Anil K Gupta

A unique academic network nurtures innovation among India's poor

By SHAILAJA NEELAKANTAN

Ahmedabad, India

Mansukhbhai Patel, a hard-working farmer with a 10th-grade
education, has revolutionized the cotton industry here in the western
Indian state of Gujarat. Had it not been for a chance meeting with a
college student, the cotton-stripping machine Mr. Patel invented might
never have been a success.

NecessityMeets Creativity Award Finalists Include Some WhoMade Old Things New Again

FORGET, FOR A moment, the idea that an innovation has to be something new, either in terms of the problem it solves or when it was invented. Just ask Mohammad Saidullah, an Indian honey seller in his 60s, who has been peddling his amphibious bicycle around the flood-prone plains of Bihar— and once or twice across the Ganges—for the past 30 years. It’s not much to look at—a sky-blue tangle of spokes, paddles and wooden floats—but it has finally gotten some recognition. Discovered by an Indian organization called the Honey Bee network, which collects data on such initiatives via a web of students, nongovernment groups and volunteers, his contraption earned Mr. Saidullah a life-time achievement award in January from India’s National Innovation Foundation. And now he’s one of 12 finalists for this year’s Asian Innovation Awards, presented by The Asian Wall Street Journal in association with Global Entrepolis@Singapore. 

Knowledge can be produced by individuals or groups and can be governed by private (proprietary), community and public domain. Likewise, the resources around which knowledge is developed can also be governed by private, community or public property rights.

No degrees please, they’re Indians. In the heartland, they write new chapters in R&D simply by thinking out of the box. Sonu Jain plays guide on a rural innovation roadtrip

Professor Anil Gupta is taking a break from classes at IIM Ahmedabad. For the last 10 days, he has been scouring villages in Himachal with a bunch of students, teachers and scientists. He calls it shodhyatra, journey of exploration.

Twice a year, in winter and summer, the team he leads covers nearly 200 km on foot. The aim is two-fold: Sharing their scientific knowledge with villagers and sniffing out that hidden innovation in a place that may not have a road, electricity or school, but has a thinking mind. A grassroots innovator, a person who overcomes a technical challenge on his own, without any assistance from the formal scientific system in the country.

In the wake of globalisation, why should one pay attention to grassroot innovations? Does it matter if someone in a rural area has designed a mechanical coconut husker that simplifies the task? A grassroot innovator from Madurai has created a machine to peel garlic without damaging its quality. And entrepreneurs from Pakistan want to buy it. Another one from Singapore read about an arecanut peeler on the National Innovation Foundation website and placed an order.

More than 50,000 innovations and traditional knowledge scouted across 300 districts of India by the NIF, largely with Honey Bee Network's help, is not a mean achievement.

By Ashish Mehta, Indo-Asian News Service

Ahmedabad, June 15 (IANS) Whoever said women and science don't go together! A new study claims that women make better scientists than men and recommends more representation for them in the field.

"Women in formal and informal science," a research paper authored by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) director general R.A. Mashelkar, rebukes prejudiced views of the male-dominated world of scientific research.

In the process, they indirectly challenge Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers' controversial remarks that women are less suited to science, which sparked a worldwide debate earlier this year.

Anil Gupta is an anti-poverty activist and enthusiastic supporter of India's grassroots innovators. 15 years ago he launched the Honey Bee Network, an organization that he says champions "knowledge rich, economically poor people" by helping them protect their IP rights while linking them with the entrepreneurs and investors who can help commercialize their ideas. He is a member of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Biodiversity Authority, the body set up under the Biological Diversity Act to control access to India's biological resources.

How do you define traditional knowledge?