Innovation support eco-system: what can state governments do
Yesterday, in a meeting organised at Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Chief Minister announced a state level fund to support innovations by farmers. ICAR, PPVFRA, Haryana Kisan Ayog, and several other institutions were involved in honouring farmer breeders of crops and horticultural varieties and innovative practices. Not surprisingly, there were creative farmers from Gujarat also honoured on the occasion through NIF. What are the key building blocks which various states can put in place to harness the creativity at grassroots? Next week, I will share the institutional interventions that China is making to augment creativity at grassroots.
One of the first thing that needs to be done is to create hunger for innovations at all levels, in formal as well as informal system. One of the drivers of innovations is to reduce unit costs per year. Thus if making a KM of road costed say 2 crores rupees, then next year, it should cost say 1.8 or 1.6 crores by various creative improvements. Tamilnadu, Uttrakhand and some other states have used a simple technology developed indigenously which is to mix 5 to 10 per cent powdered waste plastic with bitumen to make roads that are cheaper, last longer and are better for vehicular traffic. But such innovations will not diffuse if there was no incentive to reduce unit cost and no body tracked , recognised and rewarded such steps.
Second step is to create institutional memory for innovations at different levels and in various sectors. Most public but even private institutions don’t have a file on the table of CEO listing various ideas tried successfully or otherwise in the last week, month or year, forget, decade.
Third is to create competition for identifying the new ideas and also using new ideas. It is not enough to scout innovations, it is also important to test, and replicate them. Today there is a crisis of water in most parts of the country and the world. It is obvious that we should be encouraging new innovations and experimentation to conserve, augment and distribute water efficiently. Harbhajan Singh, a farmer from Haryana was awarded for developing a simple alternate-row irrigation system for cotton. It reduced water requirement by half and incidentally also reduced pest control expenditure. When farmers use excessive water , the plants become succulent and pest find them very nice to eat.
Fourth, overcome the inertia caused by NIH ( not invented here) complex. Is it necessary that all good ideas should occur to one leader, CM, ceo or PM? Why should not we learn from any one? After all, this country has a tradition of learning even from Ravan, then why shyness in learning from those whose face you don’t like?
Fifth, we should accept that there no one institution has all the resources that are necessary to take ideas forward. Collaboration is the key to future transformation. Some of the fiercest corporate rivals are learning to cooperate on some issues while competing on others. What gives us a feeling that we can manage without that strategy. But then Columbus in us wants to discover a way forward our own way, even if we have made all the wrong calculations, as Columbus had done.
Six, having identified the need for cooperation, we should take urgent steps to recognise the merit of challenging young students with technical, managerial, institutional, cultural problems in our society which are proving to be difficult to solve. Techpedia.in has provided one model but even in that, many secretaries to state governments and VCs of universities feel that they will do it their way. Which is fine but is there any alternative to pooling all the information of projects done by students so that search cost of a student selecting a problem to work on can be reduced? Should any Indian or for that matter youth anywhere, be doing things that have been done already without some distinct improvement or novelty? Let us accept an idea till we can come out with better, more frugal and viable idea.
Seven, most states have huge resources and so has central government but when it comes to financial support for product/service development, testing, certification, market testing, and diffusion through non market or market channels. I am intrigued by the anti-bodies our polity has for supporting entrepreneurial initiatives of youth. Why can not a five crore rupees innovation promotion fund is created by each state government to support local innovative initiatives in education, technology, agriculture, transport, construction, culture, common property management, climate change adaptation, nurturing children ideas, and delivery of private services? Each state government can ask local entrepreneurs for contributing to such a fund and also help in implementing it. Last year , I visited chambers of commerce in Warangal, Jamnagar and Rajkot, Surat and appealed to local traders, industrialists and other leaders to create one crore social venture/angel fund to promote creativity of youth in their own district. But have not succeeded o far. But I am sure only way we can get over the government’s tendency to make people dependent upon the state largesse is by unleashing knowledge and technology based entrepreneurial revolution in the country.
Eight, education is a state subject and yet no state government has yet included any lesson based on local innovations in course curriculum at any level, school or college. There is one exception though. Uttrakhand has included a lesson based on the life of jungliji in eighth class book. In a decade of innovation, such a silence on this aspect is rather intriguing.
Ninth, the challenge awards for persistent problems are still missing except a recent initiative taken by NInC (in which the amount of the award is not mentioned though). Despite Gandhiji announcing one lac rs award in 1929, for making improvements in charkha design (present value will be about ten crores rupees), why don’t state governments announce awards say for adding in situ value to forest produce or for designing paddy transplanter? i can understand why central government will spend 100,000 crores on food subsidy but not even 100 crore on grassroots innovations, which will obviate the need for such subsidy in future. But hesitation of state government is difficult to understand.
I hope that new year will help us turn a new leaf and we will start responding to creative aspiration of youth and others in formal and informal sector with greater alacrity, less hesitation and higher dedication.
Anil K Gupta
