Towards Making India Innovative.......

Shri K C Pant

Dy Chair, Planning Commission, New Delhi

It gives me great satisfaction to learn about the progress National Innovation Foundation has made within a year and a half of its existence. When we started discussion in Planning Commission about Making India a Knowledge Society, we were quite conscious of the need to harness knowledge, innovations and practices that common people produce through their own genius. NIF has provided a much needed platform to such unsung heroes and heroines of our society who have solved a technological problem unaided, through their own experiments and innovations or by drawing upon traditional knowledge reserve in a creative manner. 

I compliment Department of Science and Technology, whose Secretary Prof.V.S.Ramamurthy is present here, on establishing NIF and supporting its activities in such a wholesome manner. DST has been having several programs dealing with science and society to ensure that science and technological inputs don't remain confined to only formal sector but become accessible to informal sector. NIF makes it possible for building further bridges between excellence in formal and informal science and technology which will strengthen both systems of knowledge and innovations. 

Dr. Mashelkar, Chairperson NIF and Secretary, DSIR is known to be the best champion we have of indigenous creative and innovative mind of India. His vision for NIF demonstrates what can be accomplished through a society wide mobilisational strategy. The support of Honey bee network built over last twelve years has provided NIF an ability to jump start the process of building a National Register of Grassroots Innovations and outstanding Traditional Knowledge. 

Such a register will reduce transaction costs of potential researchers, students, entrepreneurs, investors not just in India but all around the world. Already I am told that entrepreneurs from Egypt, UK, and Malaysia have approached NIF, and Honey Bee Network to license grassroots technologies with appropriate sharing of benefits. Voluntary help from IPR lawyers with in India and abroad has helped file patents on behalf of some of the winners of the first annual award function. Students from NID, IITs and even MIT at Boston have started working with grassroots innovators to develop better design, technology, business plan etc. It is obvious that the process of value chain augmentation, triggered by NIF will require much greater help from a large number of S and T institutions in the country. I have no doubt that with the help of DST, CSIR, and ICAR, and other scientific and technological institutions, NIF would be able to facilitate larger scale replication of grassroots innovations. This will help in improving efficiency, reducing drudgery and widening the livelihood options of people. In some cases, innovations for energy conservation may help save the energy costs. I am struck by the fact that larger number of innovations has emerged where irrigation pumps driven by human, bullock, diesel or electricity have been improved with a multi fuel option.

The newly enacted Plant Variety and Farmers' Right Act would go a long way in protecting the rights of the farmer breeders. Herbal drugs is another category in which awards have been given and hopefully these drugs will help improve the efficiency of health care system for the masses. 

I am very happy to learn that NIF is setting up four more GIANs (Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network) in different parts of the country to act as incubators for converting innovations into enterprises. Planning Commission would certainly be interested in keeping track of this experiment so that it could be replicated more widely in coming years. We need not just five but several hundred incubators all over the country to speed up the pace of technological and consequent socio-economic change. 

Planning Commission has envisaged a very ambitious growth target in the next five year plan and I hope that a small initiatives like that of NIF would make a bigger difference in boosting the confidence of society at large to solve its long pending problems through its own initiative, innovation and institutions.

It is this spirit of self-reliance that Gandhiji always emphasized and we need to learn from.

I wish all the success to the NIF team, which has put in tremendous efforts in organizing the First National Campaign for scouting innovations. I hope their second campaign would succeed even more and help in uncovering more and more technological talent of our country. I also hope that there will be more women innovators recognized for their contribution next year. 

Thank you.