India is fast emerging as the global leader in sustainable technologies and the rural innovations of the country are going places, literally. And the technologies that are taking India abroad are as unique as a manual milking machine or a coconut tree climber.
Around seven innovation-turned-products of the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) have been bought by individuals, firms and companies in various countries across five continents. The innovations have been tapped and documented from the remotest areas of Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
The products are a result of the scouting and dissemination of traditional knowledge practices at the grass root level in different parts of the country by NIF, which was set up by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in February 2000.
According to Lalmuanzuala Chinzah, national coordinator-business development at NIF, "The lack of substitutes for these innovative products is attracting buyers from abroad. It benefits us as we get more exposure and a better margin. But we need more entrepreneurs in India to whom we can license the products and use it on a mass scale."
As NIF facilitates scaling up of grass root innovations and protects the intellectual property rights of the contemporary unaided technological innovators, all products have been applied for patent.
“It is a very difficult process to commercialise the products that are innovations. The productions are hard to standardise and mass scale productions are not possible. Also, some do not confer to European srandards. The products need to go through certification as there are stringent rules under Occupational Safety Hazards Agency (OSHA), a federal agency for the enforcement of safety and health legislation. But there are a lot of product enquiries coming from abroad,” Chinzah added.
NIF has already received more than 384 product enquiries from around 55 countries for mainly 15 products.
