Anil K Gupta , a faculty at IIM-Ahmedabad, is executive vice-chairperson of the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), which he helped set up in March 2000. He spoke to Sudip Talukdar about how NIF is encouraging and promoting grass-roots technologies as a step towards generating sustainable progress:

Is innovativeness inborn among Indians or does it develop because of scarcity of resources or out of struggle for survival?

It is actually for all the three reasons and more. In some cases, lack of viable choices triggers search for alternatives. In few cases, pressure from the end user (for example a farmer) compels or inspires a mechanic to develop appropriate modifications in farm implements. Apart from the general disinterest of the formal sector, the speed with which relatively new problems faced by farmers are addressed is another matter of concern. For example, vanilla cultivation has been introduced recently, but most solutions have been developed by farmer innovators and not formal sector.

Do grass-roots innovations, perceived as local solutions, have the potential to work at the regional or national level?

There are many examples where solutions in one place are totally applicable in others. For example, conversion of old letter printing press into screen printing press emerged as a solution for sustainable business practices in Chhattisgarh. Similarly, herbal pesticide machinery, herbal veterinary medicine, crop variety utility have found wide applicability. Pomegranate de-seeding machine has been delivered to Los Angeles and Istanbul. Garlic peeling units are required by Pakistan, among others.

What has the NIF been doing to preserve or improve this valuable corpus of traditional knowledge and wisdom?

NIF, set up in March 2000, is based on models developed over the last 20 years. We believe that unless local communities develop products that not only help generate revenue, but also reduce cost of living, long-term incentives for conservation of traditional knowledge may not emerge. Sristi, a wing of NIF, has been organising food fests to generate demand for less recognised organicallygrown crops and varieties from marginal environments.

What are the problems the fledgling NIF faces in identifying and documenting these green innovations?

While the big science gets a budget of thousands of crores, the little science, which contributes to the survival of millions, gets hardly Rs 1.5 crore. If 85 per cent of the entries were not to come through volunteers, we would not have achieved coverage of more than 400 districts and around 50,000 innovations and practices. Thousands of grass-roots ideas and technology must be supported to develop usable products.