Innovation for BOP - Knowledge and Technology Management
Introduction
Frugal Innovation is a distinctive approach of reducing the complexity and limitations of resources, in the form of finance, material and institutional, and turns these to advantages and opportunities to innovation (Frugal Innovations, n.d.). Frugal innovation results in lower cost products and services, by minimising the use of resources in production, development, distribution and delivery or by leveraging them into newer and advanced ways. It can also refer to removal of unnecessary features from the durable goods like mobile, car, etc, in order to sell in the developing country at a much cheaper rate, so that it can be afforded by all the section of the population in a society. Globalization can also be a drive towards frugal innovation. A frugal innovation is successful, when it is done better quality wise at a lower cost, and is available at a large scale and also at a cheaper rate. But for some frugal innovation may equate as creation of cheap and low-tech product, also frugal innovation does not have an explicit social mission always (Frugal Innovations, n.d.). “Jugaad” can also be called as frugal innovation (Bound and Thornton, 2012). Four features of frugal innovation are as below. It makes better things and not always cheaper things. It is applicable for products as well as services. It is about remodelling as well as disfeaturing. Frugal innovation is a combination of frontier science and technology
India’s amazing world of frugal Innovation and Advice to Indian Government:
- Mansukhbhai Prajapati, found an innovative way to keep food items fresh for five to six days, he designed a low-cost clay fridge which can work without electricity.
- The Kerala-based neighbourhood network in palliative care is a place, where the 36 doctors,60 nurses, 4000 attendants and volunteers are from the local community, who are providing expert support, and care to 5000 patients at one time. The fund for this project is raised by the local community donations.
- Tata Nano is another example of frugal innovation, the key strategy used here was ‘de-feature’ unnecessary attributes, like use of three wheel nuts per wheel.
- ‘Darshana’, a low-cost lunch box projector for use in schools was developed by Frugal Digital, in consultation with the local communities. The projector uses a phone touch screen as a track pad, and is fitted with a small USB 2.0 port.
- GE's Vscan is a pocket-sized ultrasound device, launched in 2010, it is less expensive in comparison to the traditional ultrasound machines, but it has improved access to advanced prenatal care in rural areas of India.
- Mehtar Hussain and Mushtaq Ahmed, residents of Assam built a bamboo windmill to pump water from a small paddy field. The Gujrati salt workers now use it to pump brine water (McNicoll, 2013).
- Paresh Panchal, invented bamboo splint-making machine, which helps the village people to make incense sticks at low cost.
- Biomass gasifier was invented by Raj Singh Dahiya, which creates fuel from farm wastes, and eases the use of power to light houses, run mills and filter water.
- Mansukhbhai Jagani's motorcycle-based tractor is both cost effective and easy to use for agricultural purpose (McNicoll, 2013).
- D. Renganathan invented a mechanical tree climber which is be used for climbing and for scaling palm and coconut trees (McNicoll, 2013).
- An old alarm clock was converted into ‘Clock Sense’ by Frugal Digital, which can easily assess temperature, pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation, respiration rate, blood sugar.
- Narayana Hrudayalaya Clinic in southern India, Aravind Eye Hospital, and Life Spring Hospitals are few chains of medical centres that provide affordable healthcare to the masses (McNicoll, 2013).
- Indian prosthetics organization, BMVSS, produces an artificial limb for low cost, making it affordable to all Indians, who suffered amputees (McNicoll, 2013).
- CGNet Swara, is a voice portal, which allows the rural Indians to dial-in via their cell phones and listen to the local news.
- SELCO uses solar power for generating electricity (McNicoll, 2013).
After going through the above part we can come to few conclusions:
- The inventors of India recycle the old technology to find solutions to the local problems.
- Inventions include amphibious bicycles, low-cost clay fridge, wind-powered irrigation systems, cotton-stripping machine and tree-climbing machines etc.
- Indian frugal innovators have patented their inventions and received awards
The Indian Government has done much on frugal innovation in the past years, there has been a recent upward trend in frugal type innovations and inventions in India and across the world, the advantage behind is the affordable cost for all the people, and India is considered as the best place for frugal innovation, as there is a culture for invention, and there are plenty of skills in India. Only thing is that the Indian government needs to realise the importance of frugal innovation, in a developing country like India, where the living standard of most of the population is poor, it can develop the standards and also the government must take some steps for the betterment of the inventors, encourage them for more such cost effective inventions.
Steps that can be taken by the Indian Government
Policies for Research and Development, should be brought by the Government, so that there can be development in RandD mechanisms in rural areas. An incubation centre must be developed by the government, and a pool should be formed by these centres, where all the innovation collectively can be arranged (Sharma, 2013). Government should frame flexible and relatively appropriate IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) policies for frugal innovation (Sharma, 2013). The Intellectual Property Law must be promoted by the Government, for the awareness of the rural inventors, of the remote areas of the country. There should be proper channels, through which the packages and policies provided by the government can reach the people of the remote areas (Sharma, 2013).
Conclusion
India has made remarkable progress in the field of IPR across the countries, the developing economy of India is full of frugal innovators, and the maximum development on frugal innovation is seen in the rural areas of the country, where cost effectiveness is playing a big role. Frugal innovation is getting advantage and opportunity out of limitations, it does not only focus on making cheaper things, but also better and appropriate things, but this sector still needs national and global recognition, a proper development in this sector is very much needed and for that proper facilities and funding is needed to establish a network of frugal inventors.
Reference
Bound, K. and Thornton, I. (2012).Our frugal future: lessons from India’s innovation system. Retrieved from http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/our_frugal_future.pdf
Frugal Innovations. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/frugal-innovations
McNicoll , A. (2013). Enter India's amazing world of frugal innovation. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/tech/innovation/frugal-innovation-india-inventors/
Sharma, A. (2013). India: Entering Into The Frugal Innovation System - A Step Ahead By India. Retrieved from http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/263300/Trademark/Entering+Into+The+Frugal+Inno vation+System+A+Step+Ahead+By+India
