23(4) October December 2012 - sristi.org4)_Oct_Dec_2012-Jan-Ma…A Dialogue on People’s Creativity, Experimentation & Innovation 2 Honey Bee Vol 23 (4) & 24(1) October - December

A Dialogue on People’s Creativity, Experimentation & Innovation

Honey Bee Vol 23 (4) & 24(1) October - December 2012 & January - March 20132

30th SHODHYATRA: Neglected horizons,promising sprouts ............................................................ 4

CENTENARIAN: A time without shoes and tea ........ 9

SEVENTH BIENNIAL AWARDS: Curiosityunconstrained ................................................................. 10

CLUSTER: Assistive technologies: samvedana,sambhavna aur swabhimaan ..................................... 23

PROFILE: K V Paulose - Experimentation instandardising cardamom cultivation ........................... 25

RENEWING OLD TIES: Revisiting our innovators ... 26

PROFILE: Breeding varieties for frugalfarming ........................................................................... 28

HUMS: Gujarati ............................................................. 30

SHODHYATRA 29 PART-II ............................................. 31

CULTURALLY ALIVE: Gopal - A street artist ............... 33

CHIN................................................................................ 35

NEWS & VIEWS ........................................................... 36

RECIPE ........................................................................... 39

DIALOGUE ...................................................................... 41

EditorAnil K Gupta

Editorial AdvisorsRiya Sinha Chokkakula, Vijaya Sherry Chand

Associate EditorsChintan Shinde, Anamika Dey, Marianne Esders

Editorial Support TeamKirit K Patel, Sadhana Gupta, Jyoti Capoor, NitinMaurya, Vivek Kumar, Ravikumar, Hema Patel,

Ramesh Patel, Vipin Kumar, Rakesh KumarMaheshwari, Nirmal Sahay, Chetan Patel, Parshottam

Patel, Mukesh Chauhan, Chinmay Somani, Anjum Dhamija

Graphics and Design: Unnikrishnan Nair

Cover Design: Anamika Dey

Illustration: Palash Graphics

Administrative TeamR Baskaran, Bhoomi Shah, Sumitra Patel,

Devshi Desai

Editorial AddressHoney Bee, C/o Prof Anil K Gupta

Indian Institute of ManagementVastrapur, Ahmedabad-380015, Gujarat, IndiaPhone: 91-79-66324921; Fax: 91-79-26307341

Email: [email protected], [email protected]://www.sristi.org

Honey Bee Regional Newsletters

Aama Akha Pakha (Odia)Dr Balaram SahuKeshari Enclave, B- Block, Flat No-401Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar-12 Odisha,[email protected]

Hittalagida (Kannada)Dr T N PrakashDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsUniversity of Agricultural Science, GKVK,Bangalore - 560065 [email protected]

Ini Karshakan Samsarikkatte (Malayalam)Fr Hubby Mathew & Mr T J JamesPeermade Development Society, Peermade,Idukki - 685531, [email protected]

Loksarvani (Gujarati) andSujh-Bujh Aas Paas ki (Hindi)SRISTI, P O Box No.15050 AmbawadiAhmedabad - 380015 [email protected]

Num Vali Velanmai (Tamil)Mr P Vivekanandan45, T P M Nagar,Virattipathu, Madurai -625010 Tamil [email protected]

Palle Srujana (Telugu)Brig Pogula Ganesham VSM (Retd)C/o Ms. Aruna Ganesham, 102, Vayupuri,Sainikpuri Post Secunderabad-500 094Andhra [email protected]

I had to write a cover story and somehow nointriguing story was coming to my mind. Tiredof thinking, I went to bed. In my dreams, I sawthat the five fingers of my hand, which normallyshared a warm friendship, got into a seriousargument. Of course, the subject is the sameold one that has been plaguing all living things

since the dawn of time -who is the biggest of them all. Thethumb responded first with a contemptuous look on its faceand with a perceptible sneer wondering why there should bean argument at all about it. “Without me”, the thumb said,“you all are powerless. Try doing anything without my supportand you will know!” The middle finger laughed out loud at thisstatement and said, “I am the tallest here and strategicallyplaced at the middle. Haven’t you seen that in any group photo,the most important person occupies the middle seat? Do Ineed to say anything more?”

The ring finger listened to all this with a disinterested yawn.He looked around with authority and, flaunting his expensivediamond ring set in platinum, said, “You people seem to forgetthat I give you all the status that you enjoy. All of you getnoticed only because of me!” The mercurial index finger wasfurious at this preposterous statement. “Status, my foot” hethundered. “Don’t you guys know that when our man is rousedto fury, he uses me to put his adversary in his place? Andwhen someone seeks his direction, he uses me again to showhim the right path to take. I am the symbol of his power andauthority”, he said. Listening to this, the little finger said, “Iam the smallest and slimmest of all. I am the best.”

Adapted from http://www.indusladies.com/forums/cheeniyas-senile-ramblings/29038-the-story-of-five-fingers.html

Why was the little finger so confident? -Ed.

See page 29

Published by Riya Sinha Chokkakula on behalf of SRISTI Innovations, AES Boys Hostel Campus,Near University Library, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad-380015

Printed at M/s Elite Printers, Ahmedabad

Contents Five fingers

Honey Bee Vol 23 (4) & 24(1) October - December 2012 & January - March 2013 3

EDITORIAL

ailures can lead to small breakthroughs when onestarts listening to the unheard voices within. Iremember, during the Shodhyatra in Alwar,

Rajasthan, women were not present in the night meetings.We started making a presentation about the innovationgathered from other regions and the women continued tobe absent. We made a polite request to the men presentto call the women so that they could join us but excusescontinued. After a while, we stopped the presentation.By now, the audience was enjoying nice videos andphotographs of innovations. They insisted that we shouldresume and the women would come eventually.However, we also insisted that we would wait till they cameand only then we would resume the presentation. Notsurprisingly, many women soon came to see thepresentation. We were embarrassed. Why did it take solong for us to practice this simple satyagrah, the insistenceon a fair rule?

Only a few women innovators or traditional knowledgeholders have been recognised so far in various awardfunctions. Among children participants in the IGNITE annualcompetition, the situation has been slightly better. At least,the future seems to hold more promise. Yet, can we affordto continue ignoring the creative voices of women from allsections of the society?

I am not sure that further wait for enhancing the share ofwomen in the category of outstanding achievers will bejustified any more. We had noticed this flaw thirteen yearsago in 2000,

“Honey Bee Network has realised that one ofthe reasons why we have been able todiscover lesser number of innovations by/forwomen is that they are always culturallycoerced to adapt rather than transcend thetechnological constraints. Women are no lesscreative than men. It is just that their accessto the tools for fabricating new devices hasalso been impaired. The formal institutionshave not bothered. Grassroots innovators donot share this attitude and have innovatedseveral contraptions to bring solace, bothphysical and economic, to them.”

However, our tactics or strategies in this regard have notbeen quick enough. Despite millions being spent onwomen welfare and development, women knowledge andcreativity still remains subdued if not completely ignored.If other women groups or other organisations have ignoredthe knowledge of women, then it does not give us anysolace. We need to make a difference.

Invisible women, visible wisdom

When did you think of a new idea last?

F

anil k gupta

Let me mention some of the steps that we plan to takein the times to come to overcome this asymmetry: a) Inthe summer scouting period, we will now focus only onthe knowledge and creativity of women and farm workers,the two groups whose share in the knowledge system andawards has remained very low. We will not ignore theknowledge of others but we will not actively seek that; b)the idea competitions which have helped us unearth manycreative girl children, will be organised among women aswell to uncover their hidden talent. The feasibility we haveasserted should not become the enemy of desirability.Once ideas emerge, ways to implement them will alsoemerge; c) unique traditional knowledge and other ideasof women will be taken up for value addition and socialdiffusion on priority so that better examples can be createdabout the innate worth of these ideas. Once we start gettingresults based on their knowledge, hopefully other womenwho may have similar ideas may come forward to sharetheir ideas too. For instance, an improved variety of carrotdeveloped by Santosh Pachar in Rajasthan, or paddyselections by Ariyammal and Pushpam, Tamil Nadu, herbalmedication for poultry diseases by Oinsam, Yumnam andanother representative of the Nambol community, Manipur,have been recognised in this year’s Seventh BiennialGrassroots Innovation Award function. The motivation forother similar creative women might increase, provided theycome to know of them. This time, seven girl students arealso being recognised at the Award Function for their ideas.As these technologies or ideas mature, the creative voicesof women might be heard better; d) there is also a needto benchmark the technological constraints faced by women.Assistance should be given to women if they have ideasabout addressing these constraints. Last year weannounced three challenges for making better wood stoves,tea plucking device and manual paddy transplanting devices.Although these problems mostly affect women, there werefew entries from them. It is nobody’s argument that problemsfaced by women should not be addressed by men. Yet, itis a matter of concern if women do not have an accessto the problem-solving process for issues affecting them. We hope that readers will send more concrete ideas togalvanise and harness women’s wisdom in, not just childcare and food processing but also, in all other areas ofhuman survival. We have to work towards a day when theshare of women awardees would be equal to that of men,if not more.



SHODHYATRA-30

Neglected horizons, promising sprouts

January 12-17, 2013 Churachandpur to Tuilumjang,

Churachandpur district, Manipur

Mary Kom, no, many Mary Koms! Whenwe visited the birthplace of the ManipuriOlympian, we realised why this regionhas given the nation one of its mostloved sporting heroes. The place has aliberal gender-inclusive culture wherewomen wear what they want, voice theiropinion and actively participate inpolitical processes.

With poor infrastructure, economichardships and a history of violence, theregion has not lost its vivacity. Thegovernment may be apathetic, but civilsociety is very vibrant. Several initiativeshave sprouted in the last decade toovercome ethnic divide and bridge thegap by love, generosity and inclusiveeducation and communitydevelopment. Contrasting theseconcerns, are the warm and hospitablepeople and the magnificent naturalenvironment. Amidst these contrastswe began our sojourn - a journey withinand without!

The starting point of this shodhyatrarested in a mosaic of jhum plotsinterspersed with wild bananas,bamboos, cotton silk trees, mango trees… yes, mangoes! We were surprised tosee mango trees at that altitude. Webegan our journey charged by themystic, innocent smiles of children of

the Sanga Muon Inn (SMI) children’shome. The kids had lost their parents inthe social conflict between the Kuki andNaga tribes. The children’s home is runby the Kuki Women Union1 with themotto, “Mother of the motherless”. Some of the children from here walkedwith us all through the shodhyatra andparticipated in idea competitions andother activities. We could sense that thekids were a spirited and self-reliantgroup.

We met H Paokholien Lhungdim, a well-known carpenter from Moul Nom village.He has developed a rice cooker whereinsteam from a common drum cooks25kg of rice each in two differentcookers. Cooking time for the first batchis one hour but reduces to 45 minutesin successive batches as the water isalready hot. This cooker is used incommunity functions to cook largequantities of rice.

In the next village, Kaprang, we met PuTongkhothang Kipgen, a 73 year oldherbal healer recognised for thetreatment of many chronic diseases liketuberculosis, cancer, heart problems,and diabetes. As our journey unfolded,we could not help notice the neglect thatthe region has suffered for ages. In theseventy kilometres that we walked, we

did not come across any hospital. Theregion was bereft of regular supply ofelectricity in most places, lacked propereducation and healthcare. Yet, thepeople hardly complained. Somehowcommunity educators seemed to bedoing a good job, how else couldchildren be so creative!

In Khotuh, we were the only visitors afterWorld War II, when the Japanese, intheir war against the allied forces, hadattacked the region. One cannot resistdrawing analogies between the times.Back then the war was between theBritish and the Japanese but thecommon man suffered. Today, theconflict is with and within the state andyet again, the locals are bearing thebrunt. We met an elderly woman whorecounted that disease incidence hadincreased in the post war period.

At times, due to social tensions, theroads are blocked for days. But thisisolation has made them self-reliant.The isolation causes localised inflationin the market. So, people tend to growtheir own food; almost every householdhas a kitchen garden. Paddy, potatoes,turmeric, pineapples, tapioca, chillies,yongchak (Parkia roxburghii), tomatoes,sugarcane, and areca nuts are themain crops. People use bamboo and

1 Those interested can contact the director at [email protected] or [email protected]

Rarely have we come across more creative children as we did duringthe 30th shodhyatra in Churachandpur, Manipur. In one of the economicallymost disadvantaged region, children had amazing dreams in their eyeseven in some of the villages which had no schools. Thirst for knowledgeand neglect by the state were paradoxical in a region which has beenseriously conflict prone. The shodhyatris were hosted with warmth in everyvillage including the one which had not been visited by any outsider forthe last forty years. The innovators were keen to share their ideas, andmarkets had almost failed to notice the enormous potential of ecosystemservices based industry. Starting from an orphanage in which kids fromhitherto inimical tribes lived together, the yatris realised that peace waspossible and prosperity could follow provided youth were engaged activelyin the process of reconstruction. Will the peace be allowed to prevail,find out….


Is marriage between traditional knowledge and modern science possible?

other natural products from thesurrounding forests. When the agarbattimaking machine was demonstrated,many villagers showed interest in gettingit. The multi-purpose food processingmachines of Dharamveer also evoked

considerable interest because hugetracts of lemon grass were found in theregion besides many other fruit trees.

All the villages invariably had a bell. Incase of an emergency, for example, if afire broke up in some house, peoplewould ring the bell to inform theother villagers and seek help. Of course,at a place where network receptivityis sparse, there are hardly anybetter alternatives. We also cameacross beautiful handicrafts andhandlooms.

In N Pangsang village, we met PuHempao Tothange who has formulateda growth promoter from bamboovinegar which increases the sizeof root and tuber crops up to threetimes.

Here, Dharamveer Kambhoj, aninnovator, made sweets from locallyavailable gooseberries and shared withthe villagers. This was an effort to createawareness about his machine and alsoto showcase products based on locallyavailable resources. We also met aherbal healer, Pu. Jang Pao Haokip whoshared 25 medicinal plants which werereported to treat diarrhoea, arthritis,wounds and urogenital problems.

Sadbhav SRISTI Sanshodan Laboratoryis conducting experiments on thepractices we received and will share theresults (and benefits if a product isdeveloped) with the communities fromwhich we received the practices.

In Lhanjang the children surprised uswhen they brought 30-35 plant samplesalong with their uses. They had writtenit in their local language. On realisingthat we did not know their language, theysat with us and helped us in thetranslation. A plant locally called kochang (Lilium distichum) has edible

Rice cooker by H Paokholien Lhungdim

Pu Hempao TothangeTubers after treatment withbamboo vinegar as growth promoter

A woman weaving shawl



roots and food made from it is relishedby the locals. They also use chives(Allium tuberosum), locally called “maroinakupi”, which taste like a mix of garlicand onion and are believed to help inlowering cholesterol. We came acrossnumerous varieties of chil l ies too.Chutneys and special delicacies aremade from the pods of yongchak. Thesefetch a very good price in the market. Butthe plant is affected by fungus and pestsand the whole plant dies about ten yearsafter the pest infestation (The SangaiExpress, Sep 28, 2012). The villagersasked for a solution to this. They saidthat if a solution to this can be found theywould like to plant this tree in the wholeregion if solution could be found, sinceas it fetches a very good price.

In Lhanjang, we also met an ex- serviceman in full military dress. He fought theSecond World War for the British andhe and his wife who have been marriedfor 66 years are more than 90 years old.We conducted idea competitions in thevillages and many good and creativeideas came out from this remote cornerof the country. We went to villages likeKhotuh where, notwithstanding the rightto education, there was no school in anydirection for four to five kilometres. It wasnot surprising that during the ideacompetition, most children articulatedthe vision of a school in the village. Canone really complain if some young peopleget angry and lose confidence in thepeaceful resolution of the developmentalchallenges?

In another vil lage, we met a kid,Seigoulien, who thought about a doublesided bottle; a scissor which can cutboth sides and a scooter with two rearwheels. She looked at the world quitedifferently. Will our teachers tolerate herqueer ways? Lhingnei Vah suggestedhaving spectacles with adjustablevision. Tin Dei wanted to design afoldable pen. Another girl thoughtof spectacles with a torchlight to read inthe night. Some other ideas were a solarairplane and a gun in which the targetshould be reflected on the inner side ofthe goggles.

The children made beautifulpaintings. In N. Pangsang, kidsdesigned their village. They describedwhere they wanted the school, thedispensary, and the houses. Then,there was a folk dance by youngenthusiasts who also taught theshodhyatris a few steps. And some ofus could not refrain from wearing ourdancing shoes which were long lost indealing with the ups and downs of life.Despite all the violence in the region,the communities still find a way tocelebrate life together with the wholecommunity.

The level of hygiene and sanitation inthe region is remarkable. Though theregion was amongst the mosteconomically backward everyhousehold had toilets and urinals. InSongpi, we drank tea made frompomegranate leaves. In Khotuh villagethere was no school and the childrenhad to walk five km to attend school.They thanked the shodhyatris for givingthem a reason to come together. As aparting gift, they gave walking staffs tothe shodhyatris.

Ex-serviceman Songkhojang Kuki with his wife

Kids in idea competition in Khotuh


These staffs helped the yatris a lot towalk the hilly terrain and clear the bushyways when they were stuck up on thehilltop on our way from Lhangjang to P.Sejol. Shodhyatris were very thankful toNg Lhing Nei Chan Mate, fondly calledChachan, who had sent an SMS tosomeone in the village and informed thatthe yatris had lost their way. The peopleof P Sejol sent three groups through threeways different ways into the jungle.Chachan is a class 12 student fromHengkot village and she accepted ourinvitation to walk with us. We appreciateher support to understand the locallanguage and culture.

After the morning meeting, the entirevillage of P Sejol stood in a line andshook hands with all the shodhyatris.When the kids got a globe as a prize forthe idea competition, they immediatelystarted searching for their region on themap.

In Tuilumjang vil lage, our lastdestination, we met a carpenter whomade beautiful sculptures andcarvings. Gl. David Mate, a famoussinger of this region sang for us. Gl.David Mate is currently studying in Delhi.Another vil lager played beautifulmelodies by using two leaves as hismusical instrument.

Though the region receives amplerainfall it faces scarcity in the leanmonths, perhaps due to inadequaterainwater storage or harvestingstructures. Yet, we came across a

traditional rice husker using the flow ofthe stream to run the husking pedal.

When did you consume organic food last?

Water filters were generally there in allthe households. We felt that the region

might be facing a lot of water relateddiseases. But, that was not the case.Distressed by the history of violence inthe region, they welcomed shodhyatrisand suggested that such activitiesshould be taken up twice or thrice ayear so that their children get inspiredand enlightened by the positivevibes of creativity. We are trying to setup a community innovation centre inthe region with different villages havingdifferent innovative devices so that thepeople can learn from each other.

Engagement with Manipur may openeyes of urban consumers and othersto the immense potential of beautifulhandlooms, sustainable lifestyles, andhospitable culure. It is just a matter ofcaring. Do we really care?

Children searching for India on the globe

A water driven rice husker



Parkia javanica Lam. (syn. Parkia roxburghii G. Don., Parkia speciosa,Parkia timoriana (DC.) Merr.)

Common name: Tree beans, Hindi: Khorial Assamese: Khorial,Mizoram: Zawngtah, Manipuri: Yongchak, Indonesian: Galuga,Javanese: Galuga Filipino: Cupang, Malay: Kedawung. Thai: Karieng

The yongchak tree is 15–35 m high and the trunk is 50–100 cm indiameter and has pinnately compound leaves and hanging flowers. Itspods are twisted and 35–45 cm long, 3–5 cm wide. They have a pungentsmell. The plant can live up to 80 years and bears fruits after 6 to 8years. It is abundantly distributed in the North Eastern region of India, especially Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.

Origin: Probably originated in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia

The pods of yongchak are eaten in nearly all its developmental stages and are a delicacy in Manipur. Its significance can bemade out by the lines of a poet

“karamna kaogani yonchak eronbakaramna kaogani yonchak kanghouhaobagi pangkhei leitrabayonchak ni meitei yonchak”(http://mwca.blog.com/archives/445/)

(How can I forget yongchak eronbaHow can I forget yonchak kanghouThe taste does not end i.e. You can not forget the taste

Yonchak meitai’s Yongchak)

Eronba and Kanghou are popular Manipuri dishes; Meitei is a community in Manipur.

The indigenous recipes using yongchak are prepared mainly with fish. Yongchak can be eaten in the form of flowers, tenderbeans or as dried matured beans (locally called bomb). The two most common delicacies using yongchak are:

Yongchak Singju: 1. With a yongkhot (peeler) peel the fresh yongchak skin from all the sides. 2) Remove outer areas with aknife. 3) Cut it into small pieces. 4) Mash it together with chilli (preferably boiled), ngari (steamed fermented fish) and salt. 5)Garnish with onion, fresh pea and coriander leaves.

Yongchak Iromba: 1. With a yongkhot (peeler) peel the fresh yongchak skin from all the sides. 2) Remove outer areas witha knife. 3) Cut the single fruit into 3-4 pieces. 4) Boil with chillies, ngari and potatos, or with broad beans or other vegetablesas per taste. 5) Boil again to remove any remaining skin of the yongchak and potatoes. 6) Mash all the ingredients together7) Add salt and garnish with onion, fresh pea and coriander leaves.

For healing wounds, Mizos crush the pericarp of the fruit and mix it with a little water. This is then applied on wounds andscabies. The younger pods and shoots are known to cure diarrhoea, dyssentry and food poisoning1. The seeds can be usedas a remedy for abdominal pain and dyspepsia2 The Gayo hill tribe of Aceh (in Sumatra), Indonesia use the fruit to treatheadache, colic and kill parasitic worms.3 Parkia roxburghii has also been reported to inhibit the proliferation ( of a cancerhybridoma cell line HB98 (65.47%), a B-cell cell line.4

The plant has started withering and its population is in major decline for the past few years. This may be due to increase inthe number of pest attacks perhaps as a result of rising temperature. Pests/insects like Common Stem Borer, Asian LongHorn Beetle locally known as (Kangchek Manbi Til), bark eating caterpillar (maku chabi til) affect the plant. Almond moths eatup yongchak flowers (kakshi). The seedlings are prone to Verticillium Wilt disease. Scientists have also inferred that thepresence of large quantities of nitrogen helps the insects to bore through the bark and survive inside for years. In theyongchak plant, symptoms of withering may appear even 10 years after the insect has infested the tree4. Please send yoursuggestions and solutions to save this plant at [email protected]

NutrientProfile

Constituent(%) Pod MatureKernelMoisture 6.7‐8.4 10protein 12.1‐18.8 28.8Fat 1‐15.5 33.5Ash 6.1‐7.4 5.7Carbohydratesandfibres

52.9‐71.1 22.0

Energy(Kcal) 342‐426 505

Source: Nutritional Information, Food Chemistry, 62(4):477-481, 1998

Yongchak: A plant in pain

PLANT PROFILE

1 http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/8497/1/IJTK%204(1)%2075-80.pdf2 http://www.ino.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Health_Systems_Strengthening_Guideline_Herbal_Medicine_6._Annex.pdf3 http://library.thinkquest.org/26252/evaluate/3.htm4 Kaur N, Singh J, Kamboj SS, Agrewala JN, Kaur M, 2005, Two novel lectins from Parkia biglandulosa and Parkia roxburghii: isolation,

physicochemical characterization, mitogenicity and anti-proliferative activity, Protein Pept Lett. 2005 Aug;12(6):585-955 http://www.coa-cau.org/press-release/153-withering-yongchak-cau-scientists-major-breakthrough


CENTENARIAN

Levhaat is located about 25 km from Chhota Udepur city.A relatively new concrete road leads us to the house whereDitliben lives with her son and daughter-in-law. DitlibenTersingh Rathwa is definitely more than hundred years old,her daughter–in-law vows. She knows this with certaintybecause her father and Ditliben were of the same age andher father had turned hundred a few years back. Hepassed away last year.

As she comes out of her small hut, we notice Ditliben’sfrail physique. Yet, despite her frailties she manages tomove around with a walking stick. She takes a seat andsmiles. She does not understand why we are there to meether.

She relaxes and tells us about her life. She had a verydifficult childhood. She lost her mother at a very young age.Her father too passed away soon and she was orphaned.She had to struggle to meet her daily food needs. Shewould ask her neighbours if they had some food left forher. The neighbourhood was also very poor. As kids theyused to play with pebbles because they did not have anymeans to buy toys.

When pressed about the changes she has seen over theyears, she says that she has seen really bad times in herearly years. Her later life, she says, was much better. Inher remote village, there was hardly anything availablewhen she was young. They wore very little clothing andnever wore shoes. If they ever saw shoes in the village,they knew they would either belong to the British or to thehawaldars (constables). The food she used to eat in thosetimes did not have much variety. They used to have rotlasmade of kodra [Paspalum scrobiculatum Linn.] and shamel[Echinochloa colona (L.) Link]. They never saw white rice.They also did not know of tea!

She fondly remembers the times when British officersused to pay visits. Some missionaries would visit as welland they were very kind. Sometimes the local king’s menwould come and they would be taken for a few days forforced labour.

Ditliben had a harsh but very active childhood. Most of theday she would grind flour or go to fetch water. Sheremembers she started doing all this at the age of 5. Theyused to walk around 20 kilometres a day since nothingwas close-by and they did not have any means of transportavailabe.

She says that the farmers at the time never used chemicalfertilisers. They used neem juice for most common ailments.For fracture, they used to fill a cloth with fenugreek flourand tie it around the broken area. They cooked kunvariya

A time without shoes and tea

ni bhaji [made from Senna tora (L.) Roxb.] which was richin nutrients. Shantilal Pandya, a retired teacher who visitedaccompanied us confirmed that the plant contained iodineand proteins.

The water level, she concedes, has gone down. So hasthe rainfall. Rainfall also is delayed nowadays, she adds.The climate was good back then. Now the winters arecolder, too.

Marriages back in her time were simple affairs. The brideand the groom exchanged a piece of jaggery to signifycompletion of the formalities of the wedding. The girlswould then go in the cart while the groom came homedancing with the men jiving to the beats of drums. In theirculture, she adds, drums were beaten even on death.

Her life was very simple, she says, like her food which hadonly salt and very little, if any, spices.

[Scout: Chintan Shinde. Special thanks to the entire teacher’steam of Anand School (especially, Kesharshibhai Rathwa, ManishParmar, Ritesh Solanki, Arunbhai Rathwa Dhandhuka andShantilal Pandya retired teacher, Tejgagh for assisting with the

scouting.]


Ditliben Tersingh Rathwa



The Lifetime Achievement Award

Annasaheb Bhavu UdgaviBelgaum, Karnataka

First recognized in childhood by Pt.Jawahar Lal Nehru, then PrimeMinister of India in sixties,Annasaheb has been a serialinventor. He made a foldablehorizontal charkha in 1962 whichcould be packed into a box. It waslater modified into ambar charkha.He tried an indigenous drip irrigationsystem in the mid seventies, muchbefore the concept was popular inthe country.

Recognising the need to develop water saving device,developed in eighties a rotor sprinkler rain gun which afew industries adopted (without giving him the share ofbenefits). It could sprinkle water up to a radius of 140 feet.The water droplets helped in controlling pests by washingthe eggs of insects. As if that was not enough, he alsogot a state award for developing a high yielding variety ofsugarcane ‘Gangavathi-6081’. Curiosity could never getbetter of him. He travelled 800 km to Goa to test his deviceto generate electricity through sea waves eight years ago.He also developed a rotovator for sugarcane mulching andtrashing and earthing. What a life! Always smiling,Annasaheb still has many more new ideas up his sleeve.

Posthumous award

Tree climber: a grassroots innovation going global

Late M J Joseph alias AppachanKannur, Kerala

M J Joseph had developed a device under the guidance ofhis father that helps in climbing coconut or areca nut trees.The palm climber consists of two metal loops that are meantfor holding the legs. A film made on his innovation by DiscoveryChannel is very popular(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWo9Nh1TgyU). Recently, both the innovator and hisfather unfortunately passed away. NIF facilitated sale of hisclimber to customers in USA, Maldives, Thailand, Australia,Brazil, Mexico, etc. His widow and brother are still continuingwith the production of the climbers. Some of the state andother agencies have copied it without any benefit sharing.Given the increasing labour constraints, its social value hasincreased over time.

Multi purpose processing machine

Dharamveer KambojYamuna Nagar, Haryana

Extraction of juice/pulp, essential oils, etc., from various edibleand non-edible fruits and herbs is an essential requirementof Food and Pharma Industry. This multipurpose portableprocessing machine works on a single phase motor and isuseful for processing various fruits, herbs and seeds. It alsoworks as big pressure cooker with temperature control andauto cut-off facility. One can extract essential oils and other

GRASSROOTSINNOVATION AWARDS

In this seventh edition of the Biennial Awards for Grassroots Innovation and Outstanding Traditional Knowledge, NationalInnovation Foundation received about 20,000 entries from 33 states and union territories. These were mainly aboutanimal care, human health, agriculture and engineering. Energy and household appliances were the next two majorcategories. President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee gave away 54 awards to 64 individuals and the representativesof five village communities. Gujarat tops the list followed by Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Bihar and then other states.Fortunately, this time there are 13 women and girls [about 20 per cent of total individuals], which is higher thanever before. Our hope is that in not too distant a future, the share of women will exceed that of men.

Curiosity unconstrainedShri Pranab Mukherjee,The President of India


components from flowers and medicinal plants. The machineis available in two models with juice extraction capacities of50 kg/h and 150 kg/h of fruits/herbs respectively. It can beused for processing Aloe vera, mango, amla, tulsi,ashwagandha, satavar, other herbs, flowers like rose, chameli,lavender, etc. Farmers find it very useful for in situ value additionin their produce thereby ensuring better returns. Dharamveerhas sold more than 150 machines in different parts of thecountry.

Bamboo splint making machine

Paresh PanchalAhmedabad, Gujarat

Bamboo sticks are major rawmaterial used in the Agarbatti industry.For making incense stick, electrichigh capacity machines are available,but not low powered machines forthe rural poor who use knife for thepurpose.

Paresh has developed a set of twomachines, one for stripping thebamboo pieces and second for

making incense sticks out of them. The capacity is about 30kg/day (3200-3500 sticks of 1.5 mm thickness per kg). Theblade life is about 10000 kg sticks (10-12 months). Both the

machines are easy to operate & maintain, and most suitablefor rural areas. He has both manual and powered versions.

Bamboo stripper cum splinter

L a l b i a k z u a l aRalte &La lp iang l i anaSailoAizawl, Mizoram

Bamboo splintmaking has beendone manually foryears using

knives, which isa tedious, timeconsuming andrisky method.Ralte and Sailohave developeda manualmachine thatcan slicebamboo stripsand also makesplints from thestrips. About 50of these strips of1.2 mm

thickness are stacked together and loaded onto the machinevertically. Using this machine, a person can makeapproximately 5000 splints of the same thickness per hour.

Tractor operated reaper windrower with reel

Bhagwan Singh DangiVidisha, Madhya Pradesh

Often, in a standing crop, soybean podsshatter due to non-availability of labourfor harvesting the crop in time, leadingto reduced yield and loss. To solve thisproblem, Bhagwan Singh developed aself-propelled reaper windrower in2005. With the help of NIF, he latermodified this into a front mountedattachment for tractor.

In this machine, a windrowing unit facilitates gathering ofharvested crop at the centre of the machine. It has a cuttingwidth 2.25 m and field capacity of 0.35 ha (at a forward speedof 1.93 -2.10 km/h). As per tests in the soybean crop at CIAE(ICAR) Bhopal, harvesting losses have been found to be at1.04% with negligible uncut losses.




Serial Innovator: Walnut cracker, walnut peeler, tree cumpole climber and others

Mushtaq Ahmad DarAnantnag, Jammu & Kashmir

Manually cracking open dry walnutstake a lot of time and effort while thesap of green walnut skin burns handsand stains clothes while peeling.Mushtaq Ahmad Dar has come up withmachine that not only peels greenwalnuts but also breaks open drywalnuts of varying sizes. The crackercan process approximately 80 kg ofwalnuts/h with an efficiency of about85 per cent while the peeler has a

capacity of 70 kg ofgreen walnuts/h.

Dar has alsodeveloped a tree andpole climber. This is asmall portable devicewhich enables easyclimbing on trees orpoles. It uses bodyweight to lock theclimbing steps. Thedevice is l ight,inexpensive and easy tomaintain. Thetechnology was alsolicensed to anentrepreneur inAhmedabad (IndiaInnovatix), who hascome up with animproved version of theclimber in consultationwith Mushtaq.

Serial Innovator: Natural water cooler, auto air kick pump,auto compression sprayer and others

Arvindbhai PatelAhmedabad, Gujarat

Arvindbhai Patel is a serial innovatorand has come up with a number ofinnovations, a few of which have alsobeen licensed multiple times. Thenatural water cooler is a low cost,energy efficient, environment friendlydevice based on the principle of heatexchange. Evaporative coolingdepends upon the externaltemperature and humidity. The coolerhas been tested by SPRERI (MNRE

Approved Test Laboratory) and is available in differentcapacities (upto 150 l).

He has alsodeveloped anauto air kickpump, which is adevice to inflatethe tyres ofvehicles havingkick or auto startmechanism. Thep r e s s u r eg e n e r a t e dinside thecompressor isused for fi l l ingthe air in the tubewith the help ofthis auto airpump. His autoc o m p r e s s i o nsprayer makesuse of the bodym o v e m e n t swhile walking to oscillate a dead weight attached to thesprayer. This builds sufficient pressure for spraying pesticides.He has developed innovative tongs for household use too.

Serial Innovator: Windmill, modified stove and others

Bharatbhai AgrawatJunagadh, Gujarat

Bharat started helping his father inrepairing agriculture implementssince he was in 6th standard. He hasbuilt many devices including aninnovative windmill for lifting waterfrom wells, a 5 HP power tiller cumtractor, a lemon cutter and a cactusfruit collector among others. Thewindmill uses single acting anddouble acting reciprocating pumps


depending on discharge requirement and can pump out 2000-2200 litres of water per hour. The modified stove has threedifferent chambers to maximise the utilisation of the heatproduced during fuel combustion. He has also been workingon a compressed air system for pumping ground water andpower generation through windmill.

Serial Innovator: Geared rickshaw, e-bicycle, bicycle thatspeeds up after bumps and others

Kanak DasMorigaon, Assam

A conventionalrickshaw isdifficult to pullover inclinedterrain. KanakDas hasmodified thec o n v e n t i o n a lcycle rickshaw byincorporating agear, making iteasier to pull.The gear shift ismore easilyenabled by ac l u t c hm e c h a n i s mcompared to theearlier gearedrickshaw. He hasearlier beenrecognised for

modifying a bicycle to move faster on a bumpy road byharnessing the energy in shock absorption. He also developedan e-Bike, where potential energy due to the weight of therider on a bumpy road is stored in a battery. This can be usedto run the bicycle or for any other task. He has also modifieda power tiller and developed a paddy thresher, and has manymore technological ideas to his credit.

Double shuttle loom

Ngangom Nabakumar SinghBishnupur, Manipur

Noticing the problems in traditionalshuttle loom, Nabakumar thought ofimproving it to enhance productivity andreduce labour. His ‘double shuttleloom’ works on the same principle asthat of any other standard manualshuttle loom. However, his loom iswider with the provision for two sets ofwarp rolls doubling the output in thesame time. Certain changesin the configuration and the use of a

ball bearing system have made this loom easier to operatethan other conventional looms.

Manual paddy transplanter

Ranjit MirigSambalpur, Orissa

Facing labour scarcity for transplantingpaddy seedlings in the field, Ranjitdeveloped a paddy transplanter. Hedeveloped the first prototype in 1986and kept on modifying it till he coulddevelop a successful model in 2008.Facilitated by NIF, the transplanter hasbeen further modified with the help of

IIT Kharagpur.Transplanting fiverows in a go, themachine has a fieldcapacity of 0.3 acre/hr and requires twopersons for itsoperation.

Mobile groundnut thresher cum collector

Mohanbhai Savjibhai PatelSurendranagar, Gujarat

After digging, the harvested groundnutcrop is left to dry in the field. Usingconventional threshers, a lot ofmanpower is needed to collect theharvested groundnut crop at onelocation. Mohanbhai suffered lossesdue to the inability to collect the alreadydug up pods in time, given scarcity oflabour. To overcome these problems,he developed a tractor mounted PTOpowered mobile thresher, which has a

separate chamber for the collection of groundnut pods andstalk. Six persons are required for threshing four tons of crop

Do you ever think whether your grandchildren will ever be able to see the species that are getting extinct?



in a day using this machine as compared to 20-22 personsfor threshing using conventional machines.

Fuel efficient water heater

Durlabh Singh Puri Solan, Himachal Pradesh

Living in a cold hilly area, DurlabhSingh had a conventional hamam, orwater-heater, which used wood as fuel.He observed the wastage of heat inconventional hamams and came withhis improved version. His water heateruses ther a d i a t e dheat andsmoke toh e a t

additional water to differenttemperatures. The water then canbe drained out through multipleoutlets. The thermal efficiency ofthis water heater is 58% as against38.5% in conventional hamamswith the CO/CO2 ratio (0.035)being within the prescribed safetylimit (0.040).

Paddy husk fuelled stove

Ashok ThakurEast Champaran, Bihar

Ashok observed in his area that a largeamount of paddy husk was discardedas agricultural waste. He modified acommon stove using wood dust as fuelfor using paddy husk instead. The stoveweighs about four kilograms andconsumes one kilogram of paddy huskin an hour. TERI University during testsfound its thermal efficiency to be 23%in cold & hot start and 32% during

simmering. Over 400 paddy husk stoves have been soldlocally.

Innovative printer head for golden embossing

Ravindra Ganpat ChopadeMumbai, Maharashtra

With increasing work load, Ravindrastarted searching for alternatives toconventional punching type method forgolden embossing on student thesisand project reports. Failing to find anysuch machine in the market, he decidedto make it himself. His machine is a XYplotter with a modified soldering ironas the writing head. Located near IITMumbai, he decorates the work of

techies and that’s how NIF discovered him. The formal systemmay become more open if every technology institute startsdiscovering creative people in their hinterland.

Tender coconut breaking cum coconut water coolingmachine

Mahadeviah VinodBangalore, Karnataka

The innovator has developed a machine that breaks a tendercoconut, draws out its water and cools it instantaneously.


The cutter has been customised for cracking the coconut.The coconut water passes the cooler through the collectingtray. Then it passes through ice covered pipes and gets cooledto about 14-15 0C. At its maximum capacity, the machine cancool about 400 glasses (200 ml) of coconut water.

Fish dryer

Devan SinghImphal West, Manipur

Traditional sun-drying of fish is a timeconsuming process where the fishalso needs to be protected fromanimals while drying. The innovator

has developed a closedvessel dryer that dries thefish uniformly in asignificantly lower timethan the traditionalmethod.The dryer usescharcoal and paddy huskas fuel and is available inthree models withcapacities rangingbetween 3-10 kg/h.

Low cost remote control for electric switches

Bommagani MalleshNalagonda, Andhra Pradesh

Mallesh has made a remote device tooperate electric switches to help his oldmotherw h ow a sunableto getup todo thesame.In the

present model of hisremote, five electric switchescan be operated. Using theremote one can also regulatethe speed of the fan.While similar switchesmay be available in themarket, Mallesh sells themat an extremely affordablecost.

Natural non stick pan (Hariyali Handi)

Dhanak and Bhil communitiesParts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

To provide non-stick coating ontheir clay utensils,traditionally thesecommunities havebeen usingnaturally availablelac obtained fromthe secretion of aninsect Lacciferlacca, growing onthe Pohim tree.

Lac generallycontains resins (70-80%), sugars,proteins and solublesalts (2-4%), wax (4-6%) and otherextraneous matter (9-14%). Scientif icevidence proves thatit is non-toxic. Theinnovation lies in theselection of a particular kind of lac and the process of applyingit on the clay surface using natural binding agents.

Electric loom for manufacturing bandages

Salam Rajesh Kumar SinghImphal, Manipur

Rajesh has been running a bandagemanufacturing unit since 1999. Withincreasing demand, it became difficultfor him to meet it due to shortage ofskilled weavers for his eight semi-automatic looms. He then developedan automatic handloom by modifying amanual one and incorporating a halfHP single-phase motor. The machine

When did you confess to your children last that you did not know the answer to their question?



has provision to vary shuttle speeds depending on the type ofcloth being weaved.

Auto rickshaw suitable for lower limb physically challenged

K. S. SudheerThrissur, Kerala

Sudheer has a physically challengedfriend who lost his lower limbs in anaccident. To help his friend earn hislivelihood, he modified an autorickshaw so that it can be controlledusing hands only. He has attached the

brake assembly tothe steering handleusing a hydrauliccylinder. The brakesare applied bypressing thesteering handle ofthe auto rickshaw downwards. This innovation can help manymore physically challenged people to be self-reliant.

Modified knapsack sprayer

Mohan Muktaji LambBeed, Maharashtra

Mohan observed that many of theexisting sprayers are difficult to operateand the nozzle gets blocked frequently.The pressure also dropped after shortspell of use. He has made certainmodifications in the knapsack sprayer,which include changes in pressurereservoir, resulting in higher pressureand the provision of changing thestroke length for varying the deliveryrate. Two booms can be attached to

his sprayer, which can cover 1 ha/7 h with a single nozzle andover 1 ha/ 5 h with both the nozzles.

Tractor operated groundnut digger

Sanjay Kumar D TilwaRajkot, Gujarat

The innovator saw people facinglabour scarcity during groundnutharvesting, which itself was a tedious

job. He developed atractor mountedgroundnut digger. Ithas a telescopicpropeller shaftsuitable for tractors of35 hp and above, with a field capacity of 0.4 acre/ h.

Power tiller operated turmeric harvester

P RamarajuErode, Tamil Nadu

Ramaraju noticed that in his area,people faced acute labour shortageduring harvesting season of turmericrhizomes. Delay in harvesting resultedin loss of yield and adversely affectedthe quality of rhizomes. He tried anavailable machine, and attached it to apower tiller for harvesting turmeric. Buthe could only obtain about 50 per centefficiency then. He continued with hisexperiments and developed a prototype

with field capacity of about 0.2 acre per hour and claimedefficiency of over 95 per cent. A local firm has been selling hismachine (over 200 units sold) paying a royalty to him.


Multi angle power weederP R NadarajErode, Tamil Nadu

While developing the weeder, Nadarajused to experiment with differentarrangement of blades to observe thenature of soil turning. He finallydesigned the multi angle weeder

suitable for crops atdifferent growthstage. It is a selfpropelled dieselengine operatedweeder having L-shaped bladesarranged in a spiral configuration. It can be adapted toweeding at different growth stages of the plants.

Soil scrapper cum loader

Resham Singh Virdi, Hanumangarh, Rajasthan and Kuldeep

Singh, Mansa, Punjab

U n e v e nagricultural landis difficult to sowand manage.The innovatorw a sapproached by afarmer todevelop a landl e v e l l i n g

machine, like the JCB machine. After a continuous effort ofmany years, Resham Singh succeeded in making this

machine, which could not only level the land but also fill tractortrailers with soil. His machine is a tractor (>50 hp) PTOoperated machine with cutting depth of 10 cm and width of120 cm. It takes about two minutes to fill an 11 ft x 6 ft x 2.25 ftsize trailer consuming about 5-6 l of fuel per hour. He hasalready sold about 40 such machines.

Black pepper plucking tool

Pratheesh CPalakkad, Kerala

Pepper is either plucked manually orusing a regular nipper. A nipper dropsthe pepper on the ground while manualplucking damages the pepper.Pratheesh developed a plucking toolwith a triangular cup below the bladesto hold the cut pepper bunch. It is asimple adaptive tool but it improvesefficiency without affecting quality of theharvested pepper.

Raking machine for poultry farms

Sureshbhai Narotambhai PatelValsad, Gujarat

Raking is necessary to keep poultry ingood health. However, scarcity of labourmakes manual raking difficult. Toovercome this constraint, Sureshbhai

developed a 1hpsingle phase motoroperated rakingmachine, which cancover 15,000 sq-ft perhour employing twopersons.

Wind mill for house-hold power generation

C. M. SubramanianNamakkal, Tamil Nadu

As his new house was far away fromexisting electrical lines, the electricityboard asked Subramanium to deposita certain amount towards the cost ofelectric poles. Since it was beyond his

capacity, he gave upthe idea of obtainingan electric connectionfrom the electricityboard. Instead, he

Will you stand by the IPR’s of the peasants?



started working on a low cost windmill to meet his householdenergy needs. It cost him about Rs 70,000 to develop thiswindmill. It can be installed near the house or on the roof witha RCC foundation and produces 0.8-1.2 kVA (80 volt @ 10-15A) electric power at a wind speed of 3-3.5 m/s. The turbineblades can also be stopped from rotation or the direction ofrotation can be reversed from the ground itself by electricbrakes.

‘Chinnar-20’- An improved drought tolerant paddy variety

Smt. Ariyammal and Smt. PushpamRamanathapuram, Tamil Nadu

Ariyammal, her husband (late Chinnar)and Pushpam used to cultivate ADT-46paddy variety where they identifiedcertain plants with a purple colour,good tillering and finer grains. Usingrecurrent selection method, they

checked the stability ofcharacters for fiveyears.

This variety is a shortduration variety wellsuited for rain-fed andwetland cultivation. The variety is drought tolerant with highyielding capacity. The plants have purple pigmented leavesand culm. Therefore, weed removal is easy (this use of purplepaddy plants for weed removal is well known traditionalknowledge). The grains are fine and long with good cookingquality. It is being cultivated by about 50 farmers over 150acres of land in Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga districts ofTamil Nadu.

‘Patchakai’- an improved cardamom variety

L. RamaiahTheni, Tamil Nadu

During harvestingcardamom in hisfield, Ramaiahobserved parrotgreen, large sizedcapsules. Heharvested themseparately and grewthem the next year.After a few years, heidentified a clumphaving a largenumber of bold

sized capsules and a good growth habit. He startedpropagating suckers of these selected plants. The variety is

a high yielding one (2000kg/ha-dry) where the capsules areexceptionally green in colour and bold in size, fetchingpremium price. This drought tolerant variety is most suitablefor low elevation areas of Tamil Nadu.

Improved variety of carrot (Laxmangarh Selection)

Smt. Santosh PacharSikar, Rajasthan

The carrot variety has been developedby Smt Pachar adopting the root-to-seedmethod of planting. The criteria ofselection of carrots for seed production

were: long root-length,sweetness, vermilioncolour and softness. The variety is well adapted to hightemperature. The length of the carrot is up to 1.5 ft with thepercentage of forked roots being quite less. It is sweet intaste and fetches high market price due to its quality.

Herbal preparation for controlling borer in vegetable crops

Jokhu ShahEast Champaran, Bihar

Jokhu Shah uses fermented extract oftwo local plants (name withheld for IPreasons) for controlling shoot and fruitborers in vegetable crops. In thevalidation tests, the formulation wasfound to reduce the population of podborer (Helicoverpa armigera) by 38%and that of mealy bug by 52% ascompared to the untreated control.Italso showed a moderate larvicidal

effect against the larvae of borers (Spodoptera litura and H.armigera).

Herbal preparation for controlling insects and pests inpaddy crop

Madhav Lal ShavEast Champaran, Bihar

Madhav Lal uses the extract of theleaves of a local plant (name withheldfor IP reasons) to control insects invegetables, pulses and paddy. In thevalidation tests, the formulation wasfound to reduce the plant hopperpopulation by 42% and the leaf folderpopulation by 24% as compared to theuntreated control. The herbal


preparation had a moderate larvicidal effect against borers(Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera) in laboratorytrials.

Herbal preparation for controlling pests in paddy, bajra andvegetable crops

Kodarji Kaluji PagiPanchmahal, Gujarat

Kodarji uses the leaves of a local plant(name withheld for IP reasons) with theleaves of Azadirachta indica (Neem) foreffective pest control in paddy, bajra andvegetable crops. A reduction in thelarval population was observed after 48hours of spray. A reduction in fruitdamage/plant as compared to theuntreated control was also noted. Theuse of the formulation also effectivelyreduced the fruit and shoot borer

(Leucinodes orbonalis) population and was effective incontrolling the leaf folder (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis) ofpaddy. The effect against borers (Spodoptera litura andHelicoverpa armigera) was found to be moderate in laboratoryconditions.

Herbal preparation for controlling insects and pests inpaddy crop

Raghunath Prasad NiralaWest Champaran, Bihar

Raghunath Prasad effectively controlsGundhi bug (Leptocorisa acuta), leafhopper and other pests in paddy usingextract of a local plant and ash of a partof another plant (names withheld forIP reasons). A reduction of 31% in leafhopper and 55% in larval (H. armigeraand Earias vittella) population wasobserved in the validation test ascompared to untreated control. Also,the fruit damage in Okra was reduced

by 53% as compared to the untreated control. The herbalpreparation helped in in controlling the leaf folder (C.medinalis) of paddy by about 34% compared to the untreatedone. The herbal preparation was also found to have moderatelarvicidal effect in the lab against the larvae (Spodoptera lituraand Helicoverpa armigera) .

Herbal preparation for controllinginsects and pests (leaf folder andstem borer) in paddy

Vijay PrasadHazaribag, Jharkhand

Vijay Prasad uses the leaves of threelocal plants (names withheld for IPreasons) to control insect-pests in

paddy crop. A 37% reduction in the population of leaf hopperswas observed as compared to the untreated control in Okra.The formulation was effective in reducing the population oflarvae (77%) and fruit damage by 53% at farmer’s dose. Theleaf folder (C. medinalis) of paddy was controlled up to 54%compared to the untreated one.

Herbal preparation for controlling leaf folder in paddy andfruit borer in vegetable crops

Rajesh MishraEast Champaran, Bihar

Rajesh uses crude leaf extract ofa local plant (name withheld for IPreasons) and Azadirachta indica(Neem) for controlling leaf folder inpaddy and fruit borer in vegetablecrops. The herbal preparationcontrolled leaf folder (C. medinalis) ofpaddy by about 51% compared to theuntreated one.

Herbal preparation for controlling nematode, caterpillar andmealy bug in cotton, brinjal, tomato and pigeon pea

G ChandrashekharChittoor, Andhra Pradesh

Chandrashekhar uses coconut oilextract of fruits and flowers of a localplant (name withheld for IP reasons)to control nematode, gram caterpillar and mealy bug in cotton,brinjal, tomato and pigeon pea.The formulation helped incontrolling borer- H. armigera andmealy bugs significantly in thefield conditions. The preparationwas also effective against nematode

(egg hatching) under in vitro conditions. The herbalpreparation tested at SRISTI lab showed moderate larvicidaleffect on borers (Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpaarmigera) larvae under in vitro conditions.

Herbal yield enhancer

Tulsyabhai Somabhai PavarDang, Gujarat

Tulsyabhai uses young aerial roots ofa plant (name withheld for IP reasons)to increase the crop production. Thevalidation tests demonstrate that theseeds treated with the extract of theaerial roots germinated morevigorously.




Herbal preparation for controlling insect pests inagricultural crops

KM ChellamuthuErode, Tamil Nadu

Chellamuthu uses a combination ofplants (name withheld for IP reasons)for controll ing insect pests inagricultural crops. The validation testsdemonstrate significant efficacy of theherbal formulation against insect pestsin different crops.

Herbal medication for promoting poultry health (coccidiosis)

Smt. Oinam Ibetombi Devi, Smt. Sarangthen Dasumati Devi,Smt. Nameirakpam Sanahambi Devi (Communityrepresentatives)Nambol, Manipur

The healers use a local plant (name withheld due to IPreasons), which is ground and added to bird feed. The

medication can be fed to the birds for four to seven days.The validation tests showed better anticoccidialefficacy in comparison to the untreated birds and thestandard drug Salinomycin (in terms of minimizingintestinal lesion). A significant reduction in faecal oocystoutput and mean body weight gain was observed in treatedgroup.

Herbal medication for promoting poultry health (coccidiosis)

Sudhakarbhai Kauchabhai Gauli and Jeevalbhai MavajubhaiGauliDang, Gujarat

The healers grind dry leaves of a localplant (name withheld due to IP reasons)and mix with bird feed.The test results showed thatthe medication minimizes the lesionsdue to Eimeria tenella, a diseasecausing protozoa for Coccidiosis.The medication was found tosignificantly reduce fecal oocystoutput confirming its anticoccidial

efficacy with significant body weight gain in the treatedgroup.

Herbal medication for bloat in animals

Smt. Yasodaben Srirambhai Chaudhari, Shri YashwantbhaiBhavanbhai Gauli and Shri Sudhakarbhai Kauchabhai GauliDang, Gujarat

The communityuses a local plant(name withhelddue to IP reasons)for curing animalsaffected with bloat.The tests indicateenhancement innumbers and theactivity of rumenmicrobes after the

administration of the formulation. The medication was alsofound to substantially reduce gas production/accumulation.

Herbal medication for curing mastitis (bacterial) in animal

Borra Petha Rajanna & N GovindanAnantpur, Andhra Pradesh & Madurai, Tamil Nadu

The healersapply the pasteof a local plant(name withhelddue to IPr e a s o n s )topically over theinflamed uddertwice daily fortwo to threedays. The

formulation was evaluated for its efficacy in clinical mastitiscaused by gram negative bacterias, Pseudomonasaeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumonia, and gram positivebacteria, Staphylococcus aureus. The clinical conditions werereported to improve after the medication was administeredindicating its therapeutic efficacy.

Herbal medication for curing anoestrus in cattle

Khumaji Badaji Kataviya, Badaji Didaji Kataviya, BabubhaiBadaji KataviyaSabarkantha, Gujarat

The healers administer a part of a localherb (name withheld due to IP reasons)to animals affected with anestrus. Theanimal shows signs of estrus in eightdays. To validate the practice, someclinical conditions were identified withsigns of flaccid uterus, smooth ovariesand with no estrus behaviour. Theclinical cases were administeredmedication for four days. The animals

resumed oestrus cycle in eight days and got inseminated.


Herbal medication for preventing and curing retention ofplacenta in animals

Harshadbhai PatelAnand, Gujarat

Harshadbhai dries and grinds leavesof a local plant (name withheld due toIP reasons) and feeds the dried powderto the cattle directly or with fodder.Twenty animals in advanced stage ofpregnancy were selected where twelveclinical cases were observed in controlgroup and 8 clinical cases wereobserved in test group. The averageduration for expulsion of placenta in

control animals was 21.58 hours where it was just 4.02 hoursin the treated animals.

Students

Rice grain sorting/cleaning machine

Mohd. Sajid AnsariRanchi, Jharkhand

Seeing his mother hassled whilecleaning rice every day, Sajid thought ofmaking a device to help her. Thisautomatic electric machine separatesbroken rice grains and other physicalimpurities from unbroken rice grains.At first, he faced problems while makingthe prototype but after some hits andtrials, finally he made a working model.NIF has also engaged designers to

improve his prototype.

Crutch with shock absorbers, bell and light

Archana KonwarDhemaji, Assam

Troubled seeing her physicallychallenged friend walking in discomfortusing a crutch, Archana thought of thisidea. Her idea is to have a crutch withshock absorbers for the comfort of theuser and also a bell to alert othercommuters and a light to be used duringthe night. NIF has also engageddesigners to improve her prototype.

The Cycl-O-cleaner: bicycle based cleaner

Riya Kothari, Nimran Kang, Kaamya Sharma & Mehr S. MehtaNew Delhi

The four friends have thought about an idea to have a bicyclewith two brooms attached to the back wheel. The broomsrotate as one pedals and the brushes sweep away the dust


making the driveway clean. Thecycle may optionally include anextra dustbin attached to the frontto collect large scraps and piecesof garbage. NIF has also engageddesigners to develop a workingprototype.

Recycled composite material made from multi layer filmplastic packaging waste

Hetal VaishnavRajkot, Gujarat

By appropriate heat treatment ofmultilayer film plastic packaging waste,Hetal has converted it into a compositeplastic material. This material can thenfurther be used for making variousarticles and sheets with the help ofextrusion, injection or compressionmoulding. Hetal got this material testedat different laboratories and has also

filed a patent for the same.

System to prevent people from using mobile phones whiledriving

Divyam GuptaBulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh

In order to prevent people from usingmobile phones while driving, Divyamsuggests placing touch sensors on thegear lever and the steering. This meansthat both the hands need to be either onthe steering wheel or on the steeringwheel and the gear lever. If anytime, thedriver’s hand is not on either steering orgear lever (for more than designatedduration), the system will infer that either

the driver is using a mobile phone or not carefully handlingthe steering. Based on this, the system can take a preprogrammed action. This action may be slowing down thevehicle and bringing it to a halt after some delay, moving toside by giving indicator or simply giving an alert alarm to thedriver.



Pressure detector for water pipelinesHimala JoshiNainital, Uttarakhand

In many places in India, water is suppliedfor only one or two hours in a day.People have to keep turning taps onevery few minutes to check the watersupply. Himala has thought of apressure detector fitted in the pipeline.It rings an alarm immediately onsensing the flow of water, therebyalerting people.

Breathing sensor apparatus to assist physically challenged

Susant PattnaikBhubaneshwar, Orissa

Susant’s system consists of a circuit,which uses changes in breathingpatterns to actuate circuits representingoptions such as food, water etc. It thusenables paralyzed/physicallychallenged people articulate their wishand be self-reliant in routine activities.The technology has a range ofapplications like operating awheelchair, electronic appliances,

prevention of accidents, detecting thefts, etc.

Susant has designed a proof-of-concept electronic circuitof a wheel chair, which can be navigated throughcommands given by changing breathing patterns, just like amorse code.

Travel bags with folding seats

Nisha ChaubeNOIDA, Uttar Pradesh

Who has not faced problem in findinga seat at the railway or bus station!Considering the problems commutersface every day while waiting for buses/trains at stations, Nisha has suggestedincorporating light-weight folding seatsin travelling bags so that the same canbe used when needed. NIF has alsoengaged designers to improve herprototype.

Hoe cum shovel, foldable water bottle, apple catcher andothers

Refaz Ahmad Wani and Ishfaq Ahmad WaniAnantnag, Jammu & Kashmir

Young Refaz and Ishfaq are twin brothers and serialinnovators. The brothers have started a small science clubin their house in a small room. They have kept all their

models, certificatesetc., there. Amongthe many thingsthey haved e v e l o p e d ,prominent ones arehoe cum shovel todig and lift soilusing thisconvertible tool; awater bottle, which

you can easily fold after use; an apple catcher (fruit plucker)with clutch operated blades and a net to catch the cut fruits,and an easy injection breaker.

Healthy air machine

G BrahadeesThiruvallur, Tamil Nadu

Brahadees wanted to make an airmachine, which had useful features ofboth, air conditioners and fans, and atan affordable cost. He observed thatin the case of the air conditioner, onlyabout 10% of the cooling was beingused by person and the rest wasbeing absorbed by the other articles inthe room, which was actually a wasteof energy. This made him to developthe ‘Healthy Air Machine’ using the

concept of spot cooling. This machine is portable and canbe moved around in the house as per requirement.He has also integrated components like bacterial filters,UV germicidal lamps and incorporated certain otherfunctions like vacuuming, winnowing, etc., in the samemachine.

Foldable & portable multipurpose device

Pankit B Gami & Ekta PatelTapi, Gujarat

Pankit and hisfriend Ektahave come upwith an idea fora multipurposefoldable deviceas they bothfound itinconven ien ttravelling incrowded trainswith no

reserved seats. They have come up with a foldablemultipurpose device, which can be used as a chair, table,hammock, mini stairs, easy chair or a stretcher to carryitems. They have made three prototypes of their device. Thefinal prototype was made of stainless steel so that it wouldbe more durable since it is a portable device.


ENABLING THEDISABLED

Retrofitted car for physically challenged peopleBiju Varghese, Mukoothuthara, Kerala

While travellingwith his friend atthe age of 20, Bijuwas hit by aspeeding bus. Heended up with adamaged spinalcord and bothlegs completelyparalysed. Oneday, on the

National Geographic channel, he saw the ‘Airforce One’(airplane used by the President of the USA) beingmanouevred by the pilot using only his hand. Biju observedthat mere fingers were controlling all the major operations.This triggered him to develop a modification kit for a car. Afterdiscussing it with local car mechanics, he came up with adevice by which the retrofitting brake, accelerator and clutch

controls of a car can beactuated with a singlehand. The clutch isoperated with the palmmaking it possible toapply full strengthdownwards. Theaccelerator is operatedwith the fore finger, whilethe middle as well asadjoining finger takes

care of braking. For his retrofitted car kit, Biju Varghese hasreceived the National Award at NIF’s biennial award functionas well as the India Positive Award 2012 which was organisedby CNN-IBN. More information about his innovation can befound at http://carfordisabled.com/

Retrofitted car for physically challengedMujib Khan, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Mujib Khan, an automobile mechanic, lives with his wife andfour children. His legs have been affected by contracting poliosince his childhood. He has never let his disability stop himfrom living a productive life. In his quest to make a vehicleaccessible to handicapped drivers, he secretly startedtinkering with his parents’ car. Finally, he made a successfulmodification.

Mujib Khan modified theaccelerator, brake and clutcharrangement in such a waythat the controls aretransferred to hand by meansof levers, wires and linkages.His device is characterisedby comfort through simplicityand ease of operation.Drivers without disabilitiescan switch easily to operatethe vehicle in a conventionalfashion. Mujib has retrofittedover six dozen vehicles tilldate.

Walking stick to assist visually challengedWazeer Hayath, Tumkur, Karnataka

Wazeer Hayath’sinnovation is a foldablestick, which through apre-recorded voicesystem can alert avisually impaired userabout the presence ofwater or a pit ahead. Ondetecting publicmovement closeby,one can even requestthe public in the vicinity

to move away with the help of a toggle switch andthe pre-recorded voice. The walking stick also hasa provision for a light which alerts people aboutthe movement of the visually impaired user.

Device to assist people with lowvisionJyoti Ranjan Sahoo, Bhubaneswar,Orissa

While observing the students of ablind school, which is close to hishouse, Jyoti, a student of class nine,got the idea to make a device toassist people with low or poor vision.Some of the people he observed weresuffering from glaucoma. He wantedto do something to help them.

Assistive technologies: samvedana, sambhavna aurswabhimaan

People with disabilities have to deal with many obstacles. Sometimes, this leads to direct or indirect discrimination. At other

times, it leads to sympathetic stares. Discrimination and stares are both hurtful. In this section, we have sampled innovations

from the past issues of the Honey Bee Newsletter which address problems of people who have disabilities. Hopefully, these

ideas mature one day and open a realm of possibilities for making people’s lives more equal while keeping their self-

respect intact.




Jyoti then developed a system to assist people with low visionin their day to day activities. His system makes use of a zoomcamera and an LCD. The camera zooms in distant images,which get displayed on the LCD screen. This arrangement ofCamera cum LCD is attached to a helmet worn by the visuallyimpaired person. The pictures on the LCD aid the visuallyimpaired person in perception and motion.

Whille making this device, Jyoti Ranjan faced much difficultyas he could not get all the material he wanted. He also did notknow the details of software programming but somehowmanaged to search what he needed to know on the internet.Jyoti got this system tested at many hospitals, where doctorshave appreciated his work and given suggestions to optimisethe device.

Mowing the lawn uphill – A spiky story from Switzerland

The mountains that make Switzerland so beautiful are a pain for those who wish to mow the grass in theirsteep lawns. The traditional method of cutting grass is to use a brush cutter. A brush cutter is quite difficultto use, and the cut grass has to be collected later. However, it is almost impossible to operate a lawnmowerin hilly areas. In uphill direction, the machine does not pull properly and often slips off. This demands theperson operating it to push continuously with lots of force.

If only a lawnmower could climb uphill, the task would be much easier. Matthias Nott from Basel, Switzerlandhas thought of an interesting idea. The rear wheels of the lawn mower receive the power from the engine,but are typically made from hard plastic. The engine is powerful, but the mower does not have enough gripto get that power to the ground. Matthias Nott put a string of small wood screws (3.5 mm) around therear wheel, about 5 cm in distance in a zig-zag pattern. The screw heads are left above the surface ofthe wheels on both sides.

With this modification the lawnmower can now climb very steep lawns without any problems. The farmersto whom Nott showed this technology were impressed. They were so used to the traditional method of removinggrass by hand with a brush cutter that they never thought of better ways of doing it. Nott claims that thismodification can be applied to any engine with hard plastic wheels which has traction issues. MatthiasNott has expressed his desire to help anyone who wants to try out this idea. He can be contacted [email protected].

Two years back I won the IGNITEaward but nothing ever since! If only

life was as simple as this game!!

Oh NO! Whyalways on

99!!

As tricky aslife my friend!

Two years back

IGNITEAWARDS

Its just agame,

play it forfun!

OOOOOdd Balldd Balldd Balldd Balldd Ball Hunger for recognition

Why can’t I winevery time?

NIF


PROFILE

Cardamom farmers with about five acres of land incur about7-8 lakhs as annual expenditure on farm inputs like chemicalfertilisers and pesticides. However, in spite of a larger farmland of 40 acres, Paulose from Rajakumari, Idukki District,Kerala spends just a few lakhs to manage the entire farm.With less spending for chemical inputs he not only maximisedhis income from cardamom cultivation but also doubled theproductivity of plants by adopting low cost cultivation practices.

Paulose (44) studied up to high school. He later took upfarming. In the beginning, he cultivated pepper and ginger inhalf an acre of land. However, he had to stop growing thosecrops due to persistent labour unavailability. He, therefore,started cardamom cultivation.

His family owned 6 acres of cardamom plantation. Heisolated a few clumps of cardamom plants with long paniclesand bold capsules and expanded this new variety to his newfarm. He experimented with the application of fertiliser,protection of plants and mulching and evolved many low costpractices. His income has grown steadily which enabled himto acquire the nearby land of about 28 acres.

He built a pucca house and procured two vehicles for ferryinglabourers. He was recognised for the productivity of hiscardamom in India for the years 1995 and 2009 by the SpicesBoard India. In three decades of cardamom plantation, hehas developed many eco-friendly practices which havereduced the cost of inputs and maximised the yield.

He often noticed planters practicing various operations viz.terrace making, ridges & furrow formation, sprayingpesticides, soil application, etc. He adopted such methodsfor a few clumps in a small area of his farm and discarded

them if the result was not up to the mark. In this way, hediscarded many chemical practices and slowly moved towardslow cost cultivation practices like mulching, lopping or pruningof trees for shade regulation, pest and disease resistance,etc. Over two decades of hard work, he has stabilised thesepractices. His innovations are described below:

About two decades back, he noticed that the fields could notretain rainwater. He observed that retention of water was higherin areas covered with leaves and twigs and that this soilexhibited good plant growth. Ever since, he has stoppedremoving fallen leaves and twigs from his field. This practicehas helped him in retaining rainwater and has also improvedthe texture of the soil with compost of organic matter.

The accumulation of fallen leaves and twigs forms a cover ofmulch of about one-foot depth. These leaves are decomposeddirectly on the field. This increases the humus content andreduces the soil bulk density. The soil in his field has anorganic matter content of 4.05 % as compared to 2.6% for thenormal fields. The top layer of the soil in his farm comprisesabout 10 cm of decomposed plant material accumulated overmore than 20 years. The quality of the soil texture is so goodthat when rolled in hand it crumbles whereas in other fieldsthe soil sticks together in a ball.

So far, around 200 farmers have visited the cardamomplantation of Paulose over the last 6 years. Most believe thatpiling up such thick mulch in a cardamom field could take tenyears. However, it is possible and sustainable in the longrun. Between Oct 2012 to Feb 2013, there was a severedrought in the region. Yet, while the neighbouring cardamomplantation was wilting, Paulose did not experience much lossof yield.

Innovations in shade regulation in cardamom plantation

Paulose has developed new techniques to regulate shade incardamom plantation by planting trees like jack fruit, silveroak, and mango. The trees are normally pruned or thinnedbefore monsoon. However, Paulose prunes during winter.He claims, while pruning, the crop may be slightly damaged.Pruning in winter gives the crop enough time to recover beforemonsoon.

Apart from this Paulose has significantly reduced the use ofchemical pesticides to control stem borers. He uses naturalpredators and parasites of the stem borer for their control.The incidence of parasites for stem borer in his farm was47%. He has also developed a new plant variety which isresistant to thrips.

K V Paulose: Experimentation in standardising cardamomcultivation


Contd.. on page 30



Usmanbhai Noorabhai BhoraniaTaluka Wankaner, District Rajkot.

Usmanbhai (54) studied till 10th

Standard. As a hobby he learned abouthow to heal humans and animals withherbs. He would experiment with anynew information/practice he could get.Usmanbhai took primary veterinaryhealthcare training in Wankaner. Hemet with an accident two years backwhich restricted his mobility. He says,it has now become difficult for him togo around and search for the materialshe needs for healing throughout theyear. For example, the seeds of Palash(Butea monosperma) can be collectedonly in the late winter or early springseason in order to store them for lateruse. Usmanbhai says that these dayspeople do not want to take this painof collecting the plants becausemedicines are available everywherewhereas the material needed for theseremedies is not available in any storeand needs to be collected individually.

Previously, veterinary health care wasnot available so easily. People had towalk miles to get their animals treated,so they used to go to herbal healersor seek home remedies to treat them.All the animals were kept in thecourtyard. Therefore, in case they wererestless, the family members wouldknow immediately and seek help. Thehealers used to live with the animalsbut now a days it does not happen so.Allopathic medicines provideimmediate relief so people do notused herbal medicines now, he says.

Usmanbhai’s village, Bhalgam, has apopulation of 2000-3000 and thePanchayat takes care of administrativematters. The pond in the villagesupplies drinking water to two morevillages. A small seasonal rivuletnamed Boreu flows near the village.The forest is scattered with scrubs likebawal (Acacia sp.) and also nearby.Cotton is the main crop grown here.The village is around 25 km from thetaluka town Wankaner and is situated

HBN met Usmanbhai in 2001 and knocked at his door again

next to the highway. Agriculture andanimal husbandry are the mainoccupation. Few have taken to driveautos to earn their living. As the areareceives less rainfall, only rainfedcotton is sown at someplaces. The village getslabour from outside(from Dahod andGodhra) onlyduring the cottonpicking season,otherwise theythemselvestake care oft h e i ragriculture.

Maggot infested wounds

Oil extracted from Neem fruits (neemoil, limbodi oil) and cotton is used. Apiece of cotton is soaked in the oil andthen stuffed inside the maggot infestedwound. The innovator says that thewound has to be tightly stuffed with thecotton so that there is no room for air.The maggots get asphyxiated and dieor come out when the cotton is pulledout. Other villagers know about thispractice but do not use it because theydo not get immediate results.Usmanbhai has taught people thispractice but he says that people do notadopt it as modern medicine givesfast relief. Others use tirty oil (becauseof its bad smell repelling the insects)instead of Neem oil.

Healing broken horns

The healer uses Berjo (Pinus longifoliaRoxb.) which yields the gummy tincturebenzoin. He takes 300-400g of Berjoand grinds it, upon which it turns intoa slimy liquid. The liquid is appliedaround the broken part which then istied with a clean cotton cloth. Theliquid stops bleeding and helps inhealing the wound and the horn. Theliquid is applied only once when thehorn is bandaged. It takes around aweek until the injury is completelyhealed. Usmanbhai reasons that as

the paste is slimy it is a good bindingagent. It helps in coagulating the bloodand also in binding the broken partstogether. His son who also is apashuvaid (animal healer) makes useof this practice as well.

Anoestrus

About 250g of rye (Brassica juncea)seeds are mixed with the fodder forfive to six days continuously.Usmanbhai says that rye helps torelease the ovum and hence the animalcomes to heat. He started using ryeby intuition as he knew that rye is usedin winter to bring warmth to the bodyand has high oil content. He thoughtthat it may help to treat anoestrus incattle and experimented on about 50cattle. Finally, he concluded that thispractice gives positive results. In the

Revisiting our innovators

RENEWING OLD TIES


neighbouring villages, people feedexcreta of hens for the purpose. Somealso feed boiled bajra (pearl millet).When people discuss their problems,he suggests to them to use rye seeds;and hence teaches and diffuses thepractice.

Ephemeral fever

Usmanbhai used to boil one teaspoonijmeth (menthol), 100g ajwain (bishopsweed) and 100g jaggery in about halfa litre of water. It was then administered

to the animal, once a day for threedays. He now uses kalonji seeds(Nigella sativa) mixed with jaggery andthe other ingredients to give immediaterelief. He had seen people using thesefor treatment of humans, so hethought that it could work for animalstoo. He noticed that it helps in digestiontoo.

Skin disease/eczema/kharajwa

Usmanbhai used to burn dried leavesof Palash (Butea monosperma) andmixed about 100g of the ash withgroundnut oil/ghee to make a lotionout of it. He would apply this lotion onthe affected part, twice a day till ithealed up. Usmanbhai changed thepractice and now mixes garlic with theother ingredients. He boils garlic clovesin oil and then mixes them with theash of Palash. He then applies thislotion on the affected part. Usmanbhaistarted to use garlic because henoticed that it has a very pungentodour. When he got good results insome cases initially, he adopted thepractice.

Galactagogue

Usmanbhai grinds about twokilograms of Millettia pinnata (L.)Panigrahi seeds into powder forstorage. About 50g of this powder isthen mixed with the fodder and feddaily till the whole twokilos are consumed.In this practice also,he has started usingkalonji (Nigella sativa).He says that he knewthat kalonji is helpful

in digestion,improves eyesightand increaseshaemologin. Hefeels that thesepositive effectshelp in lactation aswell. He says thatkalonji is “amrut”(elixir of life) forcattle.

A study in dairy cows found Nigellasativa to have potential antibacterialproperties (Azadi et al., 2011. AmericanJournal of Animal and Veterinary

Sciences 6 (1): 31-34) -Ed.

Yoke gall

Juice extracted from jowar (Sorghum)leaves is applied on the affected partfor 8-10 days. During this period, theaffected animals should not draw

When did you meet an innovator last?

ploughs or carts or any other heavyload.

Foot and Mouth Disease

Leaves of custard apple (Annonareticulata) are ground with a little water

and then mixed with hing (Ferulaasafetida). This paste is then appliedon the hooves.

Prolapse of uterus

Juice is extracted from heena leaves(Lawsonia inermis) and mixed withghee to make a lotion. This is appliedon the part of the uterus protrudingout. Then the uterus is maneuveredinto its position by hand.

Bone fracture

Bark of Palash( B u t e amonosperma)is ground andapplied on abroken limb.This is thenc u s h i o n e dwith somecotton andb a n d a g e dneatly ti l l itheals. Alongwith this, juiceextracted from100g leaves ofaval (Cassiaauriculata) isfed to theanimals for 10-15 days.Palash (Butea monosperma)



Mahavir Singh Arya (b. 1951) from Nevavillage in Churu district of Rajasthan, isa farmer who has developed manyvarieties of wheat and mustard. Aryawas born in a poor family. His father wasa freedom fighter and was aknowledgeable farmer who used manyherbal and traditional methods oftreatments for plants as well ashumans. During the British rule thefamily’s land was confiscated leavingthem landless and forcing the family intoa life of poverty. Their financial strugglesforced Arya to discontinue studies afterclass 10.

Today, Mahavir Singh Arya has a meagrelandholding of less than a hectare. Hehas a small but beautiful home in thevillage, has married off three of hisdaughters and the other children arestudying in school. Raising a largefamily with six children drove him toexperiment in order to maximise theyield of his limited land. He is nowfamous in the region for producingbumper harvests using innovativeagricultural methods and practices.Apart from working in his own field, healso works for the development of hisregion.

He claims to not have used anychemical fertilisers. He manages togenerate good yield using organicmanure. He also advocates the use oforganic manure to others in the village.

Box 1: A JOURNEY OF EXPERIMENTATION FOR MAHAVIR SINGH ARYA

Visit to Hisar Agricultural University in 1985

• Learnt plant breeding after carefully observing crop growing patterns

• Sowed T-59 mustard variety

• Sowed golden variety seed brought from Delhi

Developed a new variety called ‘Sunahari’

Began experimenting with breeding various cultivars

• Visited various research institutes and agriculture universities

• Developed ten new varieties of mustard by crossing the varieties available in andaround Delhi

• In 1987, he met a trader who told him about a tall high yielding local variety of wheat

• Acquired seeds from the trader and crossed them with the Sonalika variety

• The first cross gave some plants which were tall and resistant to disease

In 1990, Mahavir Kisan Mahan, a variety with stable characteristics for heightand disease resistance, was developedContinuing on the same lines hedeveloped 15 varieties of wheat

Apart from experimenting anddeveloping new crop varieties in thefield, Arya practises herbal andtraditional treatments of patients in hisregion. The knowledge of thosetreatments he has inherited from hisfather and also developed through hisown interest and enterprise.

Already famous in his vil lage andsurrounding area as an enterprisingfarmer, seed producer and a simpleman, Arya still puts in lots of effort todevelop new varieties of plants. Due toacute scarcity of water, he and hisneighbours face many problems. Aryastill works the fields of others, some ofwhom are located in neighbouringvillages. This way he has managed topreserve some of the varietiesdeveloped by him.

BOX 1 describes the journey of Mahavirfrom an ordinary farmer to an innovativeplant breeder. BOX 2 lists major mustardand wheat varieties developed byMahavir Singh Arya as well as thegeneral algorithm that he followed.

Arya is ably assisted and supported byall the members in his family. It is only

when he has to uproot and discardsome plants while making varietyselections, that he faces someresistance from his family. Theycomplain about him wasting plants,which have been produced after hardlabour and care. He then explains thereason behind the selection process,making them knowledgeable andpassing on his experience, too.

Other farmers often invite him forguidance and assistance. Hence, hespends much of his time travelling.His wife mentions that he does nothave much time for the family. However,the family understands his devotion tothe cause and supports him in hisactivities. They would like him to helpas many people as possible. Theyknow he has been working hard forthe past many years and hope that hisefforts will be appreciated by the societyone day. Keeping their expectationsfirmly grounded, they have the humblewish to have a tube well in the village.That way problems related to waterscarcity can be solved for the entirevillage and Mahavir and his family areable to carry out experimentationwithout hindrance.

PROFILE

Breeding varieties for frugal farming


Inuits and unicorns of the Arctic Ocean

Isabelle Groc (2013)“Being There: Scientists Enlist Inuit for Long-TermObservations of Arctic Wildlife”, the Scientific American, February 13, 2013.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-and-traditional-knowledge-collaborate-to-understand-arctic-wildlife-slide-show

The article underlines the oft-observed fact that knowledge of local conditionsand biodiversity can be greater among indigenous communities than theacademic state-of-the-art. An Inuit hunter from Qanaaq, Greenland captured aphenomenon in narwhals (Monodon monoceros) that was not yet documentedfor the species.

The hunter observed a thin gauze-like layercoming off the narwhal’s body. Narwhalsshedding of skin had not yet beendocumented in conventional scientificrecords. Since Inuit hunters spend so muchtime around the mammals, they are morelikely to observe these rare momentarysightings. Scientists, on the other hand, donot spend as much time observing on theground. In the article, some interestingarguments are put forward explaining why

indigenous people can have an edge over scientists: Classical scientific inquiryworks by isolating one aspect of the environment and studying the same. On thecontrary, traditional knowledge looks at things in their entirety of interrelatedaspects. Therefore, indigenous people are more likely to be at ease withobserving complex interactions in their surroundings. This finding is also inaccordance with Martin Nweeia, a dentist and researcher at Harvard and theSmithsonian Institution, who says, “One voice from an Inuit hunter can be moresignificant than 100 scientists.”

Working upon an Inuit’s observation that tusking between narwhals is not a signof aggression but a ritualistic behaviour, Nweeia has been able to infer that thetusk is a sensory organ and is capable of detecting changes in its surroundings.The article goes onto cite testimonials of many scientists who have collaboratedwith indigenous people and received important insights. One such insight isthat narwhals may get cold when satellite tags are embedded onto their backsby drilling holes.

Nweeia also argues that sticking to a conventional scientific approach of havinglarge sample sizes may not always be the right approach. He adds that Inuithunters have spent their whole lives around narwhals and their knowledge cannotbe questioned. Their lives depend on this knowledge. Hopefully, morepractitioners of the formal scientific institutions would see merit in the words ofNweeia and realise the importance of the knowledge base of indigenouscommunities in deepening scientific understanding.

Courtesy: Isabelle Groc

“One voice from an Inuithunter can be moresignificant than 100

scientists.”

Martin Nweeia,Researcher, Harvard

University

Box 2: The algorithm of breeding fol-lowed by Mahavir Singh Arya and thevarieties he developed


Selection of two varieties (basedon quality and characteristics of

interest)

Crossing the two varieties

Selection of plants with the bestquality and characteristics in the

F1 generations followed byselection of the same

characteristics for three-fourgenerations (F2-F6)

Distributing them to others forsowing

Naming and isolation of stablevarieties in terms of

characteristics

Mustard Varieties————————————————Mahavir Kishan Chandravarni, MahavirKishan Pittavarni, Mahavir KishanKanka,, Mahavir Kishan Harsh,Mahavir Kishan Sunahari————————————————Maturity Period: 130-150 days, Yield:18-24 quintals per hectare, DiseaseResistant

Wheat Varieties— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —Mahavir Kishan Mahan, MahavirKishan Vardan, Mahavir Kishan Kranti,Mahavir Kishan Vikash, MahavirKishan Pragati— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —Maturity Period: 135-160 days,(95-110 days for Pragati variety),Yield:40-80 quintals per hectare. All tallvarieties except Pragati (which isa dwarf variety)

Answer to the cover story question:

The little finger knew that when peoplefold their hands in prayer, it is the clos-est to the deity. That is the reason it wasso confident.



Trigonella foenum (Methi) protectsAbelmoschus esculentus (Okra)

Shri Janakkumar Vrajlal ChauhanVillage: Mayurnagar, Taluka: Hanvad,District: SurendranagarPin: 363330

Janakbhai uses flour/fine powder ofTrigonella foenum-graecum (methi) in

in Abelmoschus esculentus (bhindi)crop. He soaks one kg of fine powderedflour of methi in water for three days.This solution gradually becomes stickyand dense (thick). On the third day,it is diluted for easy sprinkling andsprayed with a broom. Usually, one kgmethi flour is enough to sprinkle on one“Vigha”.

Fenugreek appears very resistant toattacks by insects and animalenemies. The peculiar smell of thefenugreek plants and seeds may be apossible factor for their resistance to theattack of insects (Snehlata et.al, 2012.

International Journal of CurrentPharmaceutical Review and Research, 2(4),

169-187)

Use of Nerium indicum (Oleander) tocontrol aphid

Shri Maheshbhai Jairambhai LakhatriyaVillage: Devipur, Taluka: Hanvad, District:SurendranagarPin-363330

Aphids are observed more in vegetableplants, especially in winters with cloudy

atmosphere. Thecurling of leavesindicates thepresence ofAphids. When sucha situation arises,M a h e s h b h a iLakhatriya usesNerium Indicum.He takes two kg ofNerium Indicumleaves andcrushes them. Thisis mixed with 5liters of water andallowed todecompose for fiveto six days. Thenthe mixture isboiledand dilutedwith water in theratio of 150 mlmixture per 15

litres of water and then sprinkled. It givesgood results against aphids and othersucking pests. Maheshbhai further adds

Loksarvani(Gujarati version of Honey Bee)SRISTI, P O Box No. 15050Ambawadi, Ahmedabad - 380015, [email protected]

Honey Bee

Okra grows rapid, Oleander kills aphid

Contd.. from page 25

Paulose knows that honey beespollinate cardamom flowers. Heallows natural colonization of beesand has instructed his workers notto disturb them. Honey bee boxesare placed randomly to facilitatecross pollination. There are morethan 300 honey bee colonies in hisfarm thriving on the soil mounds orunder the branches of shadeproviding trees.

Due to minimal weeds and norequirement for chemical inputs, hislabour requirement is very low. He isonly 3 labourers compared to 90labourers in other much smallerfields.

He has been getting sustainableyield of 1600 kg/acre. In an averagehe harvests about 2-5 kg of driedcardamom. The fruits are thicker, andround with heavier seeds.

Farmers like Paulose are on dailybasis setting up new benchmarksfor efficient yet sustainable farming.Stories like these tend to inspirefarmers elsewhere and push themto set their standards higher. Suchpeer pressure for innovation can bevery healthy for agricultural growth.

Documented byP.Vivekanandan, SEVA, 45 TPM Nagar,Viratipattu,Madurai- 16.

Dr Vardarjan, Scientist, ICRI,

Myladumpara, Kerala

that by keeping the mixture airtight, therate of decomposition increases rapidly.Nerium species have been foundeffective against woolly aphids.

Scout: Ketan V. Sur


Continued from HB23(3)...

Walking through the forest, the shodhyatris noticed labourersdrying and bundling tendu leaves used for makingbeedis.The contractor would buy a bundle of fifty leaves andpay Rs 75 for hundred bundles. A person could make amaximum of 60 bundles a day. The leaves had to be driedfor two to three days before being bundled. The wholeprocess had to be carried out in about eight to ten daysin a year.

On the way from Sunkota to Bhadakoi, villagers told abouta popular soyabean variety viz., Patel 85. Nobody knew theoriginal source of the variety. There were two other varietiesthat farmers grew here viz., Atal and Sonia. The first oneproduced pink flowers while the latter had dark greyishflowers. After hearing beautiful songs from Shantilalji, theyatris learnt that Nayapura was a village free of liquor. Thecommunity shared various practices on health, food, andclothes. For instance, the extract of seeds of palash [Buteamonosperma (Lam.) Taub.] with neem [Azadirachta Indica]was reported to be effective against skin diseases likeeczema. The seeds of lotus flower can help controllingdiarrhoea. Several indicators of rain and other climaticfactors were shared. One such insight was that when achameleon’s neck turned black, rain was expected aftertwo-three days. The number of times it moved its neck upand down per minute seemed to indicate the days afterwhich rains might come.

In Lodadhi village, communities shared much knowledgeinvolving use of clipped human nails, leaves of Vincarosia,

basil, etc. In Gularpura, a recipe competition was organisedin which several interesting recipes of local plants wereshared. In the biodiversity competition, Vivek and Pujabrought 30 and 18 plants respectively with their uses. InPanchor, we gave a small quiz to the children asking themto modify the design of a matchstick to make it last more.Quickly came the responses. Ajay suggested putting thepowder on both sides of the stick and Jitendra suggestedhaving a liquid phosphorous in a pot to soak the stick anddry it as many times as necessary. The response from thechildren was very encouraging. Ajay also suggested whywe couldn’t have a moving road instead of the conventionalmeans of transport. Ankit thought of a machine, which floatson water and clean it. He also suggested a remotecontrolled tractor. Notwithstanding their low economicconditions, the aspirations and imaginations of the childrenwere not constrained.

SHODHYATRA

A road that walks! 29thShodhYatra, May 23-30, 2012 – Part II




Ajay and his friends

A call for innovative ideas and technologies for the elimination of child labour!

SRISTI in collaboration with ILO is organising an open, nation-wide

Case and Idea Competition involving leading engineering colleges and

research institutions, individuals and groups in a transparent manner.

Ideas are sought for alternative technologies that could eliminate

child labour in construction, textile, handloom, manufacturing,

sanitation, street vending, tea dhabas, and other sectors.

Deadlines

7th April, 2013: Last date for submission to [email protected] April, 2013: Workshop of contributors of shortlisted ideas and experts30th April, 2013: Compilation of ideas in a publically available digital book

Send your ideas to: [email protected]

For more details about rules and eligibility, please visit the following link:http://creativityatgrassroots.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/884/

After giving a knowledge register to the sarpanch, the yatrismoved towards Bejala village. An unusual spectre was adance by horses trained for the purpose. A farmer hadpurchased the horses and trained them to dance at variousceremonies. Some of the shodhyatris were discomfortedwith the idea of animals being made to perform in thismanner. In Chanakaran, we met Prahalad Sharma who haddeveloped a machine to separate husk and other impuritiesand clean the grains. In Sotia, a knowledge register wasshared with a local teacher.

In the feedback session on the last day, yatris shared theirreflections. Kantibhai used an interesting metaphor andsaid that many people were like Sahdev, who knew manythings but shared only when asked. Some of the shodhyatriswere overwhelmed by the fruits and other things they gotfrom local communities with no expectation of reciprocity.The yatris noted instances where villagers acknowledgedlearning from their daughters-in-law, who brought newknowledge with them.

Dharamveer Kamboj was very popular, not only becauseof his machine, but also for his saga of struggle whichtouched many. Beginning his life as a rickshaw driver, howhe moved ahead as the developer of the multi-purposefood processing machine inspired everybody. Many felt thatthe shodhyatra should be longer so as to spend more timewith the people. Some volunteered for follow up and someoffered to help in the organisation of a future shodhyatra.

On the way back, a colourful house reminded us that whatwe learnt was much less than what remained to be done.

If many more shodhyatras are not organised in differentparts of the country regularly, a lot of knowledge would getlost. The erosion of knowledge was never more rapid thanin the current times. Time will tell if the shodhyatrastemmed some erosion, made a few embankments ofempathetic boulders. Through the hard soil, hard times,soft hearts and timeless memories, the shodhyatracontinues.


How does it feel that on the eve ofrepublic day, when you are talking to a“beggar” (that’s how people addresshim), you learn that he was born in 1947,the year of independence? One cannothelp but draw analogies between hislife, journey and struggle after more thansix decades of sovereign existence. Asthe saga unfolded, my exasperationkept on soaring like that of mercury inthe desert summers! ChinaswamyGopal, the man in rags, sits outsideRajiv Gandhi park, about half a kilometrefrom Bahauddin Science College, whichis distinguished as the oldest sciencecollege in Gujarat. He cleans the nearbyJain temple that pays for his food.Passersby and visitors occasionallythrow a few coins, sometimes inappreciation of his art or in respect ofthe gods/goddesses he draws now andthen. With these coins he buys thechalks and colours he needs. He says,“People mistake me for a beggar, that’stheir view. I can’t change. But mind it, Iam not a beggar, I am an artist.” And forthe readers, I want to share that thesewords are not translated from any of theregional languages, he actually saidthese with a typical European accent.For a second, it was difficult to graspwhat he said. I must admit that we fail toidentify or recognise or appreciate

anything that comes from unexpectedquarters! It takes time to sink in.

Gopal was born in Bangalore in 1947.He remembers growing up seeing theSecretariat being built. He says that thelabourers worked in very bad conditions,many died while carrying the stones(granite). He lived with his mother andgrandmother. His father died when hewas very young. He left home in 1971 towork for a blacksmith cum trader fromBengal who used to make horse shoes.He was given the task of hitting thehammer when the shoe was made. Hestayed with the blacksmith for the nextfour- five years and then left the job. Allthrough the years, he travelled todifferent places taking up odd jobs; heworked as a farm labourer, welder,driver and sculptor. He worked in Nepalfor sometime where he met a fewEuropeans. From them he learntEnglish. He met a German tourist whotaught him a few tricks with matchsticks.It was quite amusing to see himperforming these tricks. He couldactually give a tough competition to thedexterity of a seasoned magician, I felt.

About 20-24 years ago, he met with anaccident. Labour became his antonymof survival. Since then, he has travelledto different places, taken up some joblike that of sweeping or something whichcan bring in his food. He makesdrawings with chalks, colours, rangolicolours, rice, etc. He came to Junagadhthree years back, prior to which he usedto draw near Rajkot station. Gopalsleeps under the stars in the park,wakes up at four. After ablutions, hecleans up the temple and then drinkstea. It takes about 15-20 min for him tomake the drawing on the floor and thenhe sits there. There might be famousartists who paint amazing pictures, buthis techniques were so smooth andfast. The ease with which he made thesketches can hold anybody’s attention.He drew a “5” and then asked us, “Whatis this?” It appeared astonishing that hewas asking me such a simple question,a question that is better asked to a

nursery kid. So, as if doubting my ears,I asked, “What?” to which he repeated,“What is this?” I said, “FIVE” and thenwithin seconds he made it into a lionand then he made it sit, sleep, stand,wiping a part and drawing it in anotherform. Next he made a mouse whichturned into a squirrel, rabbit, caterpillar,deer and a kangaroo in just a couple ofminutes. He drew a beautiful girl whoheld a diya in her palms, then greeted‘Namaste’ with folded arms, after thatturned into lord Shiva, Hanuman andGanesha, successively. He says, “Tolearn any art form, the mantra is simple.Passion and practice.” Gopal assuredthat with practice I too, would be able tolearn his art.

He showed us different tricks withmatchsticks and glasses. He could holdour attention all throughout. A small boywas loitering around. Seeing him, Iasked Gopal, why didn’t he teach hisart to kids like him. Gopal replied thathe had tried but it was a matter ofinterest and also it was easier for themto beg instead of practicing this.Occasionally, he paints in the nearbyshops. He used to light incense sticks,probably to keep away mosquitoes andalso invoke religious feelings in thepassersby (of course to earn a few morecoins) but stopped doing so when henoticed that the careless dupatta oranchal caught fire - no, humans are notcareless! They don’t see the art whichis so prominently present, they don’t seethe lion and the birds; with the faint hopethat the gods will draw their attention,the artist lits up an incense stick. Butthat does not help either. Their clothescaught the smothering darts, may be inprotest for the deliberate blindness!

He fondly remembers his sculptures insome temple near Surat. We invited himto Ahmedabad to teach his art to the kidsaround, to which he agreed but said thathe would visit only after two monthswhen the summers set in. He said thatAhmedabad is colder than Junagadh,so its better for him to stay in Junagadhfor a couple more months. He said, “I

CULTURALLY ALIVE

Gopal: A street artist




IGNITE Awards (Children’s Innovation): Kite Flying Awards

Rohan Jolly from Angels Public School in Delhi (7th grade) was awardedthe Kite Flying Award at the IGNITE Awards ceremony on November 10,2012, at IIM Ahmedabad. He came up with the idea of a cellphoneembedded in hand gloves. The Kite Flying Award is given to kids who haveimagined things without being held back by constraints of current dayfeasibility.

Almost every year, Rohan and his parents visit their grandparents’ homein Kashmir which is hardly ten kilometres from the Line of Control betweenIndian and Pakistani administered territories. The place is covered withsnow for ten months in a year. During a visit to his grandparents’ place,Rohan realised that in such an extreme cold weather, it was difficult toremove glovesand press the buttons of his mobile phone. But, the keyson the cell phones are too small to be dialled wearing gloves. Moreover,taking out the mobile phone during snowfall may expose it to water andit might stop functioning. Rohan then had the idea that a cellphone couldbe incorporated within waterproof gloves so as to enable the user to dialnumbers without taking off the gloves. This way phone and hands do nothave to be exposed to snow and freezing weather. This is an exceptionallyobservant idea.

Rohan is a big fan of the cartoon series Tom and Jerry and watches footballand cricket. Yuvraj Singh is his favourite sportsman. He is also very curiousabout knowing more things. His father says that Rohan watches manyprogrammes on Discovery Channel. He gives full attention to programmeswhere they explain how things are made. There might be many Rohansin our neighborhoods only waiting for an opportunity to be appreciated.

will clean up, shave and come toAhmedabad and teach you and otherkids the art. I will get some work in sometemple and in the evening, I will teach.”I could make out that he thought that theparks in Ahmedabad would be too coldfor him to sleep. He wanted to go backhome but the postponement took yearsand “Now,” he says, “no one would bealive, neither my grandma nor mymother. No point going back now. Deathis near and I should wait for it to happen.”

At the fall of the day, he lit up a smalllamp nearby his art work wishing thatsome passerby will see the artist in thebeggar!

[Scout: Anamika Dey, Bhimabhai Dhrangi]

Gift Honey Bee to the ones youlove and care for; what could bea better way to celebratecreativity and show your love ?


Li Yan hails from Handan, in Heibeiprovince, China. Since his childhood,he has loved inventing things. On oneoccasion he was angry at somethingand was holding onto the handle of abike so hard that he ended up twistingit. This made him realise that powercan be transmitted through the handleas well. He had often seen that mucheffort was required to push the pedalwhile carrying a heavy load or climbingup a slope. He wondered whether itwould be possible to move the fronthandle in such a way that it generatesextra power for the pedal. He realisedthat he needed a fulcrum on which alever could be placed and transmissionof power through the handle could bepossible. After many trials, he finallysucceeded in making a handlepowered bicycle.

He had a few problems in the initialmodel for turning the bike while drivingit. However, during the early part of hislife he was a car mechanic and withhis experience he designed a shaftthat kept the handle steady whileturning.

CHIN

He had then realised that the handlesometimes moved too fast making itdifficult to control. When he tried toreduce the mobility of the handle, itmoved too slow to generate any power.After pondering for many days aboutthis problem, one morning he woke upat 3 am and realised that he could usea brush to control the movement of thehandle better.

He did not have sufficient savings togo through with his innovation all byhimself. On occasions, he had toborrow money from friends. But therewas no point in the developmentprocess where he doubted himself.He has also developed a tandembicycle deploying the same handleprinciple.

Childhood

As a child Li was always on thelookout for making new things. At theage of 12, he made an apparatus tolight a firework safely. He used atungsten filament. The heat of thefilament lighted the wick of the firework.

He liked to experiment with circuits asa child. At the age of 10, hesuccessfully made a doorbell afterstudying a circuit diagram in a book.He used a car horn in that setup. Hismother was very supportive of hishobbies to make new inventions andhe would come up with ideas forcreating something new all the time.

Product development and marketing

He was not quite sure whether heshould take his products to market.He felt he did not have the necessaryfinances for the initial investments andworking capital. However, he hascarried out market surveys and hefound that many people are interestedin his innovations. The positivefeedback has encouraged him andnow he wants to introduce the productinto the market. However, he admitsthat though there are many provisionsin the national policy to provide credit,it is still very difficult to access credit.

He believes that it would be better tofind a manufacturer to whom he canlicense the product. He feels he alsodoes not have enough drive left tobecome an entrepreneur at his age.However, he derives satisfaction in thefact that he has made a truly usefulproduct.

Dual mode bicycle - The journey of an informal innovator




The second ICCIG Conference wasorganised at Tianjin (Dec 3-4, 2012),China and Ahmedabad (Dec 7-8, 2012),India. The Conference aimed at gaugingthe state-of-the-art, reinforcing theNetwork’s values, and consolidating thelessons learned over the last 24 years.The conference was formallyinaugurated by Prof Zhang Jiaxing, thePresident of TUFE. He emphasised thefruitful association of SRISTI and TUFEsince 2004. He talked about the need to

mobilise students to participate in theinnovation activity of GRI. He alsodiscussed a common avenue platformfor innovative solutions.

Prof Gupta emphasised that of the 70countries outside India where HBN hasset foot, the greatest support has comefrom China.

Over 65 delegates from differentcountries viz. India, China, South Africa,South Korea, Zimbabwe, Switzerland,Japan, Mexico and Germany took partin the conference. Innovatorsassociated with theNetwork, Mansukhbhai Patel [Cotton s

tripping machine, Gujarat], Dipak Bharali[Magnetic bobbin for design making inhandlooms, Assam] and C Mallesham[Asu making machine, Andhra Pradesh]were also present.

Many Chinese innovators, collaboratorsand policymakers actively engaged withthe Indian and other internationaldelegates. Some of the innovatorsfeatured in the Network’s publicationslike Chen Guangxing, Lv Shengzhan,

Ding Wendou, and Li Rong Biao werealso present at the event. Dignitariesfrom the Chinese academia, industryand polity expressed their views andconcerns about grassroots innovatorsand methods for their inclusion. Manyinteresting projects by TUFE studentswere showcased. Some of these werenot only novel but also had maturity andpragmatism of the kind associated withseasoned practitioners.

Li Jun, Director of CompetitionDepartment talked about a Science &Technology competition for innovationbased activity. An exhibition displayinginnovators of China, projects of TUFE

students, posters of HBN, SRISTI & NIF,videos of Indian innovators andgrassroots based products from HBNwas also arranged. The attendees weremade aware of the CHIN database of3000 practices made by TUFE.

Dr. Yoslan Nur of UNESCO talked aboutthe policy implications of integratingGRIs in the national innovationecosystem. He reiterated how criticalinnovation is for poverty alleviation. Healso talked about the threat of copyingof simple low tech innovations –problem of IP, special fund support forGRI and NGO as a driver for promotingGRI. Prof. Roberto Rendon Medel fromUNAM, Mexico, dwelled upon the variouskinds of social networks in the contextof grassroots innovation.

Prof Jose Vargas-Hernandez fromMexico highlighted the need for socio-cultural aspects to be involved in thedevelopment plan. He added that socialcapital needs protection andconservation. Soyeon Yang of the HopeInstitute, South Korea, put forward waysto solve social problems bycollaboration of various sectors.

Motomura Takuto, Founder Granma Inc.,talked about ‘grassroots to Global (g2G)’and how he was inspired by HBN’s workand vision.

Prof Anil K Gupta proposed a shodhyatrain Hunan province or central China tounderstand knowledge system.

Dr. Anand Prakash, Chief Secretary,Andaman & Nicobar, India spoke on theadministrative actions taken by thegovernment for protecting andpromoting the traditional knowledge ofthe islanders.

Dr. Vinita Sharma from the Departmentof Science & Technology, India, threwlight on various technological exampleslike micro-propagation of banana, aRural Technology Park, honey hunter

The Second International Conference on Creativity andInnovation at Grassroots(ICCIG), China and India

NEWS & VIEWS


dress, etc. where DST has supportedprojects for inclusion and uplifting ofgrassroots, poor communities andwomen.

The Chinese section of ICCIG ended ona high note with innovators admitting tohave gained better understanding of ProfLiyan Zhang and her team’s work inChina and passionately demanding astronger network there.

Twenty five years back HBN sowedseeds in India. Now green shoots areemerging in many pockets around theworld.

In the second part of the Conference atIIM Ahmedabad, about 150 participantsincluding innovators and teachers fromdifferent countries participated in thediscussions over two days. Thesessions started on a nostalgic note.Prof Kuldeep Mathur recounted hisassociation with Prof Anil K Gupta andthe early days of struggle which he andthe other members and supporters ofthe Network went through to make theHoney Bee Network a thriving reality.

The Ahmedabad section of theconference deliberately allowed forinteractive sessions. Discussions tookplace on topics of incentives tograssroots innovators, intellectualproperty protection, alternative modelsof incentives and attribution, structuresof dynamic and static multi l ingualdatabases, strengthening online andoffline platforms, identifying policy gaps,making innovation ecosystem morerobust, respecting and promotingcultural creativity, education, and toolsfor promoting a creative pedagogy.

In his introductory speech, Prof. KuldeepMathur described the challenges facedby Honey Bee Network during the initialstages of the journey. Although therewas a huge inventory of traditionalknowledge and practices, the challengewas collecting the available informationon innovations and documenting theminto a database.

Dr. Susantha Goonatilake, President ofRoyal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka,emphasised upon the importance ofopen source network in grassrootsinnovations. Amrutbhai Agrawat, LifeTime Achievement Awardee, NIF, sharedexperiences of his journey with theHoney Bee Network from 1988 andappreciated the support and respectgiven to grassroots innovators by theHoney Bee Network.

Dr. Vipin Kumar, Chief Innovation Officer,NIF, stated that NIF has beenmaintaining a national register of morethan 1,70,000 grassroots innovationsand practices. Internationalcollaborations have been made throughthe grassroots to Global (g2G) programfor technology transfer and theawareness building across the worldfor grassroots innovation. Prof. Anil KGupta then stated the various policygaps in the Honey Bee Network andpossible ways to bridge them.

Dr. Sang E Lee from USAID expressedher organisation’s interest in helpinggrassroots innovators, who havedeveloped innovative solutions to socialproblems, in terms of economic as wellas technical support. She added thatinnovation is not only in the product ortechnology form but also the process or

novel mechanism which led to thechange in current practices for reducingdrudgery. She said, the media,especially social media which nowcomprises many ICT initiatives, can playan important role in showcasing variousinnovations and help in its diffusion andpossible commercialisation.

In the chair speech, Prof. M R Dixit, CIIE,IIM Ahmedabad, talked about thedesirability of linking the formal andinformal sector. Dr. Dinesh K. Abrol,NISTADS, cited the example of CSIRwhich has established a network of 18laboratories to link the formal sector withthe informal sector. Finally, Prof. Dixitadded that the two sectors may notalways give the expected results, acouple of examples showed that the linkmay not always yield the right results.However, it is important to open the eyesof the formal sector to the ingenuity ofthe informal sector. Prof. Sanjay Vermaof IIM-A, Alexander Grots and K CBhanoo together raised a very importantpoint that technology today is reachingmasses at a much faster pacecompared to finance. Alexander Grotsstated that ICT makes the innovationwork. It needs to be assessed whetherinformation technology has reached thegrassroots to act as a proper mediumof communication in India?

There was a session on culturalcreativity chaired by Dr. Paul Shrivastavaand Dr. Mallika Sarabhai. Paulemphasised on looking at the earth asa piece of art. Mallika performed a skithighlighting male chauvinism using aplot from mythology. The session wasbrought alive by puppetry and bhavaimusic.

When did you meet an innovator last?



The IGNITE-12 Award Function was organisedby the National Innovation Foundation (NIF)on November 10, 2012 at RJMCEI auditorium, IIMAhmedabad. The former President of India, BharatRatna Dr APJ Abdul Kalam conferred the awardson the 36 winners. Overall 14889 studentsubmissions from 282 districts of 30 states andunion territories of the country were received inthe period between September 11, 2011 to August31, 2012. In addition to the main awards, a newcategory ‘Kite Flying Awards’ was introduced byNIF to recognise those ideas which do not appearto be rational today but may become a realitytomorrow. Some other children were selected as‘special mentions’ during the event. NIF filedpatents in name of the students for all applicablecases. The patent related documents werehanded over to the children. Prototypes were alsodeveloped in as many cases as possible. DrKalam inspired the audience by his memorablelecture on how each one of us is born with

greatness. He exhorted everyone to dream big, no matter what, by saying,

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires, will come to you”

He added, “Education gives you wings to fly. Participation in a programme like IGNITE gives an opportunity to think of out of the boxsolutions. Achievement comes out of fire in our sub-conscious mind that “I will win”. So, each one of you assembled here and elsewhere,will have “Wings of Fire”. The wings of fire will indeed make you a great inventor, or a discoverer who will be remembered by the societyfor their unique societal contribution.” He concluded with the famous verses of 13th century Persian Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi modified tosuit the occasion:

Wings to Fly

“I am born with potential. - I am born with goodness and trust. - I am born with ideas and dreams. - I am born withgreatness. - I am born with confidence. - I am born with wings. - So, I am not meant for crawling, - I have wings, I will fly -I will fly and fly”

Dr. Adrian Smith, SPRU and STEPSCentre, and Prof Shamnad Basheer,Chair Intellectual Property Law, NUJStalked about patents. Basheerdescribed various types of patents andargued about the quality of patentapplications!

The Ahmedabad Declaration wasdrafted taking into view ideas fromTianjin and Ahmedabad. Thedeclaration can be viewed on thefollowing link: http://icc ig.wordpress.com/ahmedabad-declaration/

Collaboration between NIF and TataAgrico

An MOU was signed on January 6, 2013at the Tata Center, between the NationalInnovation Foundation-India and TataAgrico to collaborate in the areas of

a g r i c u l t u r a limplements. Dr VipinKumar (ChiefInnovation Officer -NIF), T V S Shenoy(Chief Agrico Div.) , DrSumitesh Das (ChiefGlobal ResearchProgram) werepresent during thesigning of the MOUalong with theinnovator of the sugarcane bud chipper MrRoshan LalVishwakarma ofMadhya Pradesh.

Renewal of technology transfer

GIAN West & NIF facilitated the renewalof technology transfer of Solar NaturalWater Cooler of Arvindbhai Patel,

Ahmedabad to M/s Khodke AgroProducts Pvt. Ltd., Amrawati.Under this the entrepreneur wouldhave exclusive manufacturing andmarketing right in the state ofMaharasthra.

IGNITE 2012 Award Function


Mahua JalebiIngredients: Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) flowers, wheatflour, salt, sugar (as per sweetness required).

MethodRoast mahua flowersin a pan and then boilthem. Drain the watercompletely and keep itin a vessel and mashboiled flowers withhands or crush them.Heat the mixture. Now,use the boiled water ofmahua f lowers inwheat flour to make thedough. Add some saltinto it. Squeeze the

jalebi batter out in the hot oil in a pretzel shape to about2 inches in diameter. Fry the jalebis until golden-brown onboth sides. Transfer into the warm sugar syrup (only ifadditional sweetness is required). Let jalebis soak in thehot syrup for a few seconds and take out. Serve hot.

Note: Mahua flowers are naturally sweet. So sugar syrup shouldbe administered as per taste.

Contribution- Sumanbai Gond, Village- Samapura Dist. Sehore,Madhya Pradesh. This was documented during 29th Shodhyatra

Jamonia Dam - Talab, Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh.

She secured the firstposition in the RecipeCompetition held duringthe Shodhyatra. Whenshodhyatris, impressedwith the mahua jalebisasked Suman, would shelike to come to Sattvik,the annual traditionalfood festival organized bySRISTI, anotherparticipant, ManishaVerma, replied, “Yes, Imay consider thatprovided there is a prizelike in the TV program,Master Chef.”

Now, that is some ambition in a tribal village where manypeople have not gone outside the district, somenever outside the state like Sumanbai. Perhaps somedaysomeone will make a popular dish out of the recipes andshare benefits with the contributing communities. Thedemand for mahua flowers in this way might wean manyof the tribals away from liquor as well.

Multigrain pizza

Ingredients

Base- 250g mixed grain atta (To make 8 pizza bases),¼ tsp carom seeds, salt as per taste, 1 tbsp curd, waterfor binding

Sauce- 1 cup curd, 2 tbsp gram flour, ¾ tsp sesame seeds,garlic- 4 cloves crushed, salt as per taste, water 2-3 cups

Topping- 300g Yam, 100g brinjal, 100g green garlic, 1medium sized pomegranate seeds

Oil, mustard oil, salt as per taste, black pepper as pertaste, chat masala to sprinkle on top.

MethodBase- Take atta in a large bowl and add salt and caromseeds in it. Add curd and mix well. Now add water to kneadit like dough. Cover and keep aside to set. After resting thedough, divide it into 8 equal portions and roll each doughball into a roti of about 3 to 3.5 inch in diameter. Cook theserotis/bases on a tawa with a few drops of oil. Cook till boththe sides become crisp and golden brown.

Sauce- Add salt and pepper to curd and keep it aside.Roast the gram flour in a pan till it emits aroma. Removeit from the flame and keep it aside. In a separate pan, addlittle oil. When oil is sufficiently hot, add sesame seedsand let them sputter. Now add garlic and sauté for sometime. Put the gram flour and mix well. Now slowly add waterto the gram flour and stir continuously to avoid lumpformation. Put the salt and let sauce thicken on mediumlow flame.

RECIPE

Health and taste together

When did you confess to your children last that you did not know the answer to their question?



Toppings- Yam- Peel and steam them in a pressure cooker.When cooked, cut it into small cubes. Roast these pieceson tawa with little oil till they turn crispy. Season with saltand pepper and set aside.

Brinjals (Eggplants/Aubergines)- Cut the brinjal into roundslices, sprinkle a little salt on them and let them rest forfew minutes. Roast these slices on the tawa with a littleoil till they are cooked and golden brown on both the sides.Green garlic- Take the chopped green garlic and sauté itin a little mustard oil. Season with a little salt and set aside.Assembling the pizza- On a base spread a thin layer ofcurd followed by a layer of gram flour sauce. Put a sliceof brinjal and then cover the pizza with a layer of yampieces. Sprinkle green garlic and pomegranate seeds anda little chat masala and serve.

Contribution: Stuti Shah (Participant in Recipe Competition,

Sattvik, 2012)

Rajma tikki

Low in calorie, rich in antioxidants, high in fibre.

Ingredients250g Rajma (kidney beans), 1 medium sized potato (boiledand peeled), 2 medium sized finely chopped onions, 1tsp finely chopped ginger, 2 finely chopped green chillies,100g finely chopped fresh coriander leaves, 1 tsp roastedcumin seeds powder, 1 tsp coriander powder.

MethodSoak rajma overnight and then boil with a little salt. Drainthe boiled rajma and keep aside. Heat a little oil in a panand sauté ginger, green chillies and onions in it till it turnsgolden brown. Add the boiled rajma and potato in it. Sautetill the moisture has evaporated. Add salt, coriander leaves,coriander powder and cumin seed powder in it. Masheverything together. Once the mixture has cooled, takesmall portions and form small tikkis. The mixture shouldyield almost 60 tikkis. Shallow fry the tikkis till it turnsgolden brown. Serve hot with green chutney.

Contribution: Stuti Shah (Participant in Recipe Competition,Sattvik, 2012)

Steamed multigrain basket chat

High in protein and zinc

Ingredients:

Basket- ¼ cup ragi flour, ¼ cupcorn flour, ¼ cup barley flour,¼ cup jowar flour, ¼ cup pearl millet (bajra) flour, 1 tbspsoy flour, 2 tbsp ginger garlic chilly paste, ½ tsp caromseeds (Ajwain) , 1 tsp sesame seeds, Salt-As per taste,Mix green leafy vegetables. Puree- As per consistency.

Filling- Finely chopped cucumber, onion, 2 tbsp beetrootand tomatoes , 2 tbsp sprouted green gram (mung), 2 tbsppomegranate seeds, wood apple, dates and tamarindchutney- as per taste, green coriander chutney- as pertaste, 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves, 2 tbsp sev,salt as per taste.

Method- Mix all the flours and add ginger-garlic-chilli paste,salt, sesame seeds and carom seeds in it. Make doughby adding a small amount of water. Make small basketsfrom the dough. Steam them in a steamer. In a bowl, addfinely chopped vegetables, chat masala, coriander leavesand mix well. Boil the sprouted mung and add the boiledsprouts in bowl containing filling mixture. Now, add thisfilling in baskets and top it with both the chutneys. Garnishit with sev and serve.

Contribution: Hina Raval (Participant in Recipe Competition,

Sattvik,2011)

Share your recipes, which have preferably at least oneuncultivated plant as an ingredient or has somenutritional value. You can also share stories whichconvey concern for nature or some intriguing aspectof human creativity. Mail to us at [email protected] “recipe/story” in the subject.


DIALOGUE

Medicinal plants in our garden

Mamta Shrivastav [email protected]

I’m a student of BAJM and a regularmember of Honey Bee. My father is aherbal healer and we have our ownherbal garden in which we grow herbs/vegetables and prepare variousAyurvedic products. We have some raremedicinal plant species collected by myfather. He has a lot of experience in tribalmedicines. I want to share these withHoney Bee members. Hope to hearfrom you at the earliest. Welcome to the Honey Bee Network Mamta.Please send your detailed documentationwith photographs of the plants and scientificnames to [email protected] and we willpromptly acknowledge. We also have a labthat can take up your products for evaluationand further value addition if you wish to sharethem with larger society. -Ed.

Feedback on websites

K [email protected]

A few observation on Honey BeeNetwork, SRISTI and NIF websites

User interface: The result page mustshow me number of results on eachpage (this is usually at the end of thepage at the bottom), it should also be atthe top.

h t t p : / / w w w . s r i s t i . o r g / h b n e w /seeking_solution.php There must be aprize to motivate people for each of theproblems. The solution must be postedon your website or at least the personwho one can go to for help.

The search algorithm on the sitesshould be improved to give relevantresults. What is the point of searchingthe Honey Bee Magazine databasewhen the door is barred? One needs toregister and give quite a lot of details.

In “Honey Bee published details”section, the user does not know whatall is available in the database.So some headings should be providedso that he/she can locate what he wants.

Many thanks for all the suggestions. We arelooking for someone well versed in contentmanagement to fix many of these things. The

idea is to get to know who is using the HoneyBee Network databases and sites and see ifsome of them can become futurecollaborators. Nobody has been deniedaccess. I will look into other ways of makingit more user-friendly. Keep sending yoursuggestions and if you locate an editor andweb admin let us know please. -Ed.

Want to work with Honey BeeNetwork

Pranoy [email protected]

I am a final year engineeringstudent. Ever since I saw your TED talk,I’m greatly inspired to put my educationto solve public issues. I like your workand would like to help in all possibleways. I can help in improvingindiainnovates.com and sristi.org. I canalso promote Gandhian YoungTechnological Innovation Award in mycollege as well as in neighbouringcolleges.

You may develop an app through whichstudents can submit summaries of their finalyear projects directly into the techpedia.indatabase. You can possibly start fromthe scratch indiainnovates.com as a singlepoint window to the innovative face of ourcountry.

Please help us to mobilise entries fromvarious local polytechnics, engineering,pharmacy and other colleges for GYTI(Gandhian Young Technological Innovation)Awards. In addition if you can collect thesummary of the projects done with title, nameof the students, faculty guide, department,college, abstract, year and contactinformation, it would be very helpful. -Ed.

Volunteering in SRISTI activities

Pallavi [email protected]

I am an active follower of all your updatesand posts & I saw today’s post forvolunteers. I am interested to work forSRISTI projects. I am Chandigarhbased and would like to work online onthe designing of the websites ofsristi.org, techpedia.in orindiainnovates.com, also for

a) Promoting Gandhian YoungTechnological Innovation Awards (http://www.techpedia.in/award)

b) Mobilizing summaries and/or fullprojects of last three years from

technical colleges (polytechnics,degree colleges, pharmacy,engineering, agriculture, undergraduateor post graduate) for uploading with duecredit at techpedia.in from all over thecountry. Idea is to promote originality,forge lateral links and link academiawith MSME and informal sectorproblems. c) Data entry work, converting about25000 word fi les of projects intodatabase format for uploading ontechpedia.in.

I hope my location is nota hindrance. Many thanks for giving usthe opportunity to work with you. Duringour stay at Ahmedabad, we couldn’t domuch. But I feel through this opportunity,we can learn so much from you.

Nice to hear about youraccomplishments.Would you like to tryredesigning www.sristi.org/culturaland create an e-commerce platformso that people can pay as they wish fordownloading the content of the creativepeople? -Ed.

Documentary on GrassrootsInnovators

Amaresh [email protected]

I am inspired by your work, life andvision. Your contribution in the field ofsearching, recognizing and promotingthe rural innovations is unmatched.What I’m planning right now isproduction of a TV documentary on theseinnovators. I have so far produced morethan 1000 special stories for leading TVchannels of India. But, producing adocumentary on rural innovators is anew concept for me. And, the biggestchallenge is to compel the audience towatch these innovations on television.As you have visited every corner of thecountry in search of such innovators, Iunderstand that no one else can paintthe canvas better. I will look forward foryour contribution in many ways in thisendeavour. I expect your kindsuggestions and guidance on theconcept.

I will be happy to discuss this idea further.We could think of a series which goesbeyond innovations into the whole realm ofcreativity and then we could discuss eachepisode on a blog. -Ed.




Work with the Honey BeeNetwork

Shen Xi [email protected]

I am an undergraduate studentstudying aerospace engineering inUniversity Science of Malaysia. I havejust started my second semester afew days ago and was assigned todo a brief research on the Honey BeeNetwork.

The organisation’s effort has gainedtremendous respect from students inUniversity Science of Malaysia. Weare curious, and would like to knowmore about HBN. I have learned thatHBN has helped a lot of the base-of-pyramid population in India. Pleasetell us by what means can the poorapproach the Network if they haveideas that they want to share? Howlocals from rural areas can be alertedabout the organisation?

Please read our open content at the blogsristi.org/anilg, as well as creativityatgrassroots.wordpress.com and our sitessristi.org and nifindia.org. I am very happyto see your interest in HBN and hope thatsome of you can take up the initiative toform a Honey Bee club. We are keen tostart a Malay, Chinese and Tamil languagenewsletter also for local communities. -Ed.

Help in dissertation topic

Iosto [email protected]

I’m an Italian student currently involvedin an international master called MiDIC- Master in Development, Innovationand Change, held at BolognaUniversity. I have always beenconcerned with indigenous people’sissues. I have worked for anArgentinean NGO as an intern todevelop indigenous and governmentalcapabilities in addressing relevantdemocratic consultation. Mydissertation was on the concept ofjustifiability of indigenous people’srights.This time, with regard to apossible PhD proposal, I thought Icould focus on indigenous traditionalknowledge and their traditionalinnovation capacity. Is it a feasibletopic? Would you be available to giveme some suggestion or additional

hint? Can I send you further informationabout my ideas? Is there any possibilityto ask for some academic advice orguidance regarding my proposal? If so,whom can I ask?

Sure. Please go through various papers atmy blog sristi.org/anilg particularly one oncontested domain and another ongiving creativity it’s due. Last one isavailable at Harvard University site too.Look forward to hear at greater length. Allthe best. -Ed.

Discovered an Innovator

Mahulkar, [email protected]

After a conference, I was activelyobserving people and their innovativeways of making things easy byinnovating new patterns & tools. Fewdays before I discovered an innovativejuice seller who had developed a mobilesugarcane juicer. I am planning tosurface his story in grass rootinnovations forum. Need your help &support in understanding the way ofdoing it and right forum for it Very nice to hear this! Can you send thephotos and a bit more information? Lookingforward to hear from you soon. -Ed.

Wish to create “SystematicInventive Thinking”

Sarvoday [email protected]

I’m really interested in Honey BeeNetwork. I just quit my job and amcoming back to India. I’ve been veryinterested in working at bottom ofpyramid since I read book by C. K.Prahalad.

I’m 27, and have spent more than 19years in a small town and I’mpassionate about doing somethingrelated to innovations in rural India asI firmly believe (and I found same inyour talk at TED) that these small butimportant innovations will help to bringpeople in rural areas at a platformwhere they will be able to inspire others.I want to make it an innovation storywhich is required by India in the currentscenario. I want to travel to India andsearch for innovative ideas or any othercreation that has helped to make lifeeasier. I would be more than excited to

join the Honey Bee Network and Ihope I’ll get a chance to work with you.

Good to hear from you, Sarvodaya. Lookingforward to see you when you are here.Also send me some more specific ideasabout what and where you can make aunique contribution. -Ed.

Shodhyatra

Karishma [email protected]

I’m a television producer based inNew Delhi. I had written to you a fewmonths back on behalf of Americannews channel NBC who wereinterested in joining you on one ofyour innovation discovery yatras. Canyou please tell me if this is still thecase?

Most likely our next Yatra is in Vidharbhafrom May 5 to 12. See you soon. - Ed

Want to contribute to HBN

Gabriel Brückner

[email protected]

In September 2009, you visited ourschool for a conference onsustainability.

After your speech we talked aboutyour achievements in India (the HoneyBee Network). I visited the Honey BeeNetwork website and wish to contributeor volunteer in any way. I want to beout in the field and work on realprojects to solve real problems. I amabout to finish my degree in ProductDesign.

Sure, welcome Gabriel. You could work ona specific product or set if products tomake them look and feel better for localas well as global use. Pleasevisit nifindia.org and sristi.org sites andthen we can start discussing which productyou will pick up.

Welcome once again to Honey BeeNetwork. - Ed.

Establishing Official Contact atthe Fraunhöfer Institute

Elisabeth Opie

[email protected]

I am fortunate to have attended theSeventh Biennial Grassroots


Innovation Awards as part of the GlobalResearch Alliance delegation in India. The Awards and Exhibition illustratedsuch an extensive and impressiverange of activity fostering and achievingfrugal innovation.

You presented me with a copy of thebook ‘India Innovates’ and I haveshared this with my colleague DeniseKaske. Denise is the point of contactat Fraunhofer Headquarters in Munich,in its dealings with India. By way ofthis email, I would like to connect youwith her. I hope that our paths againmeet. In the meantime, wishing you allthe best.

That is very kind of you Elisabeth. TheHoney Bee Network is a life mission forus and every time we are able to getrecognition to unsung heroes of our society,we feel vindicated. We will be very happyto touch base with your colleague in Indiaand explore synergy in India as well asglobally. -Ed.

Honey Bee in Russia

Olga Ustyuzhantseva

[email protected]

I am a research fellow and a post-graduate student at Tomsk StateUniversity (Russia, Siberia) studying therole of regions (states) in innovationdevelopment of India.

During my research I found out aboutgrassroots innovation movementinitiated by you in Gujarat. I still havesome open questions about how (bywhat criteria) to estimate effectivenessof activity of GIAN, SRISTI etc. However,these organizations are obviouslycreating needed environment forinnovations development.

As for us (Russia), the grassrootsinnovations are almost not exploredhere – nor at the governmental level, orin scientific and research circles. Thereare some initiatives to support startupsof young inventors. For instance thereis BIT Competition(http://www.bit-konkurs.ru/English)– “entrepreneurshipcompetition organised each year to helpinnovative projects emerge from acrossRussia and neighboring countries”. Theorganiser of this competition in Siberiaasked me if there is an interest to holdinternational competition of this kind in

or with India. The competition combinesthe ideas of http://mit100k.org/ and amodel of business-incubator (http://ycombinator.com). The joint competitionwould help young inventors in India andRussia to reach venture investors inboth the countries.

I have also explained the idea of aRussian branch of the Honey BeeNetwork to the students of mydepartment (The Department ofInternational Relations). They areinspired to try themselves in this field.

We activated the Honey Bee Network inChina seven years ago and today we have adatabase of more than 6500 GRIs there. Stayin touch and do not hesitate to ask furtherquestions. We want you to succeed in thismission. Creative communities andindividuals deserve their space under thesun and also need our support for makingfrugal innovations. – Ed.

Support for a mobile pesticidesprinkler

Vaibhav Arora

[email protected]

During a visit to rural parts of RajasthanI came across an interesting idea andthought about sharing it with you. Theidea is about a mobile pesticidesprinkler- basically a sprinkler andmotor system which receives its drivefrom a motorcycle engine.

The idea is implemented by RamzanKhan from Palakdi vil lage, Alwar,Rajasthan. He is currently looking forsupport to help him convert this idea intoa business initiative. Please feel free toreach him directly.

Very interesting. We had awarded GaneshBhai Dodiya for the purpose some yearsago. But it is good to know idea isspreading. Thank you so much. Keep meinformed whenever you come across such

ideas. -Ed.

Possible future collaboration onIntellectual Property

Jeremy de Beer

[email protected]

Though it has been a long while sinceour last communication, I have notforgotten about our ideas to collaborate.Indeed your name came up often in aWIPO working group I’m involved with

SRISTI is looking for volunteers,students or others willing to workon modest stipend basis for fourtasks:

a) Promoting the GandhianYoung Technological InnovationAwards (http://www.techpedia.in/award/)

b) Mobilising summaries and/orfull projects of the last threeyears from technical colleges(polytechnics, degree colleges,pharmacy, engineering,agriculture, undergraduate orpost graduate) for uploadingwith due crediton techpedia.in from all overthe country. The idea is topromote originality, forge laterallinks and link academia withMSMEs and informal sectorchallenges.

c) Data entry work, i.e. convertingabout 25000 word files ofprojects into database formatfor uploading on techpedia.in).

d) Those who wish to work onimproving the websitesof sristi.org, techpedia.in or indiainnovates.com an othersites, are welcome to join usas well.

Those interested may write toHiranmay Mahanta at

[email protected] (M) 09909959336

Those who excel will getcommendations.


on IP and informal sector innovation —headed by Sacha Wunch-Vincent. Ihope this work gives us a chance tocross paths in person at some point inthe not-too-distant future.

Meanwhile, I will keep you posted on ourproject’s research developments.

I am looking forward to keep in close touch inthe coming year. You can download hundredsof papers from sristi.org/anilg and pl feelfree to ask for any other information aboutwhat we do. –Ed.

Documents

23(4) October December 2012 - sristi.org4)_Oct_Dec_2012-Jan-Ma…A Dialogue on People’s Creativity, Experimentation & Innovation 2 Honey Bee Vol 23 (4) & 24(1) October - December