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Speech by Dr R A MashelkarChairperson, NIF Secretary, DSIR and DG, CSIR, New Delhi |
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Your presence today, is particularly inspiring for all of us because this new vision of India cannot be fulfilled unless India becomes Innovative. National Innovation Foundation has been set up just to catalyze this particular vision. Today we arehonouring those unsung heroes who are not scientists but whose creativity is no less than the scientists. They are not scientists and they do not work in our formal laboratories like the National Physical Laboratory - they work in the laboratories of life. They are not scientists funded by the government like we are, but they use their own energy, their own creativity, their own enterprise, their own hard earned money to innovate. They don’t import equipment, they don’t import ideas, they don’t import concepts from the western world or from the United States of America - they generate their own ideas and innovations right from the grassroots. They are not formally trained in scientific analysis but their powers of observation, analysis and synthesis are no less than those of formally trained scientists. I am particularly proud that today, this function is being held in National Physical Laboratory - a leader in formal sector of innovation because I do believe this is a sound signal with regard to bringing these two communities of formal and informal scientists together which have been set apart for so long. Sir, your presence here today, is a celebration of the innovation spirit of this great part of India , which was unrecognized so far. National Innovation Foundation was set up in March 2000, within this short span it has captured the imagination of the Nation and even beyond our Nation, during this over two year journey. Any movement that starts can end prematurely if three things do not happen, the first is spread, the second is creating synergy, that is the ability to network and the third is sustainability- how it can be sustained. Spread, Synergy and Sustainability, thus are the three key attributes. Let us look at the spread. You will find, when we set up the first annual competition last year, the number of entries were 948; they rose by seven fold to 6228 this year. The number of examples of innovations and traditional knowledge were more than 1600, this year they rose to 13500, again by factor of seven just within a space of twelve months. Three hundred districts of the country are being represented today. Let us see how, the synergy between the formal and informal systems of innovation, and among the volunteers of Honey Bee Network has helped in creating this movement. There is no way otherwise how such an outstanding impact could have been achieved by a small team of hardworking colleagues led by Prof Anil K Gupta at the National Innovation Foundation. If we look at the technology, you will find Indian Institute of Technology, whether it is at Guwahati, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Bombay, or Delhi, they are all taking lead, the graduates and undergraduates students are getting a chance to interact with grassroots innovators and in some cases, work with them. If we look at National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, special GRIDS (Grassroots Innovation Design Studio) has been set up just to take care of the designs of these prototypes, improving them and bringing in modernity and ideas and thus institutionalizing the design input in the value chain. Similar is the case with the business management schools. They are getting involved in creating marketing plans, business plans. The patent attorneys are saying we will not charge you anything, we will come and help you protect the new intellectual property that you might be generating. Three university vice chancellors have come forward and said that ‘we want to be linked with you’. Council of Scientific Industrial Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, many of the laboratories are joining hands like National botanical Research institute. We find many volunteers of the Honey Bee network trying to contribute to this cause. Many women organization, SEWA included, are joining hands. I am very happy to acknowledge the presence of Elaben Bhatt amongst us today. Women organizations are joining hands because lot of these innovations have to do with women and their problems and their needs. So many of these organizations are coming forward and we have seen a movement, which is absolutely unbelievable during the last twelve months. I must also say that the message is sailing across. We had an exhibition few months ago of the grassroots innovators in South Africa . In fact some of these innovator actually went to the Limpopo province in the North, which is one of the backward and very under developed part of that country. A transfer of technology was facilitated by these grassroots innovators there. It is unbelievable, while we have not been able to transfer technology from the formal scientific system to South Africa yet, it has already happened from the informal system of science and technology. The Commonwealth Knowledge Network is giving topmost priority to these grassroots innovations; it has been brought into the central stage through the incorporation in the agenda of the Commonwealth Science Council. In fact the president of Commonwealth Science Council Dr Ben Gubane, Minister of S and T, South African Government, has already written to the Commonwealth Science Council members advocating the adoption of our model. Therefore one can see, when I talk about issue of spread & synergy, the message is spreading around. Finally, the issue is that of ‘sustainability’. It is important that we don’t just register the innovations, we must make sure that something generated in one part of the country gets disseminated elsewhere, products come into the market place, value is added to the livelihood of the people and that is where micro-venture capital becomes essential. Design laboratories, where new materials and new tools could be used – also become important. ‘Incubation centers’, like GIAN are important because ideas die if they are not incubated. State government need to get activated. We are creating Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) in some states but more states need to basically join in and therefore there is a big agenda ahead of us. We are determined to move on this particular agenda of creating an India that will be innovative. I do believe finally, that you know when God creates us, He puts a bit of Himself in all of us. That bit of good, that bit of God, is what we should always be searching for. And similarly one does believe that one billion Indians have innovativeness in each of them. National Innovation Foundation is trying to search for such innovativeness among the slum dwellers, the artisans or school dropouts or even the imprisoners. There are many examples, which have been seen in the exhibition outside as to how these have been searched and how we are going to honor them. Finally once again Sir, I would like to thank you very much. You have not only shown an interest in meeting them and honoring them, you have also invited them for a tea in “Rashtrapati Bhawan” tomorrow, I think this is something, very special for them which they will remember for life time. I believe Sir, as a scientist you have love for science and it was demonstrated amply when you went to Hyderabad to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. You went there most informally having committed to stay there from 8 pm to 9 pm but I understand from Dr Lalji Singh that you were there from 8 pm to 10.30 pm, in the late night looking at the science in the formal laboratories. Likewise, today you are here, touching the lives of the grassroots innovators and as a scientist, you are sending the signal that you honor them, the entire scientific community needs to honor them and respect them. Thank you very much |
