Towards Creative, Collaborative and Compassionate India

8/8/2019 Towards Creative, Collaborative and Compassionate India

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Towards Creative, Compassionate and Collaborative India:Honey Bee Network in action

Anil K Gupta

When an individual, institution, network or a society learns to live with aproblem unsolved indefinitely, it ceases tobe a progressive and inclusiveforward looking community. Indian society is going through atransformation when the traditional inertia is giving way and innovationsare being recognized slowly and slowly as instruments of empowermentand change. After more than two decades, Honey Bee Network couldsucceed in persuading the government to institutionalize a regular supportto NIF (National Innovation Foundation) as a part of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The power of the networkis apparent from the fact that almost 90 per cent or more of the ideas,

innovations and traditional knowledge practices at grassroots are scoutedthrough volunteers. The remaining entries are received at NIF. I willbriefly summarize the journey and then describe a few lessons that followfrom the journey for inclusive development. I firmly believe that the currentdecade declared as µdecade of innovation¶ by the Prime Minister and thePresident signifies a transformative phase of India¶s destiny. Many of usbeing very close to this situation may not realize how important this periodwould be in the history of the country after a few decades or a century.One of the major reasons is an aspirational revolution that is beingexperienced in different parts of the country.

There was creativity even in the past. There are numerous examples of outstanding excellence having been achieved in metallurgy, architecture,water management, health, food, etc., which have stood the test of thetime. But, the fact remains that over a period of time, we internalized theconstraints and generated a culture, which reinforced compromise,compliance and conformity rather than dissent, diversity andinnovation. This habit could survive because of an accompanying cultureof µchalta hai¶, i.e., everything is all right. However, the current younggeneration is refusing to put up with such an attitude. Even in the earlier generation, those who had fortitudinous ability as evident from their innovations and off-beat approach to life and its challenges, are beginningto be recognized. Honey Bee Network has played a small role in bringingabout change in the mindset.

Honey Bee Network implies basically four principles: Cross pollination of ideas in local languages, acknowledgement of individual and communitycreativity without making them anonymous, protecting their knowledge



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rights, and sharing the benefits in a fair and just manner accrued fromvalue addition in the innovations or traditional knowledge. Accordingly,about 1,40,000 ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices [notall unique] have been mobilized from 545 districts of India. More than 90per cent have been collected by the volunteers of Honey Bee Network

while the remaining have come in response to the advertisements.

It all began with Honey Bee Network started in 1988-89 which led toestablishment of SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) in 1993. As a follow up of anintenational conference on Creativity and Innovations at Grassroots held atIIMA during January 1997, Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network[GIAN] was set up in collaboration with Gujarat Government. The purposeof GIAN was to reduce transaction costs of innovators, investors andentrepreneurs by linking them with each other. It was also the first attempt

to provide micro venture capital support to grassroots innovations. NIFcame about in 2000 with the help of Department of Science andTechnology and has become grant-in-aid institution this year.

In 2003, based on an idea mooted by SRISTI in 1997 IIMA conference, aMicro Venture Innovation Fund [MVIF] was set up with the help of SIDBI.It has invested more than 2.5 crores in ideas and innovations by commonpeople without collateral or guarantor. More than 60 per cent people havepaid back and barring one or two cases, there is none who made profitsand did not pay. More than 60 technological licenses have been given

mainly to small companies and individual entrepreneurs with benefits goingback to the innovators. In about two dozen cases, small entrepreneurschose to license technologies after paying money even when patents hadnot been granted. This revealed to us an extraordinary ethical value ontheir part. If they had copied and commercialized, nothing could havebeen done legally. But, they chose to do otherwise. Probably the valuesof the network have created wider social capital.

Every summer and winter SRISTI organizes shodh yatras for last 13 years.We celebrate the creativity at its doorstep. The idea is to honour knowledge experts on the way to convey that outstanding traditionalknowledge as well as contemporary innovations matter. Sometimes, whenoutsiders coming from far off places honour local institutions, individualsand other initiatives, the local respect for the same may also go up. It ispart of the institution building effort in the country. It is easier to suggestthat India should be a knowledge society but without recalibrating theworth of local knowledge such a transformation may not ever take place.We also organize biodiversity, recipe and idea competitions in the villages



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to demonstrate the spirit of excellence and collegiality. We try that thoserecipes which have some uncultivated plants as ingredients get specialattention. In the wake of climate change, we might need new sources of food if the present one succumb to new diseases or pests. We havestarted preparations for any such catastrophe in the foreseeable future.

Many of the so-called weeds are actually rich source of nutrition. Theinquisitiveness and the survival instincts of the poor people might actuallyhold the key to survival of humanity in future. Thus, attention to their knowledge need not be justified only on its own account and for potentialhelp to the poor but also because it will provide ways of survival for themore privileged ones who have lost such an instinct.

We also take the blessings of centenarians on the way and try to learnfrom their life. Many times innovators are discovered serendipitously on

the way. The biodiversity competitions provide a way of speeding up theknowledge transfer from grandparents to the grandchildren. It is an openbook quiz where children can learn from anybody in the village aboutplants and their uses and bring their collection to the meeting. Sometimesthe children who excel in this domain may not be very good in studies.Our society has not yet figured out a way of respecting multipleintelligences and thus enabling such children to grow as conservators of nature. This is a task still incomplete. The cultural creativity on the way isalso celebrated. The purpose is to create markets for the creativity of unsung heroes and heroines of our society through e-commerce and other

mechanisms.

I have selected four case studies as a very small sample of grassrootsinnovations including the development of motorcycle based ploughingmachine, a paddy variety evolved through a selection, a pressure cookedbased coffee making machine by a roadside mechanic and a baffle septictank system installed in a PVC tank by a small mechanic in Kerala. Theserepresent different dimensions of grassroots innovations system in thecountry. The case of Mansukhbhai Jagani who developed motorcyclebased ploughing machine and Dada Khobragade have been developed bya senior member of Honey Bee Network viz., Riya Sinha. The one oncoffee machine by Rozadin by Nitin Maurya and Ansari from NIF andHoney Bee Network and the baffle tank system developed by T.R.Rajeshby NIF team. Mansukhbhai¶s story demonstrates how a communityproblem in a specific socio-ecological context could trigger an innovationthat is copied, adapted, improved by a large number of other mechanics tomeet distributed need. A very vibrant informal innovation eco system isevident from this case. While patents were filed in India and USA, a



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concept of technology commons evolved which permitted people to peoplecopying but required licensing by the firms of the entire pool of innovationsof the community of innovators. Dada Khobragade has developed morethan half a dozen varieties of paddy despite being a marginal dalit farmer with very weak economic condition. He gladly contributes towards the

creation of a public good in the form of open access variety but regretswhen the local agricultural university takes credit for his innovation withoutcontributing anything at all. However, it is also ironic that large number of seed companies made huge profit out of the sale of varieties developed byhim but shared nothing with Dada. And yet, Dada carries no regret for thatomission. A mere yearning of due credit by creator of a public good is nota very unreasonable expectation of an innovator. But the market economyis yet to evolve ethical standards of fair distribution of benefits. The caseof T.R.Rajesh is no less interesting because of a very humble beginnings.His desire to innovate, persist with his ideas, get them tested and license

these to a company through NIF¶s and Honey Bee Network¶s assistance isadmirable. He represented SRISTI in a Global Knowledge Conference inMalaysia. His recent technology on mobile bio compost has also attractedseveral companies. He along with others is contributing to the new modelof inclusive economic development being pursued by Honey Bee Network.

Many of the innovative products have been sold in various countriesaround the world amplifying what we call as g2G i.e., grassroots to globalmodel. Creation of public good along side licensing of technologiesrepresents a portfolio of options some determined by the innovators and

some by the market. The government has played an active role inrecognizing and strengthening the choices of common creative people.Various developing countries struggling to develop inclusive innovationand economic development models may take a cue from the lessons of Honey Bee Network. Recently, American Society of MechanicalEngineering [ASME] through its engineers for change programme hassought partnership with Honey Bee Network. Likewise, Scientists BeyondBorders have sought similar partnership. A global innovation foundationbased on the philosophy and the practice of Honey Bee Network may notbe too far. If creative people around the world get opportunities to crafttheir own world, one would not have to invent policies for making societycompassionate, collaborative and accommodative of various socialsegments. It is the failure to nurture grassroots creative potential that hasfuelled so much of social anomie. May be peace through inclusiveinnovations and participatory institutions is the next mantra of development.

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Towards Creative, Collaborative and Compassionate India