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Media Reports on Grassroot Innovations

Compiled by Rajnish Tiwari

[ Grassroot Symposium 2011 ] [ Grassroot Research @ TIM/TUHH ] [ Our Project in Press ] [ Publications ] [ Contact ]

[ Videos ] [ English Reports ] [ German Reports ]

Videos

  • TED.com: "Anil Gupta: India's hidden hotbeds of invention" (Nov. 2009)

    "Anil Gupta is on the hunt for the developing world's unsung inventors -- indigenous entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, hidden by poverty, could change many people's lives. He shows how the Honey Bee Network helps them build the connections they need -- and gain the recognition they deserve."


  • Youtube.com: " >> There Is A Nature Within <<- Prof. Anil Gupta" (03.11.2009)

    "Anil Gupta ist Dozent an der angesehensten Wirtschaftsuniversität Indiens. Sein Spezialgebiet: technische Innovationen. Die sucht er ausgerechnet dort, wo seine Kollegen nur Rückständigkeit und Hilflosigkeit vermuten - in den entlegensten Dörfern des Landes."

 

English English

  • Youth Leader Magazine: "Dr. Anil Gupta - Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship" (Sept. 2011)

    "Dr. Anil Gupta, a professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad, Gujarat has created opportunities and hope for entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide. In 1989, he started the Honey Bee Network . The movement has spread to 75 countries with China taking the lead. Honey Bee Network taps indigenous knowledge to add to work efficiency in industries. It encourages rural inventors and entrepreneurs to come up with products which can be used by industries. The Honey Bee Network has been a catalyst in multiplying rural knowledge."

  • Daily News & Analysis (DNA): "Anil Gupta: Finding ways to properly utilise grassroots’ innovations" (31.07.2011)

    "Low cost water filters for use in villages: More than 60% infections are supposed to be caused by waterborne pathogens or impurities. We still have to develop location specific, low-cost filters, which can address this problem in an affordable and accessible manner."

  • Business Standard: "Grassroot innovations draw India Inc" (22.05.2011)

    "The National Innovation Foundation (NIF), which spearheaded innovations at grassroots level across various sectors, is now getting sound support from India Inc. Companies are now approaching NIF for commercial and social tie-ups. While the likes of Future Group and Britannia intend to brand and market grassroots innovations in NIF's food products, power equipment company Alstom is joining hands with NIF for pilot projects in low-cost windmills."

  • Daily News & Analysis (DNA): "Frugal and friendly innovations for extreme affordability" (01.05.2011)

    "About 25 years ago, I was attending a workshop with carpenters and blacksmiths in rural Karnataka, south India to discuss ways in which local innovators could solve their problems. The wood used in the plough shear has to be very strong, dense and durable because of the obvious friction it has to bear while ploughing the land. Traditionally, farmers had used slow growing species like acacia sps, which had dense wood for the purpose. Over a period of time, the front edge of the shear got blunted. Farmers never throw away the rest of the shear. And, thus began the material science research. The farmer went to the junkyard and started looking for different kinds of scrap of which he could make a shoe to be fitted on the shear. The metallic shoe will increase the life of the plough manifold. The rear portion of the shear has many years left. Finally, the metal used for suspension in the automobile was found to have the right combination of strength, weight, torque and durability. The point is that intuitively the local artisans and farmers have been doing some kind of material science research but, their choices are limited, their repertoire restricted and therefore the outcomes may be sub-optimal."

  • Economic Times: "When grassroots innovation goes global" (04.03.2011)

    "Mansukhbhai Prajapati, a potter living in rural Gujarat, is completely untaught in English. But the lack of formal education has not hindered this grassroots entrepreneur from building a thriving business using just clay. Prajapati, who belongs to Nichimandal, a village in Rajkot, Gujarat, is the founder of Mitticool Clay Creation, a company that makes refrigerators, water filters, cookers, hot plates and other such items of daily use from clay."

  • The Furrow: "Walking the path of knowledge" (Issue 1.2011, download courtsey sristi.org)

    "Necessity is the mother of invention. An Indian economics professor seeks out innovations where few would expect to find them: among small farmers in remote regions."

  • Change Observer: "Finding Innovation in Every Corner" (02.08.2010)

    "Indian management expert Anil Gupta seeks to reduce poverty by championing those who are knowledge-rich though rupee-poor."

  • Rediff: "Over 100,000 innovations from rural Indian school dropouts!" (01.07.2010)

    "A cycle that runs on water and land, a scooter-powered flour mill, a solar mosquito killer, a cycle-powered washing machine -- these are just a few of the over 100,000 outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and poor people from rural India. Although some of the innovations, like the powered-flour mill made a debut in the film 3 Idiots, a good majority of these brilliant ideas and products are yet to be recognised across the country. Thanks to the relentless efforts of the National Innovation Foundation, under the guidance of Professor Anil K Gupta, these innovations are changing the stereotype perceptions of rural India, which is a picture of poverty and degradation."

  • Asia Times: "India's rural inventors drive change" (29.01.2010)

    "Mansukh Prajapati invented a first-of-a-kind refrigerator that is made out of terracotta, works without electricity, costs US$53 and is selling in the thousands. It's a sample of an innovation wave from rural and small-town India enriching the world with common-sense products. Anil Gupta, a professor at India's premier business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, leads a pioneering tribe of technocrats working for no-frills change at the mass level, by harnessing knowledge wealth from economically weaker sections of society. "Being economically poor does not mean being knowledge-poor," Gupta told Asia Times Online. "But the poor who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid are often considered as being at the bottom of the knowledge pyramid as well. Nothing could be further from the truth.""

  • Wall Street Journal: "Questions and Answers: Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta " (24.09.2009)

    "Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, vice chairman of National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and founder of the Honey Bee Network, a knowledge network for augmenting grassroots innovation, has been diligently scouting for and documenting traditional practices as well as encouraging technologies in rural India since establishing this initiative in 1989. His efforts, which promote and cross-pollinate grassroots entrepreneurships, have resulted in more than 120,000 inventions so far. Prof. Gupta is also a top faculty at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, one of the best business schools in the country, for nearly three decades. Edited excerpts from an interview with Jyoti Malhotra for The Wall Street Journal."

  • Chicago Tribune: "India Nurturing Homegrown Ideas" (06.08.2007, available at nextbillion.net)

    "A little seed money has helped to unleash the potential of this rural nation's many back-yard inventors. IMPHAL, India. Uddhab Bharali wanted to be a mechanical engineer. But before he could get a college degree, his father developed asthma and could no longer work. The youth decided to start manufacturing plastic bags to support his family. But the machine he needed cost $12,500, five times what he had in savings. So he built his own. Twenty years later, he has invented 65 machines designed to do everything from peel garlic to extract the fleshy seeds from pomegranates. Orders -- and appeals for new inventions -- have poured in from as far away as Los Angeles. "After I made that first machine, I knew I could do anything," said the diminutive 42-year-old, who still lives in North Lakhimpur, a modest town in India's remote northeast. "Now there are a lot of problems people want me to solve.""

  • Science and Development Network: "How local knowledge can boost scientific studies" (15.03.2007)

    "More should be done to build bridges between formal scientific research and informal grassroots innovations, says Anil Gupta."

  • BBC News: "The walk to find knowledge" (20.01.2007)

    "Although India is experiencing huge economic growth, it is also a place where 700 million people still live in the countryside, a world away from the nation's newly acquired shiny image. But among this vast rural population lies a wealth of wisdom and expertise that has a value all of its own."

  • Business Standard: "Grassroot innovations help fetch Rs 10 cr" (24.02.2006)

    "The grassroot-level innovations unearthed by Ahmedabad-based National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has managed to attract entrepreneurs to market their innovations commercially and fetch Rs 10 crore. “We have about 50,000 innovations and traditional knowledge at NIF,” Anil Gupta executive vice president of NIF told Business Standard. About 30 small companies and individual entrepreneurs have shown interest to market these innovations, he added. He was speaking at the previewing of ‘Beyond Tomorrow’ a series of Discovery channel that will showcase the innovations."

  • Times of India: "Grassroot innovations discovered" (17.02.2006)

    "Necessity is the mother of innovation sounds true when you see a small windmill acting as a mobile charger, pedal-operated washing machine, amphibious bicycle and nonstick clay frying pans being invented by people from the interiors of India with a little or no knowledge of science. Discovery Channel, in its 18-part series named 'Beyond Tomorrow', has included the Indian grassroot innovators along with inventors of Aquada, robot doctor, hand held translators and others. Discovery Networks MD, Deepak Shourie said, "mind is limitless in its abilities to innovate."

  • Business Line: "The 'Discovery' of India's grassroots innovators" (17.02.2006)

    "To showcase Indian and global innovations, Discovery Channel will be airing a new programme, `Beyond Tomorrow,' where it will televise novel ideas that have been transformed into fully operational machines. Numerous grassroots innovations that have taken place in India will also be highlighted on the show. Fabrications that serve day-to-day needs will be featured. One such innovation is the amphibious bicycle, designed by Mr Mohammad Saidullah, from Bihar — a conventional bicycle that can be modified to cross ponds and water bodies. It can also be used during floods. "

  • BBC News: "A hive of ideas" (11.01.2006)

    "The Honey Bee Network is one of the most remarkable organisations on earth, and if you have never heard of it, then you probably ought to have done."

  • BBC News: "Successes in rural inventions" (08.07.2005)

    "Mansukhbhai Jagani is not your typical inventor. He dropped out of school at the age of 10 due to financial hardship. After working at the family farm in India's western state of Gujarat, he moved to Surat to work in the diamond-cutting industry there. At 18, Mr Jagani returned to his village without much hope for the future. But in the 22 years since, he has chalked up three inventions - a motorcycle-driven field cultivator, a seed-cum-fertiliser dispenser and a bicycle-mounted sprayer. The appeal of the products lies in their simplicity."

  • Business Week: "THE STARS OF ASIA -- OPINION SHAPERS: Anil Gupta Business professor, Indian Institute of Management " (02.07.2001)

    "[...] Gupta is best-known for his extracurricular activities. An economist from northern India, he founded the Society for Research & Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies & Institutions (SRISTI). Its task: to help peasants register patents for innovations devised in their daily work. SRISTI has registered more than 10,000 innovations, ranging from an affordable, herbal pesticide to a tilting cart used for distributing compost."

  • ILEIA Newsletter: "Grassroots innovations for survival" (Vol. 16, Issue 2, July 2000)

    "Mansukhbhai Jagani is not your typical inventor. He dropped out of school at the age of 10 due to financial hardship. After working at the family farm in India's western state of Gujarat, he moved to Surat to work in the diamond-cutting industry there. At 18, Mr Jagani returned to his village without much hope for the future. But in the 22 years since, he has chalked up three inventions - a motorcycle-driven field cultivator, a seed-cum-fertiliser dispenser and a bicycle-mounted sprayer. The appeal of the products lies in their simplicity."

German German

  • Moneta : "Wissen sammeln und weitergeben" (22.06.2011)

    "Nicht nur Worte verbreiten, auch Taten zeigen: Ein indischer Wirtschaftsprofessor sucht Innovationen dort, wo sie die wenigsten vermuten: bei Kleinbauern in entlegenen Regionen. Und er gibt sein gesammeltes Wissen auch gleich weiter."


  • Flur und Furche: "Wandern auf dem Pfad der Erkenntnis" (Frühling 2011)

    "Not macht erfinderisch. Ein indischer Wirtschaftsprofessor sucht Innovationen dort, wo sie die Wenigsten vermuten: bei den Kleinbauern entlegener Regionen."


  • Frankenpost: "Kostbares Wissen der Armen" (15.02.2011)

    "Der Selber Tierarzt Martin Joos hat den indischen Professor Anil Gupta bei einer Erkundungstour begleitet. Lange Märsche führen die Gruppe auch in die entlegensten Dörfer."


  • Financial Times Deutschland : "Ideensucher auf dem Dorf: Indiens Patentspürnase" (14.02.2011)

    "Er sucht Ideen, wo andere nur Hunger sehen: Zu Fuß zieht der Wirtschaftsprofessor Anil Gupta durch Indien, studiert die Erfindungen der Dorfbewohner und verbreitet sie unter den Armen. Manche verkauft er sogar in den Westen."


    [ erschien auch im Capital, 17.03.2011 (auch as PDF) ]

  • GEO Magazin: "Indien: Das kostbare Wissen der Armen" (Nr. 11/09)

    "Anil Gupta ist Dozent an der angesehensten Wirtschaftsuniversität Indiens. Sein Spezialgebiet: technische Innovationen. Die sucht er ausgerechnet dort, wo seine Kollegen nur Rückständigkeit und Hilflosigkeit vermuten - in den entlegensten Dörfern des Landes."

  • Die Zeit : "Erfinder Der Weg zur Erkenntnis" (27.04.2008)

    "Jedes Jahr marschiert der indische Wirtschaftsprofessor Anil Gupta mit seinen Anhängern durch die ärmsten Regionen Indiens. Er will Erfindungen aufspüren und den Armen helfen, ihr Wissen zu verbreiten. Die Menschen empfangen Gupta wie einen Gandhi der Technik. Nun soll aus dem Marsch eine Weltbewegung werden."


  • Der Spiegel: "Erfindungen in Indien: Gandhi der Technik" (19.04.2008)

    "Jedes Jahr marschiert der indische Wirtschaftsprofessor Anil Gupta durch die ärmsten Regionen Indiens - um das Wissen der Armen zu verbreiten und ihre Erfindungen aufzuspüren. Für die Menschen dort ist er wie ein Gandhi der Technik. Nun soll aus dem Marsch eine Weltbewegung werden."