Ignited Minds: 20 innovators who are changing our lives

Sheikh Jehangir cannot read or write, hasn't been trained in any vocational skill and started working at the age of 11 to support his family. Yet, the 50-year-old car painter in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, has a patent to his name, and has applied for a second one. His latest innovation, a scooter-powered flourmill created to help his wife grind wheat even during long power cuts, inspired an invention featured in the monster hit 3 Idiots. Jehangir's shop was removed from the roadside in a cleanliness drive and even though he was promised a new one by the government, he has not received it yet. What's more, when Jehangir applied to a public sector for a loan to support his innovation, he was refused one without a collateral of Rs 15 lakh.

Is it any wonder then, that the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 ranking placed India 57th and China 58th on the innovation scale but predicted, that at the present rate, by 2012, China would be 50th while India would move up only one rank. China, in particular, has overtaken India in technology intensive manufacturing that includes high-tech semiconductors and microchips to become the largest producer of electronics in the world. What's more, according to data from a US thinktank, Battelle Institute, India spends 0.9 per cent of GDP on R&D while China spends 1.5 per cent.



As IIM-Bangalore professor and author of From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation, Rishikesha T. Krishnan points out, innovation in pre-liberalisation India was aimed at three things: import substitution, making use of local resources (such as Amul making milk powder from buffalo milk) and lowering costs. Post-1991, there have been innovations in various areas, especially transport and pharma, but not enough. Even though the Big Three IT giants-Infosys, TCS and Wipro-have developed the global delivery model that is a breakthrough in software solutions, India needs more innovation, especially in education and healthcare, where the challenges are to reduce costs and increase access. But there are several factors holding it back, ranging from a culture where risk-taking is not tolerated to an education system that tends to encourage rote learning. Yes, the Government has made efforts to support innovation, be it through the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) or the Technopreneur Promotion Programme. But their scale needs to be upped. Remember Leonardo da Vinci flourished as an inventor only when his father apprenticed him to the workshop of the renowned Andrea del Verrocchio at the age of 15.

By and large, innovation has remained an individualistic enterprise, invariably flowering under personal care, such as that of Ashok Jhunjhunwala at iit-Madras who heads the Telecommunication and Computer Networks Group (TeNet) or Anil Gupta at IIM-Ahmedabad who spearheaded the NIF. Innovative ideas are the enemies of restraints. So an M.S. Raju, an engineer from Visakhapatnam, can develop a camera mouse for the visually handicapped to read text messages and an Ankit Mehta from IIT-Bombay can work on an aerial device that security agencies are now planning to use. But as Gupta says, there aren't enough grassroots business incubator programmes in India. "Most of them are located at the top engineering and management schools, accessible only to a select few," he says. Ashok Khosla, chairman of Development Alternatives, a non-profit organisation that aims at creating large-scale sustainable livelihoods says, "There has always been a lack of government support, but to raise funds the innovators must also understand the market needs and invent products accordingly. If a product is not commercially viable, it's not an innovation but an invention."

How to break free of the restraint? Krishnan says there are three variables in any innovation-input, capacity and incentive. The incentives exist, as an innovator can gain monetarily, but input and capacity are still required. According to the Department of Science and Technology's 2007-08 statistics, investment in industrial R&D spending is dominated by two sectors, pharma (45 per cent) and transport (17 per cent). The rest is distributed over other sectors. This ratio has to become more equitable to encourage innovation in other sectors too. Only 26 per cent of the R&D spent is by the corporate sector, both public and private. In the private sector, a new breed of companies need to come up that are headed by young, technically qualified passionate people.

Only then can a Mansukhlal, from a small community of potters in Gujarat who has created refrigerators of clay, or Mohanlal, who improvised on marine diesel engines to make them lighter, flourish. As Peter Drucker said, "Technology is not about tools, it deals with how man works." And it's the innovator who makes the man's work easier.

- Source: Yahoo