Indian innovations up for grabs

A television channel brings to its audiences a six-part series on India's science and technology and its contribution to the country's economic standing.

I nnovation isn't limited to formal industry. Science isn't just the prerogative of scientists. And entering its seventh decade since independence, India isn't just about its GDP growth rate or its role in the global IT-ITeS industry surge.

To highlight that, and more, comes a six-part series, courtesy Discovery channel, that will unearth the contribution of science and technology, both grassroots and formal, to the country's economic standing. Daily Planet Goes to India "" aired every Wednesday (it started on August 15th) "" will, for a change, highlight the country's creative capital potential and not its human capital challenge.

Remya Jose's pedal-operated washing machine may have escaped the notice of her local MLA, but it is portable, uses no electricity and costs Rs 2,000 to make. Mohammad Saidullah's amphibious bicycle may not be spectacular in ambition or scale but it is an alternative use to the cycle that not even the largest manufacturers came up with.

The Jaipur foot, now a relatively famous Indian innovation, has extended its flexible, low-cost, durable prosthetic foot to over 20 impoverished countries. These are only a few products and services included in the series that are made prominent for their direct impact on the lives of ordinary Indians.

Cheering on the recognition of simple innovations that "overcome efficiency benchmarks" will be the National Innovation Foundation, under the aegis of Professor Anil Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad, which ties up innovation, investment and enterprise. "We're here to change the model of development," says Gupta.

He and his team at the Honey Bee Network, 16 years ago, triggered the movement to scout, acknowledge and sustain unaided innovative urges at the grassroots level. Jose and Saidullah are only two of 65,000 techniques and innovations in the network's growing database.

Daily Planet Goes to India will also "go" to over 160 other countries, and it was therefore fitting that the series also underline the global ramifications of large-scale technological feats. Like the country's first home-grown 14-seater civilian aircraft Saras, not yet certified for commercial flight, but well off the drawing board at National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL).

"It is India's version of a Cessna or a Beach 1400, and 25 per cent cheaper at that," says M S Chidananda, project director, Saras. Saras is just the beginning; Chidananda commits to NAL developing a full-scale, small-body civilian aircraft of international standards in the next 10 years.

And busting the misconception that space technology, while awe inspiring, is disconnected from the life of the common man, is the episode on India's space programme which will enter the big league with Chandrayaan, its lunar probe scheduled for next year and eventually, its first manned space flight.

"The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has always focussed on the use of space technology for national development via the launch of commercial satellites; the lunar mapping exercise will be our first effort towards space exploration," says R R Navalgund, director, Space Applications Centre.

He is also hoping the series will do its bit to engage with young Indians, generating enough excitement among students to get into scientific research.

B Rajaram is hopeful about convincing governments of the viability of his Sky Bus technology that is seen by some as a product of maverick genius and by others as an unproven conjecture.

Three years after its first test run on a 1.6 km stretch in Goa, the inventor of this electrically-driven mass transit technology offers an economical (built at a fourth of the cost of the Metro) and ecologically viable solution to ease traffic congestion in urban India, is struggling to market India's first indigenous urban transport solution to bureaucrats, engineers and urban planners alike.

Other engineering feats that will get the spotlight shone on them are the Bandra-Worli sea link, the restoration work at the Ajanta caves and the Global Pagoda project under construction near Mumbai, said to be the largest stone dome in the world.

Viewers will hear from Infosys founder Narayana Murthy on what he believes will be the drivers of India's economic future, and eminent agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan on the role of the Internet in improving the lives of India's poorest.

Of course, no focus on India will be complete without the six-sigma rated quality standards of Mumbai's dabbawalas. Their robust supply chain management continues to fascinate management gurus, princes and television viewers alike.

Gupta points out, "The series will draw national and global attention to what has been accomplished, it will stress even more on what remains to be done."

Even at a time when the Central government has set an ambitious agenda for the strengthening of numbers of the Indian Institutes of Science Education, Technology and Information Technology, Gupta's lament is, "Out of the existing 4,50,000 technology students graduating every year, how many are filing patents?" Agrees Rajaram, "Our scientific manpower needs to be continually challenged."

Discovery channel says it aims to address a vacuum created by the omissions of a failing primary education system. "Look at our textbooks; post-independent scientists and thinkers are completely absent. So we took it upon ourselves to find creative ways of disseminating this information," says Deepak Shourie, managing director, Discovery Networks India.

And in the spirit of all things progressive, Discovery had media from 12 cities across India tuned in via video-conferencing to the proceedings of the launch. Now if that isn't notable...