Infectious innovation: Spreading a virus | anil k gupta blog

Infectious innovation: Spreading a virus | anil k gupta blog

Infectious innovation:  Spreading a virus



In last two weeks, I had the privilege of spreading infection of innovation virus in several parts of the country.  The foundation programme for the current batch of IAS probationers had an innovation workshop of two days for the first time.  Thanks to the initiative of faculty Jaspreet Kaur  and Dirctor Rajiv Kapoor, the officers invited several practitioners as well as activists who had  achieved public policy goals through innovative pedagogy.  It was heartening to note that many of them were beginning to get disturbed by the persistent inertia in society.  May be  they also saw the changing mood in the country.  How passion and purpose gets combined to result in performance through platforms became evident in the interactions.  It is hoped that IIMA and LBSNAA will cooperate to map the innovations in governance but also the unmet needs in different regions.  If 200 probationers during their field assignments identify 20 unmet needs in each district, we would have made at least first cut inventory of the agenda for action in one third of the country.  A chapter of National Innovation Club may also be started to search, spread and celebrate innovations and sense the unmet needs. Likewise, the learning from the change agents at all levels in society will get documented so that cribbing culture gives ways to creative and collaborative culture.

 In Odisha, interactions with various secretaries and other members of state innovation council, triggered several initiatives for linking students of technological and other universities.  Similarly, in Telangana, Secretary, Education, himself a graduate of IIT Kanpur recognized that the techpedia.in could be a viable platform for linking students with society and small entrepreneurs.  In Karnataka, I had the opportunity of recognizing about 60 projects by more than 150 students solving real life problems in an innovative way through TEQIP platform.  It was so gratifying to see so much of talent never recognised before, at a common platform.  Thanks to the enormous energy of Teqip team and prof Venugopal, anonymity of  students who had achieved international award was overcome.  There is Teqip project in every state and yet nowhere so far, three best projects from every college have been recognised as was done yesterday.  There were students who took up a project from an industry, developed fully functional prototype at almost one tenth of the cost with same reliability as the costly version for testing relays. Similarly, there were several projects which converted plastic into oil ranging from 30 per cent to 90 per cent efficiency (Malvika, Om, Dhiraj, adhiti) and cooked food  and helped in vending for mid day meal (Subramanya Shetty).  Imagine if you could convert millions of tons of plastic into diesel and furnace oil at reasonable cost, then every housing society or community will process plastic and the dream of Clean India could be accomplished faster than one can imagine.  It is gratifying to see the fund being used to support patent protection and also entrepreneurship development.   The example of Kerala was shared where any student who started an enterprise while studying can get upto four per cent grace marks and 20 per cent relaxation in attendance.  Those states which have not taken any step to use resources under this scheme for promoting innovations by young students should introspect urgently the reasons for their inertia.  Any argument against empowering students and expanding their options for innovation and entrepreneurship is an argument against progress and inclusive development.  I also interacted with several innovative teams at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where creative ways of using energy and other resources were showcased.  One team had designed a dryer for vegetables and fruits heated by the water of solar heater passing through the dryer.  There are a large number of solar heaters installed all over the country.  But none has used heat wasted through delivery pipe for such a creative purpose.  There was another team which combined fly ash with quarry waste and slag from steel plants bound together by sodium hydroxide.  These bricks were not only stronger than ordinary bricks many times, but also retained less moisture and were corroded much later.  A team from Dharwad tried to use the energy of rain drops for generating power, of course of low intensity was sufficient to charge sensors for triggering different devices like de-humidifier.  There was another interesting project where by using solar systems of heating and evaporative pooling, a 30 degree temperate gradient developed which could be used for generating energy more efficiently than using only heat or only coolness.  Many of these projects will be nominated for Gandhian Young Technological Innovation award by techpedia.in.   And who knows some of them may make it to the Innovators-Scholar-in-residence at the President’s house.  All this has become possible because the model developed through GTU and SRISTI has brought out so much of tangible impact.  I am sure, there will be other initiatives which will follow soon adding wings to the imagination of creative people.

Ellie Goulding - Burn

Govt to back indigenous innovation in health sector: Katoch | Business Standard

Govt to back indigenous innovation in health sector: Katoch | Business Standard

Main to piya se naina laga aayi re - Hazrat Amir Khusro - Ustad Shujaat ...

lessons from haryana: 33rd shodhyatra part 2

lessons from haryana: 33rd shodhyatra part 2

Innovations in Haryana: Shodhyatra Part II

While visiting government schools during 33rd shodhyatra, impromptu idea competitions were organized.  In Buwana village, Sachin shared a problem about tall and the short children not being able to sit equally comfortably on desks of the same height.  He suggested desk with adjustable heights.  This problem has been around for decades.  Just like Chhaya, class seven, Gandhinagar district had drawn our attention to the school taps at height higher than little children like her could access, many children here were also  not willing to live with persistent design problems in our system. There were more than 300 ideas received from different schools, maximum were received in Mandhana school.  Quality of ideas from many rural schools was comparable with the best in the country.  In the same village, we met Kedarnath Khatri who had grown Bt cotton without any pesticide.  For a particular disease involving curling of leaves, he sprayed the decanted water collected from limestone powder soaked overnight.  For other pests, he sprayed an extract of two kg each of datura, akada and neem in four or five times water or in cow’s urine.  Many farmers were following his practice.   Never before did we meet so many farmers trying to find non-chemical alternatives for pest control and that too in the cradle of green revolution and the crop which receives almost half the pesticides of the country, i.e. cotton. 

Another notable thing during this Shodhyatra was a large number of innovative cycle based weeding and sowing equipments being experimented upon by the farmers.  Pravin and Madho Singh had developed a three wheel human powered weeding device, tested first time on our day of visit.  Shiv Prasad had used the front wheel of cycle and attached two disc ploughs tilted in opposite direction to weed the cotton crop. In Dulhori Jat, a young boy, Pravin mentioned about the problem old people face while boarding the bus.  He suggested retractable steps so that old people and women can easily board the bus.  In the same village, Omvir Singh showed a frugal motor winding machine costing hardly Rs 3000 which would have costed at least Rs 20000 in the market. After walking for a while, we stopped for a cup of tea near Shahbajpur, seeing a amaltas (C. fistula) tree in full bloom with yellow flowers.  As usual, we started discussing the purpose of yatra and enquired if the people sitting there knew any innovator.  A young student Sujit also confirmed that he also did not know any one.  We didn’t give up.  We started  narrating examples of innovators we saw on the way using cycle to develop different devices, Sujit immediately recalled a farmer who had actually developed a cycle based millet sowing device.  We arranged a vehicle for him to go and fetch Maharam, the innovator from nearby hamlet of shabhazpur village. It was a  very interesting case where a frugal grassroots innovation was more efficient and productive than the costlier version.  He explained that when Bajra was sown with the help of cycle plough, the depth was never more than 1 ½ inch and the soil cover on the seed was also thinner.  When sown with tractor, the depth was higher and soil cover was also thicker.  In the former case, the tillering was higher and yield was sometimes higher than 20 per cent compared to the seeds sown by tractor drawn seed drill. The general assumption is that sowing by heavy machinery would be more productive.  Not in this case.

Rishipal, a young student in Dehrolijat village developed a car driven by compressed air.  There were other innovators who had developed similar cars before but that should not detract the importance of what Rishi did in a small village without any technical training. There were many other innovations that we came across such as a mechanic using an old engine in place of compressor for filling air in tank.  If the idea of one of the students, Anjali had been implemented in time, the union minister who died in the accident might have been alive.  She mentioned that unless one used a seat belt the car should not start.

This Shodhyatra, like the earlier one in Punjab, clearly showed that even in the most developed regions of the country, the productivity of the workers remains to be improved and emerging innovations underscore  urgency of this goal.

There are many lessons one can learn from 33^rd Shodhyatra about sanitation, child nutrition, breast feeding of infants for two – three years, local agitations against consumption of liquor, higher tree density in the cultivated fields, etc. Issue is: will planners design a richer eco-system for millions of such grassroots and student innovations to be supported at district level?