey Bee Network SRISTI they can become more widely known and subject to experimentation and to possible diffusion on the part of farmers in other places as well as technicians and scientists.
Amritbhai Agrawat is an artisan who makes farm implements in village Pikhor of district Junagadh, Gujarat. He developed several innovative farm implements, including a wheat sowing box. In most sowing tools the lowest portion through which the seeds fall on the ground is in the shape of a pipe. The metering devices are located in the seed box. In the dry regions with strong winds, lodging of the plants can be a problem in irrigated fields, and plants seeded in the traditional way tend to lodge. Amrtibhai devised a box which spreads the seeds in a strip. While the seeds rate remains constant, the distance between the seeds is increased so that they don't fall one over another. With better root growth the crop does not lodge, and there is more efficient nutrient uptake. In addition, the crop is able to better withstand water stress.
Amrtibhai had an idea about solving another problem that has remained unsolved for centuries. In most tropical lands, farmers carry the farmyard manure to the field in a cart. After pouring the manure out at one point in the field, farmers scatter the manure in the filed laboriously, such as carrying basketfuls on the heads of farm workers. He thought that if a modification could be make in the design of the bullock cart, a farmer could tilt the cart and distribute the manure slowly and single-handedly over the entire field. He discussed the idea with SRISTI, articulating the possible risks and benefits.
This was an idea worthy of support by venture capital, but, as it well known, there is no Venture Capital Fund for small innovation such as this SRISTI realized the gap an decided to experiment in venture capital on a small scale. A proposal was prepared and reviews with two acknowledged peers. The cart was developed through a small risk-taking venture between Amrutbhai and SRISTI. This project was possible because of support from a grant from the International Development Research Center (IDRC). Amruthbai's idea helped us realize the critical importance of venture capital an the problem of its unavailability for projects like this. A large number of other ideas and inventions remain undeveloped or inadequately developed for want of venture capital.
In the Honey Bee database that has accumulated through the work of the innovators and the student scouts, we have a large number of examples of plant protection problems. Farmers have found news uses of existing plant biodiversity to control pest and disease problems. For instance, "naffatia"(Ipomeae fistulosa), is a plant often used for fencing purposes. In some places, the branches have been dried and used for making baskets for storing seeds or grains. Otherwise there are few uses of naffatia. It is toxic to animals.
In 1973, when there was a steep hike in the price of oil, many farmers started looking for substitutes for chemical pesticides, and new inventions occurred. Later, when many pests became resistant to chemical pesticides, the farmers' search for alternatives intensified. In one such area where farmers were tired of using chemical pesticides, a school teacher named Gamel Singh thought of using the extract of naffatia as a herbal pesticide. There are many tales of how the idea of using this plant for controlling pests originated. In one view, farm workers were taking tea. For some reason, one of the farm workers had to go out for a short while. His wife covered his tea with the leaf of naffatia. When the worker came back and took the tea, he became very ill and barely survived. An idea was born that if the tea became toxic by merely covering the cup with a naffatia leaf, then the plant might be used as a herbal pesticide. Subsequently, we found through research that it is quite effective not only against some of the plant pests, but also against certain microbial and fungal cultures.
In another case, Bhogilal Rajawadia, a tribal person in Bharuch district, devised a unique method of pest control. What he did was to take help of 8-10 farmers or laborers who stood in a line. They took the leaves of a "creeper" plant (Combretum ovalifolium) and put these in a shoulder bag. After catching "blister beetles" from the air and crushing them with the levels already collected, the farmers moved in a windward direction. The combined effect of insect and leaf extract seemed to produce some signals which repelled other insects. Such a heuristic of combining plant and insect extract doesn't exist in modern technology.
A large number of other plant extracts (other than neem tree) have been developed by farmers and could help in making crop cultivation in marginal regions more profitable. Building upon this experience is difficult. Most countries do not have a fast track approach for developing or registering herbal pesticides. If there can be a special fund for supporting formal research on farmers' innovations in public or private sector labs, a whole range of sustainable technologies which are cost effective could be developed.
Indigenous innovations are particularly widespread in the livestock sector, perhaps because people have had to evolve their own coping strategies because the liverstock health care system is much less developed than the health care system for humans.
For example, a common problem is yoke gall in young bullocks being trained to carry the yoke on their shoulders. Apart from the pain it causes to the bullock, there is a considerable economic loss because of lost power. Rahmatbhai found a local plant called "Zipta" (Cordia spp.) whose extract mixed with saliva of bullocks seems to provide relief from yoke gall within a week or ten days.
Some of these innovators combine the sacred with the secular. Rehmatbhai is a Muslim healer of livestock who is respected so much by the Hindu pastoralists and the livestock keeper in the dry region of Gujarat that they call him "Goval Bapa," the name given to Lord Krishna, the Hindu God known for taking care of cattle.
This knowledge base has tremendous opportunity for generating cross-cultural and regional linkages. For instance, pastroalists in Mongolia used a home-made lick out of onion leaves with wheat germ, sodium bicarbonate and dried milk for their animals. It was found that this lick was very rich in selenium. The deficiency this element could cause the young calves to die prematurely, apart from causing other problems. While discussing the idea of the Honey Bee Network with the indigenous Akwasasne people in Canada, it was discovered that they were facing a problem in the livestock which was traced to the deficiency of selenium and might benefit from the Mongolian idea. This is the potential of the Honey Bee Network: A practice in Mongolia, documented by a professor it Scotland, published in Honey Bee, becomes available to indigenous peoples in Canada. Rewarding Creativity: Incentives
Considerable attention has been given to the problem of identifying and safeguarding the intellectual property rights of individuals, families and communities that are the source of much new knowledge. The usurpation of local knowledge does not take place only through multinational corporations or foreign companies. The national ayurvedic companies in India exploited the tribal people as much as multinational pharmaceutical companies have exploited tribal peoples throughout the world. There is a clear need to correct the unfair and unjust system of extracting local knowledge from people for corporate benefit.
In January 1995, we organized a workshop in Ahmedabad on sustainable pest management which involved 13 farmer innovators and two entrepreneurs. It was an outcome of the doctoral research of Mr. Astad Pastakia. At this workshop the innovators also discussed difficulties that they experienced and anticipated in getting new products registered and patented. At present, any innovation once published comes into the public domain and becomes noon-patentable unless one applies within a year. People-to-people networking can take more time than that and promotes open communication rather than secrecy; it requires dissemination of ideas in different languages of the world to promote learning and experimentation.
To balance the goals of secrecy for Intellectual Property Right protection and dissemination for people-to-people networking is a challenge that may be resolved by setting up an international registry of innovations. This registry, like the ISBN number used for books, should provide a cheap and quick way of giving limited protection for each innovation. Later, with the help of an international fund for promotion of sustainable technologies and value addition in local innovations, more detailed patent applications can be filed on behalf of the individuals as well as communities. It is up to the communities or individual innovators to decide whether they would like any gains from the commercialization of those innovations to be appropriated for their collective or individual benefit.
The concept of knowledge centres and networks, elaborated by me and being promoted by SRISTI and the International Fund for Agri Development in Rome, could be one vehicle through which these goals could be pursued and operationalized as given below: a. to create a network of individuals, institutions and social movements engaged in generating solutions to the problem of hunger and poverty; b. to operationalize various articles of the International Convention to Combat Desertification in order to network existing information channels so as to make innovative solutions accessible to people in a manner that they can use these and share feedback or feed forward; c. to generate reciprocity among providers and receivers of information, so that incentives (for problem solves to network with a knowledge centre) continue to grow; d. to develop and operationalize an international fund for recognizing, respecting and respecting and rewarding creativity and innovation at grassroots level, and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources, protection of basic human rights, gender equality, and ethical discourse and conduct of business; e. to network with existing efforts all over the globe with similar goals such as International Foundations for Science, Sweden (IFS); Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI); Honey Bee Network for indigenous innovations; etc.; f. to mobilize volunteers from the private and public sectors, the third sector and even religious organizations to generated and support local trust funds to be managed by communities trying to augment innovative solutions developed by them or others; g. to set up a venture capital fund for small innovations which my a support innovators directly or may underwrite risk or provide bank guarantees for similar funds to be set up in different parts of the world for augmenting people's capacities to solve their own problems; b. to fulfill an ethical obligation towards poor people by ensuring (I) all the information concerning any program/project is made available in local language to the people's representatives at local level before designing and implementing the same; (ii) sharing of information during the course of project implementation and respecting the right of people to information; and (iii) protecting the intellectual property and cultural heritage rights of local communities. Conclusion
For most of the marginal communities living in fragile environments, standardized solutions as developed for "green revolution" regions will not work. The organizational arrangements which generate incentives for scientists to work with the people to develop technologies with limited potentials for diffusion generally do not exist. Much restructuring is required in the international and national research organizations if technology development and diffusion process is to be relevant and meaningful for marginal environments and disadvantaged communities.
Neither market nor existing national or international channels can be relied upon to connect the knowledge nodes around the world in ways that empower local communities and individuals to generate local solutions for applications in different parts of the world. The Honey Bee Network with its limited resources and experiences have demonstrated that such a transformation is indeed feasible. The SRISTI model of empowerment and sustainable technology development works toward the goal of improving income and livelihoods of knowledge-rich but economically poor communities and individuals through documentation, value addition, experimentation and people-to-people communication about local innovations. Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Agenda for mobilizing tech youth for transforming India: six challanges
Agenda for mobilizing tech youth for transforming India: six challanges: There are six challenges which tech youth is facing in reorienting not only its own motivations but also that of the larger society to use the talent and potential of youth far better than India does it today. There is a serious underutilization of this potential by youth and teachers themselves. The collaborative advantage among the disciplines, institutions, sectors and social segments thus is missing.
Challenge one:
Formal-Informal partnership: There is a dire need to bridge the widening distance between the opportunities available for creative communities and individuals in formal and informal sector. While individual innovators in every sector are disadvantaged, their handicaps become several times multiplied when language, remoteness and illiteracy so characteristic of much of the informal sector, further impede the communication between two sectors. Common fabrication facilities must be created in the form of innovation Lab or creativity space where students manage the facility and do the fabrication round the lock whenever they feel like without any need to take permission from higher ups or facing other administrative constraints.
Engagement with innovators and communities in disadvantage regions: When social tensions and in some cases instances of social violence are tearing the margins of the country apart, it is a very desirable gesture on the part of the students at SVNIT ( and other such campuses) to engage with innovators in formal and informal sector. Benchmarking: measuring current level of the inertia or inefficiency and hazards( safety issues) in various activities of manual or shop floor workers in different livelihoods/farm and non farm industries is essential. This can not be just a one time engagement. Solving persistent social problems: The design of the projects on the problems of excluded communities, professions/occupations( say leather workers, stone breakers, coolies, paddy transplanters etc.,) will contribute a great deal in overcoming civilizational inertia of our country, it will also make students feel good about themselves.
Challenge Two:
Collaborative learning: Mobilizing the power of collaborative learning within and between the campuses has not been harnessed enough yet. We still are organized departmentally and think through the problem sectorally rather than more historically or from final user’s perspective. Cross-disciplinarity: Thus creating opportunities for students of different branches to work together formally or informally to solve a problem is one of the major agenda ahead. User-orientation: Which disciplines should be brought together should depend upon the problems to be solved and not constraints of the department or a branch, or guides. Cross-institutional cooperation: Project pursued at one institute does not have much chance of being taken forward at another institute. Relay or kho-kho model is another process through which collaboration can be fostered across institutions. Database of state of art of student projects: Reinforce the spirit of sharing and upload the final year and assignments projects and other content on techpedia.in or other such platforms to make these open source after filing patents if the need be. How else, will originality of students projects be ensured.
Challenge Three:
Linkage with MSME and public systems: Identifying the problems in managing environmental effects, material use, waste, energy efficiency, workers safety and productivity, and quality of goods and services in MSME.
Challenge Four:
Investing in student’s ideas and innovations: mobilise small risk capital from alumni and high net-worth individuals to create social venture fund at each campus to invest in the socially useful ideas of students and also of the informal sector innovators. Similarly funds should be available for supporting student led patents with a small equity that can be shared between the Institution and sristi’s Techpedia.in ( say five to seven per cent each, or fees in lieu of that) if its support is needed for getting patent at concessional terms through Honey Bee Network’s list of pro bono IP attorneys all over the country.
Challenge five:
Extending testing and calibration facilities to innovators without cost if need be or at extremely low cost so that advantage of state of art laboratories and workshops becomes available to informal sector and MSME and also student innovators from ITI and Polytechnics
Challenge six:
Open source content for school children: each student should develop at least one open source multi media and/or multi language lesson in any subject of any class for school children
Saturday, October 20, 2012
inverted model of innovation: children innovation ignite 12 awards
inverted model of innovation: children innovation ignite 12
| inverted model of innovation: children innovation ignite 12 awards Posted on Sat, 20 Oct 2012 23:57:19 |  | ||
Inverted model of innovation: IGNITE ‘12 The unprecedented response to the IGNITE competition for children’s innovations by NIF has created new benchmarks of curiosity and creativity of children. Compared to around 4000 entries last year, this year 14889 children responded from 282 districts of 30 states and union territory. Selecting 32 children was not easy. Children have once again proved that they are far less patient with the unsolved problems of our society than many of us. The inverted model of innovation implies that children invent, engineers and designers fabricate and companies commercialize. The awards will be given by Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, former President of India on November 10, 2012 at 3 pm at IIMA campus. Those who want to be inspired so that they can overcome their own inertia would not miss this date. The rest can enjoy their comfort with inertia, inefficiency and inadequacy in dealing with the social problem. Each child would also get a copy of patent application filed in their names apart from seeing the prototype wherever feasible. The children are always advised not to make feasibility the enemy of desirability. In addition to the award winners, we intend to invite some children whose ideas were found very interesting even if not worthy of award. There were other children who had the courage to send absurd ideas. We intend to invite some of those kids also to attend the programme. Who knows what seems absurd today may become a reality tomorrow. Let me share the ideas of youngest children under class eight this week. The ideas of the children upto class tenth and twelfth will be shared in the coming weeks. Mohammed Usman Hanif Patel from Jalgaon, Maharashtra, class two thought about a fan inside the house powered by the windmill on the rooftop mechanically. He also thought about a sorting machine for different sizes of oranges. Rajshree Choudhary, class five, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand would not let people use mobile phone while driving and has developed an interesting concept for that. It is a pity that while children are concerned about this bad habit, adults just ignore this basic etiquette of driving. How many lives would be saved by this innovation by preventing accidents caused by this habit is anybody’s guess. Shiv Shankar Kumar, class six and Ravi Ranjan class eight from Patna, Bihar would prevent people from driving vehicles without carrying their driving licence. The system they have designed would not let their car or other vehicle start till the driver’s licence has been acknowledged. Aditya Joshi, class eight, Pune, Maharashtra has conceived a spray which will make gloves or socks water proof when needed. The layer can be peeled off when not needed. Lakshya Kaura, Naman Jain, Manav Mitra, Utkarsh Hora, Amrit Dang and Sehaj Kataria are extremely concerned that many people meet with an accident while walking or driving with their headphones on because they can’t hear the horn or the sound of other traffic. They would rather have a device, which will capture frequencies above a limit and thus alert the user of the impending danger. Charishma, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh has come out with an extremely creative solution to solve the traffic problems. We have all seen that in the morning and evening different sides of the road have excessive traffic. If dividers situated in between the road could be moved to left or right depending upon the traffic load on either side of the road, the space utilization and traffic movement can be optimized to a great extent. The traffic authorities may like to pay attention to this idea and experiment with mobile dividers on the road. Kripesh Swain and Kumar Biswajeet, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa have thought about a very serious problem of our society. In the flood prone regions, there are times when all the wells and hand pumps are inundated and there is a severe water shortage. In some places, effort has been made to raise the platform of the hand pump a few feet to address this problem. The idea suggested by the children is a hand pump that will automatically raise with the onset of flood to ensure drinking water availability. Even if such a hand pump had to be raised to a higher level manually with some kind of retractable system, it would still be a great relief. Be ready to read about many more creative ideas in the coming weeks. We welcome entrepreneurs, designers, fabricators and entrepreneurs to join hands with the Honey Bee Network and NIF so that the inverted model can be implemented fast. Look forward to make our children believe that their job is to imagine and invent, the rest of the steps in the value chain will be taken care of by the country. Impatient children are the greatest asset of our country. | |||
Monday, October 8, 2012
message to techfest organisers in technology colleges
message to techfest organisers in technology colleges: almost every engineering and other technology educational and research institution organises techfest in which they organise various events. But societal inertia and patience with every day problems continues, i hope that the situation will change, and soon for bettter,
Saturday, September 22, 2012
The destiny of a small retailer: How can FDI help?
The destiny of a small retailer: How can FDI help?: The Indian consumer is a very discerning one and it can leverage Nirma products in comparison to the ones by multinationals, it can sustain a local restaurant in contrast to Mcdonald and KFC and it can expand market for Nano and Maruti vis-Ã -vis other autos with much higher foreign component. To believe that such a discerning consumer can be hoodwinked by the lure of large corporations merely because of their brand name is to do a great injustice to the wisdom of Indian masses. The telecom revolution would have been impossible without FDI and who would argue that the innovation that Indian telecom industry brought about in expanding the reach would not have taught a few lessons to principal partners and investors. It is true, however, that Indian language content and information on health, farming, education and folk culture in local languages is still very deficient. But, we cannot put the blame only on the shoulder of investors. The regulators like TRAI having thousands of cr
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Rebuilding Institutions of Higher Education
Rebuilding Institutions of Higher Education: Raising expectations from the students and making them responsible for learning is the first step towards excellence. Creating outstanding examples of teachers learning from students would be another step to make learning reciprocal. Making the courseware open source and letting institutions use the lectures by the outstanding teachers freely will help in maximising the impact of inspired teachers. The reforms in education at all levels should really be steered by the inspired teachers.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
exiled within: fractured memories, a note on crisis of confidence and emigration from north-eastern youth
exiled within: fractured memories, a note on crisis of confidence and emigration from north-eastern youth: Imagine the feeling of the person who may have lived and grown with a community for years and suddenly is made to feel alien. Today, thousands of people from northeast have been made to feel stranger in their own country. The dynamics of immigration from Bangladesh causing tensions in the northeast is being exploited by the powers that be in the rest of the country. The scars of emigration of a large number of people made to flee J&K have still not healed. In various communal tensions, those who become internal refugees realize the pain of feeling excluded. Whatever be the socio-economic cost of such involuntary movement of the people, the psychological and institutional costs are far bigger and persist far longer. Even today, people affected by the partition have not forgotten the pain on both sides of the border. How many times should people in our country continue to feel anxious and alien in their own land?
Sunday, August 12, 2012
a new deal for tribals: co-creating solutions
a new deal for tribals: co-creating solutions: It is true that constituency for tribal communities is weak. Instead of spending tens of thousands of crores in fighting our own people, would not it make sense to invest in their ideas and co-creating solutions in partnership with them?
A new deal for the tribals: Co-creating solutions
When a country of billion people takes pride in a few medals it wins in Olympic, it explains why mediocrity is so deeply steeped in our culture. A large number of tribal communities have a huge stamina, are very athletic and can be powerful sportsperson. And yet, even in the skills in which they are good, they don’t get the premium attention and resources. It might look strange to some that one state, Manipur got a medal. Interestingly enough, Imphal and its hinterland is one amongst few districts of India from where we have received the largest number of innovations in the country. But when you look at the Town Hall of Manipur, the neglect becomes eloquent. Why is it that the margins of the country cannot become part of the mainstream unless they resort to violent means or occasionally manage to prove their excellence?
There are 15 different interventions that can transform the tribal regions such as: [a] By the end of 12th Five Year Plan, we must ensure that at least 50 per cent of the forest produce is valorized in-situ. Unless we add value locally, there is no major dent on poverty possible. [b] A science and technology consortium has to be created for adding value ex-situ to at least 2000 herbal leads for human, agricultural and animal health practices with their IPRs protected at the community level. The benefit sharing arrangements can create a new social contract between the tribal communities and the academia and corporations. [c] Building community knowledge registers so that their biodiversity and other physical and cultural resource based knowledge is documented for lateral learning, i.e., people to people and also for developing decentalised enterprises for local product development.
In terms of administrative and educational changes, it is proposed that [d] tribal regions should never be used as a place for punishment postings. The communities deserve a most dedicated and efficient officers; [e] Every block must have a Navodya Vidyalaya to provide high quality educational services to the tribal children with local language facility; [f] A help line must be created to answer the questions children cannot understand in their mother tongue if possible; [g] The teachers from northeast, the educated tribal region of the country may be hired on priority for posting in less developed tribal regions. It will generate opportunities for the educated youth of northeast and provide empathetic teachers for the other tribal regions; [h] Sports academies may be created around outstanding archers, athletes and other sportspersons. They should be given direct grants from district innovation fund or through a pool of CSR funds of various mining and other companies. The medal tally of the country will then see better results; [i] A call centre needs to be set up for counseling and providing full information for various educational and technological opportunities in tribal. Just as Ministry of Agriculture runs a countrywide call centre, one needs a similar facility for tribal region. The transaction costs involved in accessing various entitlements of tribal communities should also be reduced through such a call centre; [j] the emerging policy of providing mobile phones to poor people should be used not only for monitoring the delivery of various programmes, but also for mapping the mind of knowledge rich, economically poor communities; [k] A portal can be created where tribal communities can upload their cultural creativity, sculptures, art work, music, etc., with copyright protection. The e-commerce facility may enable the creative people to be paid for download of their work for personal use and licensing fee for commercial use. So much of tribal art is used without any attribution or compensation; [l] A programme for creating multimedia, multi-language educational content be created so that technology students of IIT, NIT, IIM, etc., are encouraged to contribute towards this goal. Such open source content would empower children even in areas where dedicated teachers are not available; [m] A district social venture fund be created to invest in the innovative ideas of tribal youth; [n] The tribal communities can teach outstanding social values of collaboration, sharing and respect for life. The gender relations are also very fair in most of the tribal communities. Lessons about liberating institutions can be learnt by rest of the country and finally [o] we should create supply chains for tribal craft and other products through post office network.
It is true that constituency for tribal communities is weak. Instead of spending tens of thousands of crores in fighting our own people, would not it make sense to invest in their ideas and co-creating solutions in partnership with them?
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
games that we played in our childhood: send details
games that we played in our childhood: send details: I m doing research about the games we played as kids. I will request friends from all around the world and different parts of the country to share the game you played as a child. Look forward to hear from you folks. If u wish to mail some pictures, pl do at anilg@sristi.org or post it here. Thanks do much, pl spread my request
Saturday, July 21, 2012
How to kill innovations: is bigger always the better?
How to kill innovations: is bigger always the better?: At a time when the whole country, rather world is looking for reviving the economy, our country seems to be racing ahead in killing innovations systematically. We all know that the maximum number of jobs in the industrial sector is created by the small and medium companies and enterprises. It would make sense, therefore, to provide incentives to such companies, particularly when they do not have any quality or cost disadvantage. When it comes to promotion of innovations, it is equally well known that start-ups and small companies based on innovative technologies and processes need support of various kinds, including public procurement for advancing the societal innovative index.
How to kill innovations: is bigger always the better?
At a time when the whole country, rather world is looking for reviving the economy, our country seems to be racing ahead in killing innovations systematically. We all know that the maximum number of jobs in the industrial sector is created by the small and medium companies and enterprises. It would make sense, therefore, to provide incentives to such companies, particularly when they do not have any quality or cost disadvantage. When it comes to promotion of innovations, it is equally well known that start-ups and small companies based on innovative technologies and processes need support of various kinds, including public procurement for advancing the societal innovative index.
Let me state the problem, particularly from the perspective of the drug industry, and share the policy mismatch between the need to promote innovations and dysfunctional procurement procedures for safe and innovative medicines. Once a drug is approved to be safe and effective, based on rigorous evaluation by regulatory agencies and vetted through publication in peer review journals or other scientific means, there should be no discrimination in the procurement policy in favour of large corporations. Recently, I came across a situation where such a bias is not only evident but also seems so blatant that it puts a question mark on the purpose of national policy. Several public health institutions such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences, TATA Memorial Hospital, and Safdarjang Hospital seem to require minimum turnover of 50 or 100 crore in the current year raised from 20 crore in 2010 for at least Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi. Lifesaving drugs produced in a safe and effective manner do not get any quality advantage merely because of scale. Let us say, company X has ten crore turnover and has met all the regulatory requirements and may even have a patent and in some cases, recognition by the Department of Science and Technology. Should procurement from such a company be either restricted to only 20 per cent, it being an MSME, or should the entire procurement be made from such a company if it meets quality and price norms in the tender? This is the central question. By putting a minimum turnover criterion, a reverse reservation is being practiced in favour of larger companies. Since this will mean disqualification of lower priced, equally good drugs, public institutions will patronise large inefficient producers and thus slowdown economic growth.
There is yet another clause in the tender document requiring patents certification from drug regulators. It is obvious that patents cannot be certified by drug regulators. Whosoever has put this clause, neither knows the law nor understands innovations.
The review of procurement policies of various countries including the European Union, the US and some of the developing countries shows no such bias as is apparent in Indian policy. In fact, the US FDA says, “In consonance with Congressional directives, special effort is made to assure maximum participation by small and disadvantaged businesses in the procurement of materials and services by the Administration”. Between 2005 and 2010, the Brazilian pharmaceutical sector had increased its production by 50 per cent and capacity utilisation was about 74 per cent. The share of domestic producers of generics is more than 50 per cent and their prices are lower by 35 per cent. This could not have been achieved without a healthy public procurement policy. Brazil has reduced its public procurement cost by following reverse auction and removing any advantage that large corporations might have had in the past. It is only India which seems to be doing the opposite. Brazil had 170,000 registered suppliers with 2000 new suppliers joining every month in 2002 competing for federal contracts involving 50,000 material items and 2500 service items. It not only reduced corruption but also improved value for every Real it spent. At a time when the need for government intervention in public health is increasing, perverse procurement policies are reducing the efficiency in the system and slowing down the growth of economy and employment. If somebody can explain how a minimum turnover requirement can ensure better quality of drugs or advantages for patients, a new economic theory will have taken birth. Paying more because turnover is high involves making assumptions which seem completely illogical. Ironically, as an entrepreneur observed, why would 20 per cent procurement from an MSME unit for a drug (developed through public R&D spending, awarded for its innovativeness and quality), be a good goal by keeping 80 per cent for higher priced and less innovative formulations from a larger company.
It shows that potential for economic growth in our society is being stifled by design. Whose interest does this design serve is not difficult to imagine. As if there were no lessons to be learnt nearby, in Delhi itself by pooling the procurement requirement of different hospitals, the prices of many of the essential drugs were one fifth to half of the ones paid by the national drug procurement agency more than a decade ago. Incentives for innovative firms providing cheaper and equally efficient and safe drugs are a must if we want to promote innovations in this decade. I hope the PMO is listening.
Friday, July 20, 2012
IIM-A wasting groundwater: Prof - Indian Express
IIM-A wasting groundwater: Prof - Indian Express
Water, wisdom and well being : Anil K Gupta[1] Let me begin with a Zen story. A monk was known to teach in a very subtle manner. He had many disciples and he tried to teach them individually according to their sensibilities. One day, a particular disciple started to argue with him about the need for conservation. The monk asked him to bring a glass of water. The disciple brought the water. When monk had taken the water, the disciple took the empty glass, and on the way back to the kitchen, threw away the remaining droplets in the glass by inverting the glass a few times. The monk saw him doing that. He called him back and asked as to what had the disciple actually done. The disciple said, “nothing, I just brought the glass of water as you advised and then took the empty glass back”. The monk asked, “is that all, try to remember everything”. The disciple narrated the entire sequence of steps he took to bring the water and then added, “while taking the glass back, I threw away just a few drops of water”. The monk said, “What! Just….” The disciple achieved Zen by concentrating on the word “Just” and realised that even a drop of water could have multiple destinies. Throwing it away was certainly not a responsible act. Given the above philosophy, one would assume that problem of water should not have become so acute. But it has. I would first list the contradictions in our personal conduct and our public postures on the issue of water. I would then share a variety of innovations linked to water developed by the common people, which don’t seem to attract policy attention adequately. Lastly, I would list specific recommendations that can help make Gujarat green without creating social disparity now and a legacy of ecological imbalance for the next generation. Part One: Water in everyday life In the campus where I teach, the ground water table is going down every year by about 15 – 20 feet. This rate of decline is not sustainable. Our students have worked out the economics of using the wastewater of the RO (reverse osmosis) plants set up for cleaning drinking water. These plants/units waste 70 per cent water to clean 30 per cent drinking water. At present, this 70 per cent water goes down the drain. One can list large number of other practices embedded in the current design of technologies of harvesting, storing, distributing and dispensing water in which inefficiency is rampant. The absence of foot switch leads to tremendous waste of water in every household in the morning while performing daily chores. The industries recycle not even a fraction of water that they use. The houses of various cabinet ministers and other senior officers in Gandhinagar and elsewhere do not have rooftop water harvesting facilities. The water that we use for our own consumption has to have higher standards of purity. But, if the same water is used for gardens, washing and other activities, then it only shows our insensitivity towards the problem. The per capita consumption within Ahmedabad varies from less than 20 litres per person per day to more than 200 litres per person per day in our campus. It is obvious that this is not sustainable. The extraordinary enthusiasm for deepening or digging ponds in several parts of Gujarat has to be appreciated. But concomitantly, a similar enthusiasm for conserving water is absent in most parts of the country. Is it because the planners continue to make it appear that water problem is only for the rural people and the dry regions, in the other regions there is not any problem. I will not dwell upon the water pollution issues, which have assumed most frightening proportion in different parts of the state and the country. The Pollution Control Board does not seem to find situation so alarming. I am not aware if any firm has been called to answer the pernicious practice of dumping untreated industrial effluents into the underground bores. What would our future generation say about our sense of irresponsibility? We do not enforce high standards of environmental responsibility in the industrial and municipal sectors. Worse, we do not even feel disturbed by the lax standards of monitoring. I am not suggesting that situation is so gloomy that nothing can be done. The minimum we can do is to create awareness about the positive news. Those firms, housing societies, villages which perform best in conserving and recycling/treating waste water can be honoured and their contribution displayed on the public notice boards all over the state. Lessons about such pioneers can be included in the curriculum. Visits of the school children can be organised to such places. We have to ensure that leadership of our society at least 20 years hence will not commit the same mistake that we have done in the past and still do so often. The conditions of rivers and drains reflect the respect any society has for common good and common future. Let me end this section by recalling an extremely innovative and pioneering initiative taken by a national leader hailing from Gujarat. It is a pity that most people in this meeting as elsewhere are ignorant about his contribution in this respect. In national consultations on water conservation and sustainable agriculture, I have experienced the same public amnesia. Dr. K.L.Munshi was Food and Agriculture Minister in the Nehru’s Cabinet and also the chairperson of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). His lectures were published in a document called as “Gospel of Dirty Hand”, 1953. Among many insightful passages in the book, let me pick up two, which are particularly relevant for managing water today. While linking soil with soul, he drew three circles denoting hydrological cycle, nutrient cycle and local community. His suggestion was that unless we link all the three, sustainable land and water use cannot be planned. Extremely distraught by the prevailing situation of the dirty drainage channels in cities and villages around, he observed that a civilisation which does not keep drains clean, may not last too long. The civilisational character, he implied, was apparent in the quality of management of drainage. He also realised that mere exhortation will not help. Neither reliance on government alone would help. He developed a revolutionary idea of a land army. The first unit of land army comprising students from Delhi University took up the challenge of cleaning Najafgargh drain in Delhi. His vision was that such units of land army comprising youth would move from place to place and help local communities in taking charge of their destiny by managing land and water use in a sustainable manner. Neither the planners, nor the young students know about land army today. May be such indifference is deliberate. If we share such instances from our recent history, it would be difficult for the planners, leaders and senior civil servants and industrialists to be so irresponsible about water use. Part Two: Innovations for managing water Cultural, institutional, educational and technological innovations are required to transform the situation with regard to land and water use. In fact, when we conserve water, we invariably conserve land also. It is a different matter that the section which dealt with soil conservation in the erstwhile Central Water and Power Commission (CW & PC) divided into Central Water Commission and Central Electricity Authority has almost disappeared today. The catchment area planning is seldom incorporated in an integral manner in the most river valley projects today. Leaving that aside, let us look at what kind of creative solutions can be discerned from the grassroots initiatives. Institutional innovations: There are villages in Gujarat, which have evolved very creative ways of ensuring water quality and conservation. In Surendranagar, there is a village, which has nine temples and one Dargah around the pond. It seems that possibility of anybody entering from ten directions to pollute the water was prevented by putting fear of God in the mind of community members. During various social functions, the young couple is expected to go and seek the blessings of all the ten shrines. In many villages of north Gujarat, there is a custom that community members clean up the catchment area of the village pond before it rains. Any excreta of the animal or other such debris is removed so that when the rain water drains into the pond, it does not bring impurities with it. The management of virdas in Kutchch is governed by collective norms in several villages. Right from Tharad Taluka to Banni area, there are a whole variety of technological and institutional arrangements to conserve fresh water in saline soil and saline sub soil water. Premjibhai has worked with local communities in Saurashtra to experiment with a very wide variety of village ponds with design and management innovations. The story of Rajsamdhiyala in Rajkot district is quite well known. The young Sarpanch of this village not only mobilize the community in digging ponds with the help of local administration but also succeeded in achieving the highest standards of cleanliness in any village. I will not be surprised if this village can be a benchmark for the whole country. Variety of institutional arrangements have evolved in past to manage water collectively so that the need of various sections of society is met adequately. Many of these arrangements are coming under strain. We will see in the next section whether technological innovations can reduce the erosion of institutional values. Technological innovations: For different kinds of water bodies, different technological innovations have been developed by individuals as well as communities. a. Saline soil, saline ground water in dry land regions The conservation of rainwater through virdas in such regions is a traditional technology. Despite all the advancement in science, we have not been able to develop any method more sophisticated than these in such regions. An innovation within this was discovered a decade ago in Tharad area. Farmers have developed a lateral bore with the help of water jet so as to increase recharge rate of water from four sides. In conditions where ground water is saline, the only way fresh water supply can be increased after the rains have drained the salts and saturated the capillaries, is through such bores (Chokkakula and Patel, 1994; Ferrouki and Suthar, 1994). Recently in Karnataka a similar practice has been observed in non-saline regions (Shree Padre, Honey Bee 17 (1 & 2), 32-33). Public investment in improving the efficiency of such traditional technologies improvised in recent past is almost non-existent. b. Semi circular check dam: Most check dams are straight line or a single arch design. Bhanjibhai designed semi circular arches after getting the inspiration from the old railway bridges to deflect the pressure with lesser thickness of the dam. One can thus build more dams in the cost that would have been required for a single straight line check dam. Premjibhai has further improvised the design and built several more check dams in Saurashtra. The state government is yet to replicate this design. c. Using compressed air to extract water from deep bores: Use of one way valve to push compressed air through a pipe to extract water from deeper bores where under normal circumstances, a submersible pump would have been required. However such pumps can work only when electricity is available. Compressed air pumps can help extract water with the help of diesel engine from deep bores. It is a different matter that excessive extraction of ground water is posing serious problems in many parts of the state. One has to create wider awareness in this regard. d. Zero head turbines: Given a large network of irrigation canals built in the state due to Narmada project, generation of electricity through the flow of water can be an attractive option for decentralised, distributed energy supply. Such turbines have been developed in northeast at very low cost. National Innovation Foundation (NIF – www.nifindia.org) and Honey Bee Network (www.sristi.org) have scouted large number of such turbines requiring either very low thrust or velocity or both of water. These can also be used to lift water in the regions where gravity flow would not be feasible. e. Water recharge technologies: Directing rain water straight into the well This is one innovation which is very harmful and must be discouraged. Many farmers did not realise that total absence of direct recharge of the well in the history of water management all around the world was not without reason. It was discovered long time ago that if water was allowed to go into the well from the top, then the silt along with the water might settle and close the pores through which water was entering from below or side ways. In our Shodh Yatra in Saurashtra region, we have come across examples of failed wells because of such practice. Recharge must always be done through filter wells. There are a large number of innovations about use of water in agriculture which have been documented by the Honey Bee Network over the last two decades[2]. A general principle is, the more water we give to the crop, more pest we will have. Alternate row irrigation practice developed by a Haryana farmer, Harbhajan Singh has diffused widely because of saving of water and lesser pest attack. An eminent organic farmer, Bhaskarbhai Save provided water to his plantation through a channel in between the two rows of trees. The idea of roots growing horizontally towards water and in the process harnessing more nutrients from soil was found to be very viable. It reduced the water supply and improved the productivity. Whole range of rotor water sprinklers have been developed by Anna Saheb in Karnataka which sprinkle water in the radius of 140 feet and as a bonus wash the eggs of the pests as well. Farmers in Kerala also use compressed water spray in crops like cardamom to control external pests. Use of saline bottles for drip irrigation is just another example of farmers realising the importance of economy in water use. The fact, however, remains that public policy of free electricity or electricity on the basis of horsepower irrespective of the consumption encourage farmers to use water recklessly. Despite being a committed supporter of farmers’ knowledge and wisdom, I must admit that perverse incentives can distort the value systems and encourage irresponsible use of natural resources. Part Three: Way Ahead Large-scale policy changes are required at micro and macro level to conserve, augment and distribute water in a sustainable manner. 1. Every urban housing society or campus must be allowed to get electrical connection or renew it every year only if it recycles and conserves a particular proportion of its water requirement, say 30 per cent. 2. No new building use permission be granted till water recharge arrangements have been made. 3. The urban water reform policy must be urgently developed to regulate extraction, utilisation, emission or effluents, waste water treatment and use of water for gardens, etc. 4. The drainage water treatment as well as use must be monitored. Release of industrial waste water without adequate treatment for use in irrigation must be strictly monitored to prevent pollutants entering the food chain. 5. The incentives for recycling, conserving and utilising sustainably should be made more robust and widely known. 6. Technologies which waste ¾ of the water they treat such as RO systems must be discouraged or compulsorily linked with salt extraction and recycling of waste water. 7. High degree of iniquity in water distribution in urban areas must be discouraged. 8. Household technologies for water treatment must be encouraged so that water borne diseases do not take a heavy toll of public health. At the same time, the quality of water treatment in municipal supplies must be improved so that those community members who cannot afford private water treatment do not suffer unnecessarily. 9. The link of water use efficiency with over all sustainability of agriculture systems has to be demonstrated through on-farm trials in different agro ecological regions. I am not aware as to how many such trials have been taken up in farmers’ fields and what have been the results. But such findings would help motivate farmers to take steps to economise water use. 10. All the political leaders, MPs, MLAs and Ministers (one could forgive the bureaucrats) should be required to conserve rooftop rain water in their houses so that they can motivate their constituents accordingly. 11. The use of more than 50 horsepower engines to extract fossil groundwater (which is never going to be recharged) must be very heavily taxed so that such non-sustainable practices are curbed urgently. 12. Large scale trials and demonstration of water based innovations in different states should become part of public policy in a manner that more and more people feel encouraged to innovate. Industrial water use efficiency and waste water treatment policy should be articulated with greater transparency and accountability. The water dripping from the air conditioner is distilled water. By conserving this water, one can economise the purchase of distilled water. There are large number of such practices, which can easily improve the economics of water conservation, augmentation and more equitable sharing. While some fear that future world wars would be around the water, we have already been witnessing the violence around water disputes in many parts of the country. The urban requirement today when met through rural extraction generates immediate tensions. When farmers are advised to conserve water without similar efforts in the cities, they feel disappointed and demotivated. I, therefore, hope that this conference will create sufficient consciousness among the policy makers so that through water use efficiency and fairness in its distribution, steps towards making Gujarat green will be taken immediately. 5 [1] Professor, IIMA, Coordinator, SRISTI, founder, Honey Bee network, and Executive Vice Chair, NIF, Ahmedabad anilg@iimahd.ernet.in anilgb@gmail.com www.sristi.org/anilg [2] Chokkakula, et al., “Harnessing Wisdom for Watershed Management”, CMA Mimeo, 2003 Anil K Gupta |
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