Shabad Pratihast and David Rousseau, PGP-2 students at IIM Calcutta have made this wonderful video case on bottom of pyramid titled, " View from the bottom" which depicts the challenges in the life of a poor contract worker.Here are the links to the videos:
1st part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo0fuWPXnA4
2nd part :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZdTwizScd0
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Young innovators give low-cost healthcare solutions
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_young-innovators-give-low-cost-healthcare-solutions_1480146
The challenge was to find noble, affordable and accessible healthcare solutions to millions of rural Indians and a group of young innovatorsproved that intelligent combination of science and technology can solve looming healthcare crises.
Ten teams from top engineering institutes came together on Friday to showcase innovative ideas pertaining to rural healthcare solutions at the campus of GE John F Welch Technology Centre at the Edison Challenge 2010.
Team Deja-BHU from Institute of Technology under Benaras Hindu Universitywon the first prize for creating a concept with the help of which paucity of doctors in rural areas could be solved. The team devised an adaptive, case-based screening technique ‘virtual doctor’ to reduce load on medical staff.
Teams IWANJAU from Sri Jayachamrajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, and New Age Innovators from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, won the second and third prizes, respectively. The Employees’ Choice award was given to team Thinkers, again from IIT-Kharagpur.
While IWANJAU came up with an ‘infant warmer’, New Age Innovators created an ‘incubator’, both low-cost which could help in reducing the infant mortality rate.
Thinkers created a low-cost solution to diagnose tuberculosis with the help of a stethoscope to detect whether a person has tuberculosis by measuring the rate of his right lung.
All the innovations were given prizes worth Rs5,000.
Hundred teams across the country submitted their proposals for the Edison Challenge 2010. Ten teams made it to the finals. The finalists included five teams from IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Mumbai, Institute of Technology under BHU, two teams from Sastra University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and Sri Jayachamrajendra College of Engineering from Mysore.
The theme of the third edition of science and engineering competition was ‘Enabling rural healthcare’. The teams were asked to provide noble technological solutions which are noble, affordable and accessible to be made available at public health centres in villages.
The winning team of the Edison Challenge 2010 received a cash prize of Rs5 lakh. Three major healthcare challenges — tuberculosis diagnosis, infant care solution and early screening for cardiovascular disease — faced by rural India were the subjects on which young technocrats tried to provide solution.
Among the criteria on which the teams were judged were innovation and novelty, feasibility of idea and customer value/commercialisation.
“I am highly impressed by the innovative solutions brought by the students here. All the participants are highly motivated,” said Dr AS Rao, director-innovations, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), who was one of the judges at the event.
“The area of affordable and accessible rural healthcare solutions is something bothering everyone. I am happy that young students have identified the problem areas and tried to bring some innovative solutions.”
The three other judges were Dr Uday Patil, consultant radiologist, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, Dr Mano Manoharan, general manager, GE Global Research, and Karan Verma, manager, Maternal and Infant Care, GE Healthcare.
“The Edison Challenge this year is to design an innovative technological solution to address healthcare challenges faced in rural areas. We are also looking for innovative ideas,” said Manoharan.
“We are also giving a platform for youth to look at some of the real time issues of the country and provide solution through the help of science and technology.”
Rural healthcare is a serious issue the country is facing today. Most of the rural inhabitants of the country do not have accessible and affordable healthcare solutions.
At a time when 70% of the Indian population is staying in rural areas, only 20% of medicos are working in the country’s hinterland.
The challenge was to find noble, affordable and accessible healthcare solutions to millions of rural Indians and a group of young innovatorsproved that intelligent combination of science and technology can solve looming healthcare crises.
Ten teams from top engineering institutes came together on Friday to showcase innovative ideas pertaining to rural healthcare solutions at the campus of GE John F Welch Technology Centre at the Edison Challenge 2010.
Team Deja-BHU from Institute of Technology under Benaras Hindu Universitywon the first prize for creating a concept with the help of which paucity of doctors in rural areas could be solved. The team devised an adaptive, case-based screening technique ‘virtual doctor’ to reduce load on medical staff.
Teams IWANJAU from Sri Jayachamrajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, and New Age Innovators from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, won the second and third prizes, respectively. The Employees’ Choice award was given to team Thinkers, again from IIT-Kharagpur.
While IWANJAU came up with an ‘infant warmer’, New Age Innovators created an ‘incubator’, both low-cost which could help in reducing the infant mortality rate.
Thinkers created a low-cost solution to diagnose tuberculosis with the help of a stethoscope to detect whether a person has tuberculosis by measuring the rate of his right lung.
All the innovations were given prizes worth Rs5,000.
Hundred teams across the country submitted their proposals for the Edison Challenge 2010. Ten teams made it to the finals. The finalists included five teams from IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Mumbai, Institute of Technology under BHU, two teams from Sastra University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and Sri Jayachamrajendra College of Engineering from Mysore.
The theme of the third edition of science and engineering competition was ‘Enabling rural healthcare’. The teams were asked to provide noble technological solutions which are noble, affordable and accessible to be made available at public health centres in villages.
The winning team of the Edison Challenge 2010 received a cash prize of Rs5 lakh. Three major healthcare challenges — tuberculosis diagnosis, infant care solution and early screening for cardiovascular disease — faced by rural India were the subjects on which young technocrats tried to provide solution.
Among the criteria on which the teams were judged were innovation and novelty, feasibility of idea and customer value/commercialisation.
“I am highly impressed by the innovative solutions brought by the students here. All the participants are highly motivated,” said Dr AS Rao, director-innovations, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), who was one of the judges at the event.
“The area of affordable and accessible rural healthcare solutions is something bothering everyone. I am happy that young students have identified the problem areas and tried to bring some innovative solutions.”
The three other judges were Dr Uday Patil, consultant radiologist, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, Dr Mano Manoharan, general manager, GE Global Research, and Karan Verma, manager, Maternal and Infant Care, GE Healthcare.
“The Edison Challenge this year is to design an innovative technological solution to address healthcare challenges faced in rural areas. We are also looking for innovative ideas,” said Manoharan.
“We are also giving a platform for youth to look at some of the real time issues of the country and provide solution through the help of science and technology.”
Rural healthcare is a serious issue the country is facing today. Most of the rural inhabitants of the country do not have accessible and affordable healthcare solutions.
At a time when 70% of the Indian population is staying in rural areas, only 20% of medicos are working in the country’s hinterland.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Mobile-Phone Farming from TCS
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703846604575447420497483404-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNzEyNDcyWj.html
Which pesticide will protect my crops?
It's a question most farmers in insect-ridden rural India ask themselves or their neighbors. But it's also a question to which very few have the correct answer.
What's the best fertilizer? How do you get rid of bugs? India's farmers long had only their neighbors to turn to. A mobile platform by Tata Consultancy Services is changing that, providing personalized advice through low-end handsets.
That was the inspiration behind mKRISHI, a platform developed by Tata Consultancy Services to provide personalized advice to Indian farmers on low-end mobile phones. TCS, an Asian Innovation Awards finalist, spent two years studying farming patterns in rural India and developing methods to connect farmers to agricultural experts, with the belief that technology could jump-start some of India's seemingly ancient agricultural practices.
"It appears that there is a last-mile gap between farmers and agricultural experts," said Arun Pande, the head of TCS Innovation Labs and the leader behind mKRISHI. "In the absence of correct information and advice which is specific to him, the farmer relies on what other farmers do—or on his traditional wisdom."
In 2007, Mr. Pande traveled through different parts of rural India to meet farmers and understand their business. After listening to their concerns—Will it rain enough in my village this season? Will my crop catch my neighbor's crop disease? Where can I take out a loan?—he saw the opportunity to grow that business by providing personalized responses to such questions.
"If one analyzes the questions, one finds them to be quite specific to a farmer's immediate environment and context," Mr. Pande said. "Hence, the information or advice given should be personalized to his need."
MKRISHI, whose name combines "m" for "mobile" and "krishi," which refers to agriculture in many Indian languages, costs a farmer between $1 and $2 a month. TCS partners with wireless operators to allow farmers to download the platform on high-end phones, and TCS has set up "mini-mobile sites" that farmers can visit to have the platform installed on low-end phones.
The platform's technology not only allows farmers to submit questions to experts, but also provides environment-specific details that give the experts a kind of agricultural map of the issue at hand. For example, when a farmer enters his location on mKRISHI, agricultural sensors connect to geo-location services like GPS and Google Earth to deliver local weather, soil conditions, common pests and food-grain prices to the expert on the other end. Farmers can also attach photos if they have mobile cameras.
"The mobile phone overcomes the lack of power and wire-line communication infrastructure in rural areas, enabling farmers to get advice one-on-one from experts," Mr. Pande said.
The experts, who have at least two years of agricultural study or experience, access mKRISHI on the Web, where each query is automatically assigned an identification number and an "Open" status. Six experts—two in Punjab and four in Uttar Pradesh—currently work on mKRISHI, but Mr. Pande said only 5% to 10% of questions are complex enough to merit consultation with an expert.
"We plan to provide expert system tools to agriculture workers to improve quality of their advice, and we provide FAQ and best practices on the farmer's mobile phone," Mr. Pande said. "This reduces the number of routine queries coming to the expert for response.
"Once the number of farmers and number of queries increase, we plan to involve agricultural workers with three to five years of field experience," he added.
Kamaldeep Singh, an expert since July 2009 and a research fellow at Punjab Agricultural University, works on mKRISHI on a daily basis. He calls the platform a "constant collaboration" between farmers and experts, rather than a one-time or one-way service.
"Whenever a question arrives, I answer it within six hours," Mr. Singh said. "Every day, I receive voice messages from farmers through the Internet."
TCS launched mKRISHI in 2009 in the agricultural states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where it now serves about 500 farmers. But TCS believes at least 1,000 farmers benefit via the farmers' social networks.
"It is very much helpful if they use this practice collaboratively," said Mr. Singh. "If they have knowledge, they will go to pesticide sellers and tell them, 'That chemical we require; that one we do not require.'"
Still, it's still only the beginning for mKRISHI—a "limited commercial launch," Mr. Pande says. Eventually, TCS hopes to partner with other major IT companies "and generate thousands of micro enterprises in villages" serving 50,000 farmers. Besides improving the platform with new tools, TCS sees its responsibility as playing "the leadership role in creating a consortium of partners and facilitating village entrepreneurship," Mr. Pande said.
To that end, the 58-year-old entrepreneur hopes soon to take mKRISHI abroad. So far, TCS has been invited to the Philippines and Ghana to demonstrate the platform in local languages.
"Farmers should feel secure knowing that they can get in touch with an expert anytime, anywhere," Mr. Pande said.
Which pesticide will protect my crops?
It's a question most farmers in insect-ridden rural India ask themselves or their neighbors. But it's also a question to which very few have the correct answer.
What's the best fertilizer? How do you get rid of bugs? India's farmers long had only their neighbors to turn to. A mobile platform by Tata Consultancy Services is changing that, providing personalized advice through low-end handsets.
That was the inspiration behind mKRISHI, a platform developed by Tata Consultancy Services to provide personalized advice to Indian farmers on low-end mobile phones. TCS, an Asian Innovation Awards finalist, spent two years studying farming patterns in rural India and developing methods to connect farmers to agricultural experts, with the belief that technology could jump-start some of India's seemingly ancient agricultural practices.
"It appears that there is a last-mile gap between farmers and agricultural experts," said Arun Pande, the head of TCS Innovation Labs and the leader behind mKRISHI. "In the absence of correct information and advice which is specific to him, the farmer relies on what other farmers do—or on his traditional wisdom."
In 2007, Mr. Pande traveled through different parts of rural India to meet farmers and understand their business. After listening to their concerns—Will it rain enough in my village this season? Will my crop catch my neighbor's crop disease? Where can I take out a loan?—he saw the opportunity to grow that business by providing personalized responses to such questions.
"If one analyzes the questions, one finds them to be quite specific to a farmer's immediate environment and context," Mr. Pande said. "Hence, the information or advice given should be personalized to his need."
MKRISHI, whose name combines "m" for "mobile" and "krishi," which refers to agriculture in many Indian languages, costs a farmer between $1 and $2 a month. TCS partners with wireless operators to allow farmers to download the platform on high-end phones, and TCS has set up "mini-mobile sites" that farmers can visit to have the platform installed on low-end phones.
The platform's technology not only allows farmers to submit questions to experts, but also provides environment-specific details that give the experts a kind of agricultural map of the issue at hand. For example, when a farmer enters his location on mKRISHI, agricultural sensors connect to geo-location services like GPS and Google Earth to deliver local weather, soil conditions, common pests and food-grain prices to the expert on the other end. Farmers can also attach photos if they have mobile cameras.
"The mobile phone overcomes the lack of power and wire-line communication infrastructure in rural areas, enabling farmers to get advice one-on-one from experts," Mr. Pande said.
The experts, who have at least two years of agricultural study or experience, access mKRISHI on the Web, where each query is automatically assigned an identification number and an "Open" status. Six experts—two in Punjab and four in Uttar Pradesh—currently work on mKRISHI, but Mr. Pande said only 5% to 10% of questions are complex enough to merit consultation with an expert.
"We plan to provide expert system tools to agriculture workers to improve quality of their advice, and we provide FAQ and best practices on the farmer's mobile phone," Mr. Pande said. "This reduces the number of routine queries coming to the expert for response.
"Once the number of farmers and number of queries increase, we plan to involve agricultural workers with three to five years of field experience," he added.
Kamaldeep Singh, an expert since July 2009 and a research fellow at Punjab Agricultural University, works on mKRISHI on a daily basis. He calls the platform a "constant collaboration" between farmers and experts, rather than a one-time or one-way service.
"Whenever a question arrives, I answer it within six hours," Mr. Singh said. "Every day, I receive voice messages from farmers through the Internet."
TCS launched mKRISHI in 2009 in the agricultural states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where it now serves about 500 farmers. But TCS believes at least 1,000 farmers benefit via the farmers' social networks.
"It is very much helpful if they use this practice collaboratively," said Mr. Singh. "If they have knowledge, they will go to pesticide sellers and tell them, 'That chemical we require; that one we do not require.'"
Still, it's still only the beginning for mKRISHI—a "limited commercial launch," Mr. Pande says. Eventually, TCS hopes to partner with other major IT companies "and generate thousands of micro enterprises in villages" serving 50,000 farmers. Besides improving the platform with new tools, TCS sees its responsibility as playing "the leadership role in creating a consortium of partners and facilitating village entrepreneurship," Mr. Pande said.
To that end, the 58-year-old entrepreneur hopes soon to take mKRISHI abroad. So far, TCS has been invited to the Philippines and Ghana to demonstrate the platform in local languages.
"Farmers should feel secure knowing that they can get in touch with an expert anytime, anywhere," Mr. Pande said.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Mobile Service Targets Cambodia's 'Unbanked'
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703597204575484101756117656.html?mod=WSJ_article_related
How do you roll out a banking service in a place where most people don't have bank accounts?
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. tackled that question in developing WING, a banking and payment system it launched in Cambodia early last year.
In Phnom Penh, said Peter Dalton, ANZ's general manager for innovation, it's not uncommon for workers to send money to relatives in rural areas via a taxi-bound courier, which is risky as well as expensive. The Melbourne, Australia, bank estimates that only about 500,000 of the country's 14 million population have bank accounts, but "there is a need for saving and sending money," he said.
In addition to "unbanked" consumers, there are the "underbanked"—those who have bank accounts but don't have ready access to them because branches and automated teller machines are rare in many parts of the country, Mr. Dalton said.
A large number of Cambodians do have cellphones, though. WING works on four of the country's major mobile networks—hello, qb, Mfone and Smart Mobile—via a simple interface. Customers enter their account numbers and personal identification numbers, then see a menu of options that includes checking their balances, paying bills and sending money.
To send money, they enter the recipient's WING account number, or if the funds are going to someone who doesn't have a WING account, the person's mobile-phone number. (Funds are tied to the WING account, not the phone, so a customer won't lose his money even if his phone is lost or stolen.)
Recipients are notified by a text message when the transfer is complete. ANZ charges about 50 cents to send the equivalent of $20, a notable savings when compared with the $1 to $2 that Cambodian couriers typically cost.
There are now some 150,000 WING accounts, and Mr. Dalton said he wouldn't be surprised to see the service reach 200,000 customers by early next year. ANZ hasn't set a target number, however, he said. "We love the growth rates that we have now."
WING customers can access their accounts and send money through their phones.
In addition to the technological challenges of creating a mobile-payment service, ANZ had to figure out a cost-effective way to introduce it "to people who have never seen this before," he said. To do that, the company enlisted a fleet of 1,800 "pilots," part-time workers who sign up new customers and teach them how WING works. They receive a commission for each new sign-up and help spread the word about the program, often at markets and other high-traffic areas.
"There comes a time when you need cash," Mr. Dalton acknowledged, and that's where WING's Cash X-Press comes in. About 500 outlets are located throughout Cambodia's 24 provinces, and there WING customers can deposit and receive money through the service.
The Cash X-Press outlets, like the WING pilots, are another way of marketing the service, but they also help keep its costs down because they serve many of the same functions as ATMs, which are more expensive to build and maintain.
ANZ, which is working with its ANZ Royal subsidiary in Cambodia, plans to extend WING to support more types of billing, such as electricity and water, for its customers, and it hopes to offer the ability to transfer funds in other currencies, such as dollars.
It is also interested in getting local employers signed up to use the service. Cambodia's garment industry, for example, still largely pays workers in cash, which results in long lines on paydays, Mr. Dalton said. Using WING would allow an employer to pay its work force much faster and with fewer opportunities for error.
In addition to tapping a growing mobile-payment market, Mr. Dalton said WING promotes business development and a stronger understanding of how money works among its user base, particularly when it comes to saving. It also gives customers in poor areas an alternative to informal couriers and loans, which often carry high fees and theft risks.
"We think this is a service that encourages both economic and social development," he said. "You can actually generate more healthy economies."
How do you roll out a banking service in a place where most people don't have bank accounts?
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. tackled that question in developing WING, a banking and payment system it launched in Cambodia early last year.
In Phnom Penh, said Peter Dalton, ANZ's general manager for innovation, it's not uncommon for workers to send money to relatives in rural areas via a taxi-bound courier, which is risky as well as expensive. The Melbourne, Australia, bank estimates that only about 500,000 of the country's 14 million population have bank accounts, but "there is a need for saving and sending money," he said.
In addition to "unbanked" consumers, there are the "underbanked"—those who have bank accounts but don't have ready access to them because branches and automated teller machines are rare in many parts of the country, Mr. Dalton said.
A large number of Cambodians do have cellphones, though. WING works on four of the country's major mobile networks—hello, qb, Mfone and Smart Mobile—via a simple interface. Customers enter their account numbers and personal identification numbers, then see a menu of options that includes checking their balances, paying bills and sending money.
To send money, they enter the recipient's WING account number, or if the funds are going to someone who doesn't have a WING account, the person's mobile-phone number. (Funds are tied to the WING account, not the phone, so a customer won't lose his money even if his phone is lost or stolen.)
Recipients are notified by a text message when the transfer is complete. ANZ charges about 50 cents to send the equivalent of $20, a notable savings when compared with the $1 to $2 that Cambodian couriers typically cost.
There are now some 150,000 WING accounts, and Mr. Dalton said he wouldn't be surprised to see the service reach 200,000 customers by early next year. ANZ hasn't set a target number, however, he said. "We love the growth rates that we have now."
WING customers can access their accounts and send money through their phones.
In addition to the technological challenges of creating a mobile-payment service, ANZ had to figure out a cost-effective way to introduce it "to people who have never seen this before," he said. To do that, the company enlisted a fleet of 1,800 "pilots," part-time workers who sign up new customers and teach them how WING works. They receive a commission for each new sign-up and help spread the word about the program, often at markets and other high-traffic areas.
"There comes a time when you need cash," Mr. Dalton acknowledged, and that's where WING's Cash X-Press comes in. About 500 outlets are located throughout Cambodia's 24 provinces, and there WING customers can deposit and receive money through the service.
The Cash X-Press outlets, like the WING pilots, are another way of marketing the service, but they also help keep its costs down because they serve many of the same functions as ATMs, which are more expensive to build and maintain.
ANZ, which is working with its ANZ Royal subsidiary in Cambodia, plans to extend WING to support more types of billing, such as electricity and water, for its customers, and it hopes to offer the ability to transfer funds in other currencies, such as dollars.
It is also interested in getting local employers signed up to use the service. Cambodia's garment industry, for example, still largely pays workers in cash, which results in long lines on paydays, Mr. Dalton said. Using WING would allow an employer to pay its work force much faster and with fewer opportunities for error.
In addition to tapping a growing mobile-payment market, Mr. Dalton said WING promotes business development and a stronger understanding of how money works among its user base, particularly when it comes to saving. It also gives customers in poor areas an alternative to informal couriers and loans, which often carry high fees and theft risks.
"We think this is a service that encourages both economic and social development," he said. "You can actually generate more healthy economies."
Tata creates inexpensive water purifier
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704293604575343340396637802.html
MUMBAI—Thomas Edison, widely known as the father of the electrical age, would probably not have imagined that a product inspired by his most famous invention—the electric light bulb—would be one that wouldn't use electricity.
Tata's Swach (the Hindi word for clean) is a water filter that uses natural materials and nanotechnology to purify water, doesn't need electricity, meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency norms for bacteria and costs less than $22. It was inspired by Edison's electric bulb, but, unlike that invention, it was developed for consumers in rural India who don't always have access to electricity.
The Swach, which means "clean" in Hindi, purifies water with the aid of rice husk ash, a byproduct of making polished rice.
"Right from the beginning, we were very clear that this product had to be developed keeping in mind households that didn't have electricity," said Sabaleel Nandy, head of the water-purifier business at Tata Chemicals Ltd. "It was always meant to be a poor man's device."
When Tata Chemicals and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. first began work in 2006 on the idea of a water-purification system made up of natural materials, the brief given to the innovation team by R. Gopalakrishnan, vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, was: Do for drinking water what Edison did for lighting through his electric bulb.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan was inspired by the concept of an earlier water filter conceived and developed by Tata Research Development & Design Centre, the Pune-based R&D division of TCS. That filter used rice-husk ash, which is derived after burning rice husk or chaff, a byproduct of polished rice, as the main filtering component. The water filter, called Sujal, used a matrix of materials—such as rice-husk ash, pebbles, Portland cement, nylon mesh and sand—and screened out contaminants and sediments. But, with its purification capability being 85%, it didn't guarantee freedom from waterborne diseases.
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, wasn't satisfied. He wanted the company to develop a water purifier that was 100% safe. Enter Mr. Gopalakrishnan. He challenged his team to create a bulb-like water purifier that consumers could fix on any existing water-storage unit. Something that was high on functionality, low on cost and 100% safe.
The result: After four years of toil, Tata unveiled the Swach last December. In a country like India, this water-purification system may just prove to be a boon. In the year through March, electricity demand exceeded supply by 10.1%, according to the Central Electric Authority of India.
Mr. Nandy calls the the Swach "the world's lowest-cost water purifier," providing safe water at about 0.22 cents a liter, at a cost of just 999 rupees ($21.36) for the entire unit and 299 rupees for a refill cartridge.
The Swach's cartridge, a key component of the system, resembles Edison's electric bulb and is made up of a composite of rice-husk ash (a highly porous material derived out of paddy husk) and fine particles of nano-silver, which inhibits bacteria growth.
Just like an electric bulb, the cartridge also has a fuse. In this case, the fuse prevents water from passing through once its purifying capacity of 3,000 liters of water is exhausted.
According to a 2006 Unicef report, more than 125 million children under age 5, most from developing countries, live in households without access to a clean drinking-water source. Swach hopes to bridge this gap between technology and the basic human need of clean drinking water.
"There is no awareness about the need for filtration among most Indians, with a mere 6% of urban households and 1% of rural households using water purifiers," said Ashvini Hiran, chief operating officer at Tata Chemicals. "Hence, the potential of the Swach is immense."
The company commercially launched the Swach in January in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka and hopes to expand across India by the end of the year, reaching sales of a million units.
"With our product, we are hoping to target nonusers and those who couldn't afford water purifiers due to affordability reasons and lack of awareness," said Mr. Hiran. "And we hope to achieve that through our awareness programs."
MUMBAI—Thomas Edison, widely known as the father of the electrical age, would probably not have imagined that a product inspired by his most famous invention—the electric light bulb—would be one that wouldn't use electricity.
Tata's Swach (the Hindi word for clean) is a water filter that uses natural materials and nanotechnology to purify water, doesn't need electricity, meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency norms for bacteria and costs less than $22. It was inspired by Edison's electric bulb, but, unlike that invention, it was developed for consumers in rural India who don't always have access to electricity.
The Swach, which means "clean" in Hindi, purifies water with the aid of rice husk ash, a byproduct of making polished rice.
"Right from the beginning, we were very clear that this product had to be developed keeping in mind households that didn't have electricity," said Sabaleel Nandy, head of the water-purifier business at Tata Chemicals Ltd. "It was always meant to be a poor man's device."
When Tata Chemicals and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. first began work in 2006 on the idea of a water-purification system made up of natural materials, the brief given to the innovation team by R. Gopalakrishnan, vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, was: Do for drinking water what Edison did for lighting through his electric bulb.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan was inspired by the concept of an earlier water filter conceived and developed by Tata Research Development & Design Centre, the Pune-based R&D division of TCS. That filter used rice-husk ash, which is derived after burning rice husk or chaff, a byproduct of polished rice, as the main filtering component. The water filter, called Sujal, used a matrix of materials—such as rice-husk ash, pebbles, Portland cement, nylon mesh and sand—and screened out contaminants and sediments. But, with its purification capability being 85%, it didn't guarantee freedom from waterborne diseases.
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, wasn't satisfied. He wanted the company to develop a water purifier that was 100% safe. Enter Mr. Gopalakrishnan. He challenged his team to create a bulb-like water purifier that consumers could fix on any existing water-storage unit. Something that was high on functionality, low on cost and 100% safe.
The result: After four years of toil, Tata unveiled the Swach last December. In a country like India, this water-purification system may just prove to be a boon. In the year through March, electricity demand exceeded supply by 10.1%, according to the Central Electric Authority of India.
Mr. Nandy calls the the Swach "the world's lowest-cost water purifier," providing safe water at about 0.22 cents a liter, at a cost of just 999 rupees ($21.36) for the entire unit and 299 rupees for a refill cartridge.
The Swach's cartridge, a key component of the system, resembles Edison's electric bulb and is made up of a composite of rice-husk ash (a highly porous material derived out of paddy husk) and fine particles of nano-silver, which inhibits bacteria growth.
Just like an electric bulb, the cartridge also has a fuse. In this case, the fuse prevents water from passing through once its purifying capacity of 3,000 liters of water is exhausted.
According to a 2006 Unicef report, more than 125 million children under age 5, most from developing countries, live in households without access to a clean drinking-water source. Swach hopes to bridge this gap between technology and the basic human need of clean drinking water.
"There is no awareness about the need for filtration among most Indians, with a mere 6% of urban households and 1% of rural households using water purifiers," said Ashvini Hiran, chief operating officer at Tata Chemicals. "Hence, the potential of the Swach is immense."
The company commercially launched the Swach in January in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka and hopes to expand across India by the end of the year, reaching sales of a million units.
"With our product, we are hoping to target nonusers and those who couldn't afford water purifiers due to affordability reasons and lack of awareness," said Mr. Hiran. "And we hope to achieve that through our awareness programs."
Expanding Banking in India through new automated teller machines
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703700904575391460677186520-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html
A new automated teller machine aims to expand personal banking in rural India, where high temperatures, power outages and identity theft make for particularly challenging terrain.
Vortex Engineering is giving rural Indians the gift of banking. The southern India-based company has designed the "Gramateller" automated teller machine, which can run on solar power and dispense heavily used bills. WSJ's Linda Blake reports.
Vortex Engineering Ltd., an Asian Innovation Awards finalist, designed its Gramateller ATM with a backup battery system, solar power panels, a 50-degree-centigrade operating range and a fingerprint identification system—all factors that make it a viable ATM in developing areas, said Vortex founder Lakshminarayan Kannan.
Mr. Kannan, 42 years old, has spent the last two decades working with companies and NGOs on rural-development technologies, such as a special suspension system to transport fragile medical equipment for mobile health care in Karnataka. He founded Vortex in 2001 and set the company to work on various projects, including one designed to more efficiently convert cotton into yarn.
In 2004, he was approached by a group of researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology who were looking for ways to improve financial access in rural India. The team's aim, Mr. Kannan said, directly overlapped with his own.
"Whatever we were to produce had to be a person-independent, technology-driven channel," he said. "To be dependent on infrastructure would be too expensive."
An ATM fit the bill. Fewer than 25% of India's 45,000 ATMs are located in rural and semi-urban areas, where 70% of the country's 1.1 billion people reside, according to Vortex research. As many as 65% of Indians don't have bank accounts, severely hindering their chances of saving, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry, an association of Indian business leaders.
A team of Vortex engineers worked with the IIT researchers to design an ATM that not only would operate in rural India, but also would inspire trust in the machines among local villagers who may have never even seen a computer before. This meant including a biometric method of identification—instead of entering a PIN, the user presses his or her thumb on a glass fingerprint reader—as well as the ability to immediately switch to a four-hour backup battery during voltage fluctuations and power failures.
Even assuring villagers the money is authentic was a concern. Vortex, based in Chennai, designed its machine to process soiled notes that "feel real" to rural dwellers who aren't accustomed to—and often are suspicious of—the clean, crisp bills that come out of other ATMs.
The ATMs use customer fingerprints as an authentication measure. Vortex says it hopes to put the low-cost machines in every village in India.
"New currency is loaded, and in rural areas, used, old currency is also loaded," Mr. Kannan said. "Often bills have small nicks, cuts and holes, which our ATM is tolerant to."
An unexpected benefit of the ATMs is that they encourage customers to save more money, something that didn't become clear until pilot tests near Chennai.
"If people have in their close vicinity a source of money whenever they need, and they know it's assured, then they actually tend to take less money than they are entitled to, and they save the rest," Mr. Kannan said.
Vortex has invested $6 million in its Gramateller ATM since 2004, producing nearly 200 machines to date. Mr. Kannan said 25 to 30 banks in rural areas currently operate between one and five ATMs each. Among them is State Bank of India, the largest state-owned financial services company in India.
The bank is deploying 1,000 ATMs in rural areas, 545 of which will be supplied by Vortex Engineering, said Amiya Deka, deputy general manager of SBI's ATM division.
He cited the Gramateller's low cost, low power consumption, wide temperature range of operation, solar power generation, biometric authentication and "simple design" as factors in its selection.
Vortex's end goal is to have one ATM in each village in India. That's 650,000 ATMs, Mr. Kannan said, and even that won't be enough to put India on par with other countries.
"The U.S. and Europe have one ATM per 1,000 people. By the same yardstick, India needs one million ATMs," he said.
But for now, Vortex has set its sights on the sector of India where it believes financial access can have the most impact.
"Since we are a start-up and we have limited resources, we want to focus on rural India," Mr. Kannan said. "We thought: Let us be creative. Let us be pioneers."
A new automated teller machine aims to expand personal banking in rural India, where high temperatures, power outages and identity theft make for particularly challenging terrain.
Vortex Engineering is giving rural Indians the gift of banking. The southern India-based company has designed the "Gramateller" automated teller machine, which can run on solar power and dispense heavily used bills. WSJ's Linda Blake reports.
Vortex Engineering Ltd., an Asian Innovation Awards finalist, designed its Gramateller ATM with a backup battery system, solar power panels, a 50-degree-centigrade operating range and a fingerprint identification system—all factors that make it a viable ATM in developing areas, said Vortex founder Lakshminarayan Kannan.
Mr. Kannan, 42 years old, has spent the last two decades working with companies and NGOs on rural-development technologies, such as a special suspension system to transport fragile medical equipment for mobile health care in Karnataka. He founded Vortex in 2001 and set the company to work on various projects, including one designed to more efficiently convert cotton into yarn.
In 2004, he was approached by a group of researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology who were looking for ways to improve financial access in rural India. The team's aim, Mr. Kannan said, directly overlapped with his own.
"Whatever we were to produce had to be a person-independent, technology-driven channel," he said. "To be dependent on infrastructure would be too expensive."
An ATM fit the bill. Fewer than 25% of India's 45,000 ATMs are located in rural and semi-urban areas, where 70% of the country's 1.1 billion people reside, according to Vortex research. As many as 65% of Indians don't have bank accounts, severely hindering their chances of saving, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry, an association of Indian business leaders.
A team of Vortex engineers worked with the IIT researchers to design an ATM that not only would operate in rural India, but also would inspire trust in the machines among local villagers who may have never even seen a computer before. This meant including a biometric method of identification—instead of entering a PIN, the user presses his or her thumb on a glass fingerprint reader—as well as the ability to immediately switch to a four-hour backup battery during voltage fluctuations and power failures.
Even assuring villagers the money is authentic was a concern. Vortex, based in Chennai, designed its machine to process soiled notes that "feel real" to rural dwellers who aren't accustomed to—and often are suspicious of—the clean, crisp bills that come out of other ATMs.
The ATMs use customer fingerprints as an authentication measure. Vortex says it hopes to put the low-cost machines in every village in India.
"New currency is loaded, and in rural areas, used, old currency is also loaded," Mr. Kannan said. "Often bills have small nicks, cuts and holes, which our ATM is tolerant to."
An unexpected benefit of the ATMs is that they encourage customers to save more money, something that didn't become clear until pilot tests near Chennai.
"If people have in their close vicinity a source of money whenever they need, and they know it's assured, then they actually tend to take less money than they are entitled to, and they save the rest," Mr. Kannan said.
Vortex has invested $6 million in its Gramateller ATM since 2004, producing nearly 200 machines to date. Mr. Kannan said 25 to 30 banks in rural areas currently operate between one and five ATMs each. Among them is State Bank of India, the largest state-owned financial services company in India.
The bank is deploying 1,000 ATMs in rural areas, 545 of which will be supplied by Vortex Engineering, said Amiya Deka, deputy general manager of SBI's ATM division.
He cited the Gramateller's low cost, low power consumption, wide temperature range of operation, solar power generation, biometric authentication and "simple design" as factors in its selection.
Vortex's end goal is to have one ATM in each village in India. That's 650,000 ATMs, Mr. Kannan said, and even that won't be enough to put India on par with other countries.
"The U.S. and Europe have one ATM per 1,000 people. By the same yardstick, India needs one million ATMs," he said.
But for now, Vortex has set its sights on the sector of India where it believes financial access can have the most impact.
"Since we are a start-up and we have limited resources, we want to focus on rural India," Mr. Kannan said. "We thought: Let us be creative. Let us be pioneers."
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Rang De: A social entrepreneurial way to reducing poverty using microfinance
Rang De is a social organization that wants to make microcredit accessible to every low income household by offering lower interest rates using innovative means.
Rang De may be your small way of turning a social entrepreneur and help India reduce poor people.
Visit: http://rangde.org/
Rang De may be your small way of turning a social entrepreneur and help India reduce poor people.
Visit: http://rangde.org/
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tata introduces 'Nano' housing for Rs 3.9 lakh-Rs 6.7 lakh
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tata-introduces-nano-housing-for-rs-39-lakhrs-67-lakh/91931-7.html
New Delhi: After its revolution on wheels, the Tatas are aiming at a Nano house, which will cost anywhere between Rs 3.9 lakh and Rs 6.7 lakh.
Tata Housing, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, has launched its low-cost housing initiative called the Shubh Griha project.
The first Shubh Griha township will be launched at Boisar in Mumbai. Tata Housing has tied up with SBI and HDFC to help potential buyers with finance options.
Announcing the launch of Shubh Grih’, Brotin Banerjee, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TATA Housing said, “This is in continuation of the group’s commitment to providing, quality, innovative products for the common man. We observed that since most of the people in the Low Income bracket live away from their families to earn a livelihood in the big cities, there is a large percentage of migrant population with people living in either rented or company provided accommodation".
Booking:
Applicants can purchase the Application form booklet at Rs. 200/- from SBI branches.
After purchase of the Application form booklet, bookings should be made in the next 20 days along with the initial booking amount of Rs. 10,000/- through bank pay order at selected branches of SBI bank across Mumbai.
The first list and the waiting list will be declared after 15 days of the final booking after a thorough scrutiny of the submitted Application form booklets. The allotted would be sent allotment letters from TATA Housing along with the payment schedule. Details of other requirements have been provided in the Application form booklet itself.
Types of houses:
Under the scheme three types of flats will be available. A one-bed room flat with a hall and kitchen in an area of 465 square feet. A one-room flat with a large kitchen in an area of 360 square feet. A one-room flat with a small kitchen in an area of 283 square feet.
New Delhi: After its revolution on wheels, the Tatas are aiming at a Nano house, which will cost anywhere between Rs 3.9 lakh and Rs 6.7 lakh.
Tata Housing, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, has launched its low-cost housing initiative called the Shubh Griha project.
The first Shubh Griha township will be launched at Boisar in Mumbai. Tata Housing has tied up with SBI and HDFC to help potential buyers with finance options.
Announcing the launch of Shubh Grih’, Brotin Banerjee, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TATA Housing said, “This is in continuation of the group’s commitment to providing, quality, innovative products for the common man. We observed that since most of the people in the Low Income bracket live away from their families to earn a livelihood in the big cities, there is a large percentage of migrant population with people living in either rented or company provided accommodation".
Booking:
Applicants can purchase the Application form booklet at Rs. 200/- from SBI branches.
After purchase of the Application form booklet, bookings should be made in the next 20 days along with the initial booking amount of Rs. 10,000/- through bank pay order at selected branches of SBI bank across Mumbai.
The first list and the waiting list will be declared after 15 days of the final booking after a thorough scrutiny of the submitted Application form booklets. The allotted would be sent allotment letters from TATA Housing along with the payment schedule. Details of other requirements have been provided in the Application form booklet itself.
Types of houses:
Under the scheme three types of flats will be available. A one-bed room flat with a hall and kitchen in an area of 465 square feet. A one-room flat with a large kitchen in an area of 360 square feet. A one-room flat with a small kitchen in an area of 283 square feet.
ChotuKool: the $69 fridge for rural India
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/refridgerator-rural-india-chotukool/13680/
Is this the world’s cheapest refrigerator? Launched by Indian conglomerate Godrej and Boyce, ChotuKool's $69 price tag is not the only reason it can be called super economical. The portable, top-opening unit weighs only 7.8kg, uses high-end insulation to stay cool for hours without power and consumes half the energy used by regular refrigerators. This is a product that has crossed several technological barriers and is designed to cross several social barriers as well.
To achieve its efficiency the ChotuKool doesn't use a compressor, instead running on a cooling chip and a fan similar to those used in computers, so like computers it can run on batteries. It's engineering credentials are further boosted by the fact that it has only 20 parts, as opposed to more than 200 parts in a normal refrigerator.
The ChotuKool was co-designed with village women to assure its acceptability, and is distributed by members of a micro-finance group.
"It’s a reverse engineering of sorts,” says G. Sunderraman, Vice President of Corporate Development at Godrej & Boyce.
Sunderraman says the idea to target the bottom of the pyramid customers was given shape at a workshop with Clayton M. Christensen, the Harvard University professor, best known for his ideas on disruptive innovation.
The idea discussed in the workshop was to involve villagers right from the design to selling of the product. A survey by the young employees of Godrej followed, with findings showing that rural Indians expected a refrigerator to be used to cool 5 to 6 bottles of water and stock 3 to 4 kilograms (6 to 8 pounds) of vegetables. They also wanted it to be portable so that it could be moved out to make room for family gatherings.
The ChotuKool has undergone several alterations after every little detail, including pricing and color (red and blue were the clear winners) was discussed with a select group of villagers and micro-finance institutions. The villagers will also act as marketers and will earn a commission of approximately $3 per fridge sold. This fridge is targeted at households who earn approximately $5 a day, of whom there are almost 100 million in India.
Addressing the power shortage in rural India
Products like the the ChotuKool overcome technological and social barriers and address the one of the most pressing issues in India.
India hosts the world’s largest population deprived of electricity. Ninety two percent of this population lives in rural India, equaling about 380 million people or 71.7 million households. The quality and quantity of power these people have access to is very poor and consequently the country has very little development happening in rural areas.
The power situation in rural India cannot be fixed overnight and until it is, products like this are needed to make people's lives a little better. Effective refrigeration in rural areas can help people extend their access to not only food, but also essential drugs.
Godrej and Boyce, which has interests in real estate, FMCG, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and agri care, plans to launch ChotuKool in India by March 2010 at a price of US$69 or Rs 3250.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtCRlynp0bM
Is this the world’s cheapest refrigerator? Launched by Indian conglomerate Godrej and Boyce, ChotuKool's $69 price tag is not the only reason it can be called super economical. The portable, top-opening unit weighs only 7.8kg, uses high-end insulation to stay cool for hours without power and consumes half the energy used by regular refrigerators. This is a product that has crossed several technological barriers and is designed to cross several social barriers as well.
To achieve its efficiency the ChotuKool doesn't use a compressor, instead running on a cooling chip and a fan similar to those used in computers, so like computers it can run on batteries. It's engineering credentials are further boosted by the fact that it has only 20 parts, as opposed to more than 200 parts in a normal refrigerator.
The ChotuKool was co-designed with village women to assure its acceptability, and is distributed by members of a micro-finance group.
"It’s a reverse engineering of sorts,” says G. Sunderraman, Vice President of Corporate Development at Godrej & Boyce.
Sunderraman says the idea to target the bottom of the pyramid customers was given shape at a workshop with Clayton M. Christensen, the Harvard University professor, best known for his ideas on disruptive innovation.
The idea discussed in the workshop was to involve villagers right from the design to selling of the product. A survey by the young employees of Godrej followed, with findings showing that rural Indians expected a refrigerator to be used to cool 5 to 6 bottles of water and stock 3 to 4 kilograms (6 to 8 pounds) of vegetables. They also wanted it to be portable so that it could be moved out to make room for family gatherings.
The ChotuKool has undergone several alterations after every little detail, including pricing and color (red and blue were the clear winners) was discussed with a select group of villagers and micro-finance institutions. The villagers will also act as marketers and will earn a commission of approximately $3 per fridge sold. This fridge is targeted at households who earn approximately $5 a day, of whom there are almost 100 million in India.
Addressing the power shortage in rural India
Products like the the ChotuKool overcome technological and social barriers and address the one of the most pressing issues in India.
India hosts the world’s largest population deprived of electricity. Ninety two percent of this population lives in rural India, equaling about 380 million people or 71.7 million households. The quality and quantity of power these people have access to is very poor and consequently the country has very little development happening in rural areas.
The power situation in rural India cannot be fixed overnight and until it is, products like this are needed to make people's lives a little better. Effective refrigeration in rural areas can help people extend their access to not only food, but also essential drugs.
Godrej and Boyce, which has interests in real estate, FMCG, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and agri care, plans to launch ChotuKool in India by March 2010 at a price of US$69 or Rs 3250.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtCRlynp0bM
Interview of Prof Anil Gupta in DNA: A lakh innovations by rural school dropouts ... it's time we propelled the economy with them
A lakh innovations by rural school dropouts ... it's time we propelled the economy with them.
Source: Prof Anil Gupta's b;log:http://sristi.org
DNA India on 02 July, 2010
anil k gupta
Manu A B
A cycle that runs on water and land, a scooter powered-flour mill, solar mosquito killer, a cycle powered washing machine - these are a few of the over one lakh outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and the rural poor.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 rural stereotype. "We have a culture that dubs innovation as craziness, but our success would lie in identifying more crazy people, their craziness so that the innovation revolution can spread across India," Gupta said. "The present generation is losing out on scientific knowledge. Never before in the history of human civilisation has so much of scientific knowledge been lost due to sheer neglect," says Gupta, who also dons the cap of a professor at IIM Ahmedabad. Excerpts from an interview:
How has your experience been working with rural innovators?
It has been one of the most exciting things in my life. The rural people have the spirit to innovate and come up with solutions to overcome their problems. Grassroots innovations exemplify the struggle to find a better and cheaper solution to address our problems. There is a lot to learn from their lives and achievements. These tribals are the true pride of India. They have so many great innovations. I found the villages in Bastar district to be one of the best in hygiene and sanitation. There, a sick person is cremated after death, while a healthy one who dies is buried. This is a good, healthy practice, a lesson for all of us. The youth do not want to join Maoists, they are so talented ... we should be able to guide them in the right direction. Unfortunately, the police and administration are indifferent. They are given no opportunity to exhibit their skills. We are now initiating a programme to bring out their talent and make them leaders in their own right. The government is not investing in places like this, they are not given any opportunity to come up in life. So their anger is not misplaced. Talking of innovation, they have developed a medicinal variety of paddy, which can be pitched as a nutraceutical with a huge impact. This agro-bio diversity should be catalogued and marketed. I have had talks with the National Gene Bank but nothing has happened yet. There are so many ideas that can drive the Indian economy. Our institutes should pay more attention in developing products that have mass appeal.
How far has NIF succeeded in bringing to centrestage rural innovators?
The NIF has a database of about 140,000 innovations. But there are many more innovators across India. Unfortunately, we are not able to reach as many people as we should. We have succeeded to some extent in building a link with scientists and designers to add value to the innovator's technologies. We provide a micro venture fund to convert innovations into enterprises and help protect heir intellectual property rights.
How important is innovation in a country like India?
Innovation is not a common cultural trait in India. But we have found that India is rich in creative and talented people, but there is a congenital failure to identify innovation and creativity. There should be a complete change in parental and educational mindset to promote innovation and channel the energy of our young people. We need to rethink on multi-functionality, frugality, diversity and resilience, the four features of nature that should reflect in future designs for development and diversity. The Honey Bee Network is working across countries struggling to bridge the gap between formal and informal technology. Our scientific organisations should acknowledge and recognise their talent and work in tandem to develop these innovations and make it to use in our daily lives.
What role can innovation play to develop India?
Innovation is the only way to sustain India's growth. There are about 200 trouble-torn districts in India. Instead of declaring a war on them, their capabilities should be channelled in the right direction. The youth in these places can be mentored to choose the right track and build a great society. India cannot take pride on a growth rate which is just benefiting 20% of the total population. There should be an inclusive growth accommodating the entire society. Many of these rural innovations can have a profound impact on our society.
Have companies approached innovators to productise innovations?
Around six companies have come forward to license products. For example, T R Rajesh from Kerala developed a low-cost solution for sewage treatment which has been adopted by a company in Goa. It is a low-cost idea that can be easily implemented.
A company in Andhra Pradesh has paid an advance royalty to licence 6-7 herbal products of an innovator. They have put his photograph on the labels. We are in talks with TI Cycles. We have some brilliant ideas like the amphibious cycle, cycle washing machine, etc. Companies are now realising the need to harness low-cost technologies but this is happening at a very small scale. The aspirations of the corporate sector must change to accommodate our innovations.
How many innovations have received patents?
About 250 patents applications have been filed. In India, our innovators have got 35 patents and 5 patents in the US. The US patent office did not charge us any patent fee when they heard that the innovations were from people who had no formal training. In India, also we are charged less while applying for a patent.
However, getting a patent is a time-consuming process. Considering the innovation at India's premier R&D institutes, NIF has a good record. The research at NIF is unparalleled. However, without value addition and conversion of these ideas into a larger entrepreneurial activity, there is no future.
We are also taking efforts to build the open-source database where anyone can adopt these technologies in daily life or propagate them among the masses. We have 2,000 such good ideas in the Honey Bee network.
We should have a fast-track system for innovators. We also promote the format where any one can use the knowledge we have shared to build a product or a service. The share of non-monetary technologies is less than 16% in India. We invest so much in systems when there are low-cost solutions available.
How does NIF find innovators?
Our volunteers go on a journey of discovery to remote areas across India. We conduct a Shodh Yatra (literally, a 'search tour') every six months to reach out to the people. We have many students who volunteer to look out for innovators. We have briefed them to look for the 3 Is — interesting, inspiring and intriguing — innovations.
There are thousands of ideas which are mainly at the conception stage. If there is more financial and technical assistance, these ideas can be developed to transform our society.
How does the NIF help entrepreneurs?
Once the innovations are identified, a trial and search is done to make sure this innovation is unique. Sometimes the product may be distinctive though it may be already in existence. It could be a modification of a product at a lower cost.
The proof of conception is also verified. At times, the innovation is not refined to become a product. So we get designers and fabricators to help them improve and develop the product. We assist them in product development and technical support.
If it is a herbal product, we have a tie-up with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research and Indian Council of Medical Research to help in researching and validating the product. Value addition is very important in scaling up the product. The patent right belongs to the innovator and NIF has no role in it.
What are the lessons from the Shodh Yatra? How has it helped?
The Shodh Yatra is basically a journey on foot to celebrate creativity at grassroots across the nation, every year. It is amazing to see so many ideas among the poor and tribals in India. We walk every six months and during our journey, we meet many innovative people at the micro level in every area. So I am very confident that there are many more people across the nation with new ideas. They need hand-holding and guidance to give a definite shape to their ideas. In the last 10 years, we have walked about 12,000 kms as a part the Shodh Yatra. In the Naxal-affected Bastar district, we met so many talented tribal people. The tribal people whom we ignore are rich in traditional knowledge and have impeccable artistic skills.
How have the innovators made a difference to the society?
The pollution levels in Indian metros are rising. We have an entrepreneur who has found a solution to this alarming problem. A mechanic, he developed a device which absorbs carbon content from generators or engines of 10-12 HP. There are no generators in India that have a pollution control device attached to them. There is no requirement under the present rules.
However, Virendra Kumar Sinha from Bihar has made a pollution control device for gensets. This device absorbs exhaust gases making it clear, along with reducing its temperature. Why don't we use this in automobiles and small-scale industries? These are cleaner and cheaper alternatives.
He made this device as there was a school near his unit. He did not want the school children to be affected. If we had been a proactive society, the pollution control board should have approached us to make use of the device.
Every genuine manufacturer should implement these kinds of environment-friendly solutions. There should a huge demand for these indigenous products. There are a large number of ideas which are yet to be diffused at the scale they should have.
Which states account for the maximum number of innovations and from which category of people?
We have found the maximum number of innovations in Gujarat. This is also because we are based in Gujarat. Kerala, Bihar and Karnataka also have a good number of innovators. A good number of innovations have come from artisans, farmers, mechanics. . . and women. Women have been very innovative. Since they have been traditionally not allowed to experiment, they have built products and solutions in food processing, childcare, etc. Despite the constraints, women have excelled. Women are very creative and talented but there are no opportunities to support their ideas.
A simple traditional medicine is rubbing nutmeg powder on the navel of babies. Many of the traditional ideas are easy to implement, and have no ill effects. But has our healthcare policy ever looked at these aspects?
Our children are losing out on traditional knowledge. There is no importance to values today. One of the reasons is a total disconnect between the grandparents and children.
What are the challenges you face?
We face staff and fund shortage. We have a staff of only 40 people who work on a contract basis. They work hard despite so many constraints. I am very happy that we have such a wonderful team.
We do have many volunteers under the Honey Bee Network but this is not enough. We need to send this message to the masses. There is no mass acceptance yet. This has to change.
Movies like 3 Idiots did showcase some of our innovations. But that hasn't had the impact it should have had. Our agriculture farms should showcase the innovation of many of our farmers.
The devices they have built can be used across the country for better productivity. Tea plucking is a tedious job, but our innovators have found a simple solution to make this process easier.
How will the NIF benefit with the change in its structure?
The National Innovation Foundation was set up in March 2000 after we had several rounds of discussions with policy makers over a period of six months, convincing them of the need for such an establishment.
Dr R A Mashelkar's is the chairperson of NIF. Funds crunch is one of our biggest deterrents. It was set with a corpus fund of Rs 20 crore when we actually needed Rs 200 crore. However, the NIF will now be converted into a grant-in-aid institution under the Department of Science and Technology. Hopefully, we will get more resources and assistance. The NREGA gets Rs 60,000 crore every year. We do not even get 1% of this amount!
Many graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) take up jobs in fields totally different from what they studied. How can we bring about a system where more people stay focused on their fields?
Many IITians have great ideas. Not just IITians, even local technical institutes have a wealth of ideas. But they don't get the required help or support in India. We cannot blame them for digressing to other fields.
In a government polytechnic college in Latur (in Maharashtra), three young girls have built a black box for automobiles. How many people in India know about this? Should not such products be developed and sold in a mass scale?
There is no acknowledgment from any quarter. These ITIs (Indian Technical Institutes) and polytechnics have mass talent at grassroots level. So, I think, the government needs to look into the development of these institutes if they want to promote rural population.
What is your advice to the young innovators/entrepreneurs?
We need to bring about an entrepreneurial revolution in India. The environment in India now is ideal to focus on new ideas and build enterprises for social development.
Youngsters should not be afraid of taking risks. There is no harm in attempting to develop your own idea or supporting a unique initiative. Even if you do not succeed, you can go back and take up any job.
Technology and business have developed at a fast pace. So there is a huge scope for nation building if youngsters come forward to promote unique initiatives that are rooted to our culture and people.
These can have a transformational effect in developing India as a leader in sustainable technologies. It is very essential to think differently and have an identity of your own.
Courtesy: Rediff
manuab@rediffmail.com
Professor Anil K Gupta can be reached at anilg@sristi.org
Have an innovation?
It's time to contact info@nifindia.org.
Source: Prof Anil Gupta's b;log:http://sristi.org
DNA India on 02 July, 2010
anil k gupta
Manu A B
A cycle that runs on water and land, a scooter powered-flour mill, solar mosquito killer, a cycle powered washing machine - these are a few of the over one lakh outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and the rural poor.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 rural stereotype. "We have a culture that dubs innovation as craziness, but our success would lie in identifying more crazy people, their craziness so that the innovation revolution can spread across India," Gupta said. "The present generation is losing out on scientific knowledge. Never before in the history of human civilisation has so much of scientific knowledge been lost due to sheer neglect," says Gupta, who also dons the cap of a professor at IIM Ahmedabad. Excerpts from an interview:
How has your experience been working with rural innovators?
It has been one of the most exciting things in my life. The rural people have the spirit to innovate and come up with solutions to overcome their problems. Grassroots innovations exemplify the struggle to find a better and cheaper solution to address our problems. There is a lot to learn from their lives and achievements. These tribals are the true pride of India. They have so many great innovations. I found the villages in Bastar district to be one of the best in hygiene and sanitation. There, a sick person is cremated after death, while a healthy one who dies is buried. This is a good, healthy practice, a lesson for all of us. The youth do not want to join Maoists, they are so talented ... we should be able to guide them in the right direction. Unfortunately, the police and administration are indifferent. They are given no opportunity to exhibit their skills. We are now initiating a programme to bring out their talent and make them leaders in their own right. The government is not investing in places like this, they are not given any opportunity to come up in life. So their anger is not misplaced. Talking of innovation, they have developed a medicinal variety of paddy, which can be pitched as a nutraceutical with a huge impact. This agro-bio diversity should be catalogued and marketed. I have had talks with the National Gene Bank but nothing has happened yet. There are so many ideas that can drive the Indian economy. Our institutes should pay more attention in developing products that have mass appeal.
How far has NIF succeeded in bringing to centrestage rural innovators?
The NIF has a database of about 140,000 innovations. But there are many more innovators across India. Unfortunately, we are not able to reach as many people as we should. We have succeeded to some extent in building a link with scientists and designers to add value to the innovator's technologies. We provide a micro venture fund to convert innovations into enterprises and help protect heir intellectual property rights.
How important is innovation in a country like India?
Innovation is not a common cultural trait in India. But we have found that India is rich in creative and talented people, but there is a congenital failure to identify innovation and creativity. There should be a complete change in parental and educational mindset to promote innovation and channel the energy of our young people. We need to rethink on multi-functionality, frugality, diversity and resilience, the four features of nature that should reflect in future designs for development and diversity. The Honey Bee Network is working across countries struggling to bridge the gap between formal and informal technology. Our scientific organisations should acknowledge and recognise their talent and work in tandem to develop these innovations and make it to use in our daily lives.
What role can innovation play to develop India?
Innovation is the only way to sustain India's growth. There are about 200 trouble-torn districts in India. Instead of declaring a war on them, their capabilities should be channelled in the right direction. The youth in these places can be mentored to choose the right track and build a great society. India cannot take pride on a growth rate which is just benefiting 20% of the total population. There should be an inclusive growth accommodating the entire society. Many of these rural innovations can have a profound impact on our society.
Have companies approached innovators to productise innovations?
Around six companies have come forward to license products. For example, T R Rajesh from Kerala developed a low-cost solution for sewage treatment which has been adopted by a company in Goa. It is a low-cost idea that can be easily implemented.
A company in Andhra Pradesh has paid an advance royalty to licence 6-7 herbal products of an innovator. They have put his photograph on the labels. We are in talks with TI Cycles. We have some brilliant ideas like the amphibious cycle, cycle washing machine, etc. Companies are now realising the need to harness low-cost technologies but this is happening at a very small scale. The aspirations of the corporate sector must change to accommodate our innovations.
How many innovations have received patents?
About 250 patents applications have been filed. In India, our innovators have got 35 patents and 5 patents in the US. The US patent office did not charge us any patent fee when they heard that the innovations were from people who had no formal training. In India, also we are charged less while applying for a patent.
However, getting a patent is a time-consuming process. Considering the innovation at India's premier R&D institutes, NIF has a good record. The research at NIF is unparalleled. However, without value addition and conversion of these ideas into a larger entrepreneurial activity, there is no future.
We are also taking efforts to build the open-source database where anyone can adopt these technologies in daily life or propagate them among the masses. We have 2,000 such good ideas in the Honey Bee network.
We should have a fast-track system for innovators. We also promote the format where any one can use the knowledge we have shared to build a product or a service. The share of non-monetary technologies is less than 16% in India. We invest so much in systems when there are low-cost solutions available.
How does NIF find innovators?
Our volunteers go on a journey of discovery to remote areas across India. We conduct a Shodh Yatra (literally, a 'search tour') every six months to reach out to the people. We have many students who volunteer to look out for innovators. We have briefed them to look for the 3 Is — interesting, inspiring and intriguing — innovations.
There are thousands of ideas which are mainly at the conception stage. If there is more financial and technical assistance, these ideas can be developed to transform our society.
How does the NIF help entrepreneurs?
Once the innovations are identified, a trial and search is done to make sure this innovation is unique. Sometimes the product may be distinctive though it may be already in existence. It could be a modification of a product at a lower cost.
The proof of conception is also verified. At times, the innovation is not refined to become a product. So we get designers and fabricators to help them improve and develop the product. We assist them in product development and technical support.
If it is a herbal product, we have a tie-up with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research and Indian Council of Medical Research to help in researching and validating the product. Value addition is very important in scaling up the product. The patent right belongs to the innovator and NIF has no role in it.
What are the lessons from the Shodh Yatra? How has it helped?
The Shodh Yatra is basically a journey on foot to celebrate creativity at grassroots across the nation, every year. It is amazing to see so many ideas among the poor and tribals in India. We walk every six months and during our journey, we meet many innovative people at the micro level in every area. So I am very confident that there are many more people across the nation with new ideas. They need hand-holding and guidance to give a definite shape to their ideas. In the last 10 years, we have walked about 12,000 kms as a part the Shodh Yatra. In the Naxal-affected Bastar district, we met so many talented tribal people. The tribal people whom we ignore are rich in traditional knowledge and have impeccable artistic skills.
How have the innovators made a difference to the society?
The pollution levels in Indian metros are rising. We have an entrepreneur who has found a solution to this alarming problem. A mechanic, he developed a device which absorbs carbon content from generators or engines of 10-12 HP. There are no generators in India that have a pollution control device attached to them. There is no requirement under the present rules.
However, Virendra Kumar Sinha from Bihar has made a pollution control device for gensets. This device absorbs exhaust gases making it clear, along with reducing its temperature. Why don't we use this in automobiles and small-scale industries? These are cleaner and cheaper alternatives.
He made this device as there was a school near his unit. He did not want the school children to be affected. If we had been a proactive society, the pollution control board should have approached us to make use of the device.
Every genuine manufacturer should implement these kinds of environment-friendly solutions. There should a huge demand for these indigenous products. There are a large number of ideas which are yet to be diffused at the scale they should have.
Which states account for the maximum number of innovations and from which category of people?
We have found the maximum number of innovations in Gujarat. This is also because we are based in Gujarat. Kerala, Bihar and Karnataka also have a good number of innovators. A good number of innovations have come from artisans, farmers, mechanics. . . and women. Women have been very innovative. Since they have been traditionally not allowed to experiment, they have built products and solutions in food processing, childcare, etc. Despite the constraints, women have excelled. Women are very creative and talented but there are no opportunities to support their ideas.
A simple traditional medicine is rubbing nutmeg powder on the navel of babies. Many of the traditional ideas are easy to implement, and have no ill effects. But has our healthcare policy ever looked at these aspects?
Our children are losing out on traditional knowledge. There is no importance to values today. One of the reasons is a total disconnect between the grandparents and children.
What are the challenges you face?
We face staff and fund shortage. We have a staff of only 40 people who work on a contract basis. They work hard despite so many constraints. I am very happy that we have such a wonderful team.
We do have many volunteers under the Honey Bee Network but this is not enough. We need to send this message to the masses. There is no mass acceptance yet. This has to change.
Movies like 3 Idiots did showcase some of our innovations. But that hasn't had the impact it should have had. Our agriculture farms should showcase the innovation of many of our farmers.
The devices they have built can be used across the country for better productivity. Tea plucking is a tedious job, but our innovators have found a simple solution to make this process easier.
How will the NIF benefit with the change in its structure?
The National Innovation Foundation was set up in March 2000 after we had several rounds of discussions with policy makers over a period of six months, convincing them of the need for such an establishment.
Dr R A Mashelkar's is the chairperson of NIF. Funds crunch is one of our biggest deterrents. It was set with a corpus fund of Rs 20 crore when we actually needed Rs 200 crore. However, the NIF will now be converted into a grant-in-aid institution under the Department of Science and Technology. Hopefully, we will get more resources and assistance. The NREGA gets Rs 60,000 crore every year. We do not even get 1% of this amount!
Many graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) take up jobs in fields totally different from what they studied. How can we bring about a system where more people stay focused on their fields?
Many IITians have great ideas. Not just IITians, even local technical institutes have a wealth of ideas. But they don't get the required help or support in India. We cannot blame them for digressing to other fields.
In a government polytechnic college in Latur (in Maharashtra), three young girls have built a black box for automobiles. How many people in India know about this? Should not such products be developed and sold in a mass scale?
There is no acknowledgment from any quarter. These ITIs (Indian Technical Institutes) and polytechnics have mass talent at grassroots level. So, I think, the government needs to look into the development of these institutes if they want to promote rural population.
What is your advice to the young innovators/entrepreneurs?
We need to bring about an entrepreneurial revolution in India. The environment in India now is ideal to focus on new ideas and build enterprises for social development.
Youngsters should not be afraid of taking risks. There is no harm in attempting to develop your own idea or supporting a unique initiative. Even if you do not succeed, you can go back and take up any job.
Technology and business have developed at a fast pace. So there is a huge scope for nation building if youngsters come forward to promote unique initiatives that are rooted to our culture and people.
These can have a transformational effect in developing India as a leader in sustainable technologies. It is very essential to think differently and have an identity of your own.
Courtesy: Rediff
manuab@rediffmail.com
Professor Anil K Gupta can be reached at anilg@sristi.org
Have an innovation?
It's time to contact info@nifindia.org.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Kachile:Leveraging ICT to increase opportunities in BoP markets in West Africa
Kachile is a social venture dedicated to alleviating poverty and increasing environmental consciousness in West Africa by creating opportunities in the digital economy using ICT. Kachile started in January 2009 and operates in Côte d‘Ivoire. The venture is a hub for entrepreneurs and change agents who drive social innovation and transformation in fields such as education, health, ecology, and enterprise development. Kachile focuses on
(1) Setting up of IT infrastructure, technological support, and necessary ICT instruction;
(2) Business coaching and incubation for local SMEs, focusing on female entrepreneurs; and (3) Introduction and application of advanced mobile phone technologies.
Thereby, Kachile leverages ICT dissemination for fostering entrepreneurship, bring endogenous growth, reduce poverty, and ensure that these changes last. Moreover, Kachile reduces information asymmetry to bring more insights and knowledge required to assess risks and recognize opportunities in West Africa.
(1) Setting up of IT infrastructure, technological support, and necessary ICT instruction;
(2) Business coaching and incubation for local SMEs, focusing on female entrepreneurs; and (3) Introduction and application of advanced mobile phone technologies.
Thereby, Kachile leverages ICT dissemination for fostering entrepreneurship, bring endogenous growth, reduce poverty, and ensure that these changes last. Moreover, Kachile reduces information asymmetry to bring more insights and knowledge required to assess risks and recognize opportunities in West Africa.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Welcome to my blog on Marketing to the Bottom of the pyramid customers
I welcome all of you to contribute in which ever way to help in facilitating inclusion of people living in the so called BoP markets.
According to some estimates, taking CKP's definition of BOP market as people living on less than $2 per day, there are 3 billion people there. They need to be reached. There is a gold mine of information that is lying untapped there. There is a huge repository of knowledge and information there that the world should care about. That is the real fortune that companies should look for!!
Ramendra Singh
Assistant Professor(Marketing)
IIM Calcutta, Joka, Diamond Harbour Road
Kolkata 700104 INDIA
According to some estimates, taking CKP's definition of BOP market as people living on less than $2 per day, there are 3 billion people there. They need to be reached. There is a gold mine of information that is lying untapped there. There is a huge repository of knowledge and information there that the world should care about. That is the real fortune that companies should look for!!
Ramendra Singh
Assistant Professor(Marketing)
IIM Calcutta, Joka, Diamond Harbour Road
Kolkata 700104 INDIA
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