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111
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Ebook
2022
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Publié par
Date de parution
24 janvier 2022
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9789354924286
Langue
English
Publié par
Date de parution
24 janvier 2022
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9789354924286
Langue
English
MALAVIKA DADLANI, ANIL WALI AND KAUSHIK MUKERJEE
THE ART AND SCIENCEFRUGAL INNOVATION
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Frugal Innovation-Emerging Perspectives
2. Science in Frugal Innovation
3. A View of Successes and Failures
4. Frugal Innovation for Sustainable Solutions
5. Creating Value through Frugal Innovations
6. Market-driven Solutions
7. National Policies and Role of International Organizations
8. Science and Sustenance: The Path Ahead
Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgment
Follow Penguin
Copyright
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
It is a very useful addition to the emerging literature on frugal innovation, frugal not just for the consumer and the manufacturer, but also for nature. I appreciate the authors ability to differentiate between durable frugal innovations and the makeshift and jugaad ones -Prof. Anil K. Gupta, CSIR Bhatnagar fellow, and founder, Honey Bee Network, SRISTI, GIAN and NIF
This book makes a clear pitch for scientifically reasoned, simple yet affordable solutions that not only benefit the economically disadvantaged but also those who swear by sustainable development -Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, director, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
The world today is promoting innovation in every sphere of life to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. In this context, The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation is a unique book that has rekindled the concept and importance of frugal innovation in a lucid and comprehensive way, highlighting the science in frugal innovation and the value it creates -Ravi K. Khetarpal, chair, Global Forum for Agricultural Research and Innovation, and executive secretary, APAARI, Bangkok
Dedicated to all the imaginative minds who choose to address the myriad challenges by creating scientifically tempered frugal solutions.
Preface
Around a year ago, I had the privilege of meeting Malavika Dadlani in my office in Pune. We discussed the outline of a book that she was proposing to write on the role of science in frugal innovation. I strongly encouraged her to do that since I have always felt the need for India to move from jugaad to science-based systematic innovation.
I was, therefore, happy to know that Malavika, along with two co-authors, had completed the task of writing the book, appropriately titled The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation .
The book is very timely. The world is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused all-round destruction. It has destroyed lives and livelihoods. It has destroyed economies. It has suddenly increased the inequalities, the disparities. At the last count, 49 million people had been pushed not just into poverty but extreme poverty.
So more than ever before, we need to make do with diminished resources and achieve deliveries of products and services to a large section of society. And that is where frugal innovation becomes important. That is where this splendid book by Malavika Dadlani, Anil Wali and Kaushik Mukerjee becomes very timely.
It was India that changed the dictionary of innovation. New phrases like frugal innovation , inclusive innovation , Gandhian innovation , indovation , more from less for more and affordable excellence have dominated the innovation dictionary, besides the prevalent grassroots innovation and jugaad innovation.
And in the last five years, there have been plethora of books on these subjects, with some of the books with titles with tweaking of the words, like better from less, etc. But all of them deal with frugal innovation one way or the other.
I am happy to say that this is the first book on frugal innovation that deals with its scientific underpinnings emphasis on sustainable solutions.
The book nicely deals with diverse subjects ranging from market-driven solutions for frugal innovation to national policies and international conversations for inclusive innovation, ending finally by showing the way forward with sustenance.
Can we do frugal innovation with a strong underpinning of science? The answer is yes. Let me explain.
I started the Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award in my mother s name. This is the tenth year of the award. It is given for developing a technological solution that leads to inclusion, meaning that millions of resource-poor people can benefit from it.
One of these awards was given to a twenty-eight-year-old innovator, Myshkin Ingawale, the co-founder of Biosense. While discussing with one of his doctor friends, in Parol, Maharashtra, he realized that many women in villages were dying of anaemia because their low haemoglobin levels were not detected in time. He found out why: many of them were reluctant to give their blood for testing. So, he decided to create a non-invasive diagnostic tool, something that has never been achieved before.
He had to take recourse to high science. He used photoplethysmography, spectrophotometry and an advanced software for photon scattering to create ToucHb.
This was technological excellence achieved by using cutting-edge science, and not jugaad. But it was affordable excellence.
Why? Because he reduced the cost per test from Rs 100 to just Rs 10.
In order that we move towards science-based frugal solutions, there needs to be a mindset change among our scientific institutions.
Our scientific community must understand that they can combine excellence and relevance. Indeed, they can achieve scientific excellence, thus publishing in high-quality scientific journals, as also relevance, by being relevant to the needs of the resource-poor society.
In 2014, Harvard University researchers created an inexpensive detector, costing just $25, that can be used by healthcare workers in the world s poorest areas to monitor diabetes, detect malaria, discover environmental pollutants and perform tests that are done by machines that cost thousands of dollars.
Work on this affordable $25 sensor was published in the August 2014 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , one of the topmost journals in the world. The leader of this innovation team is George Whitesides, who, by the way, is the highest-cited scientist in the world with a staggering h-index 1 of 176! But he is dedicated to the cause of making high science work for the poor.
We need to create cost-conscious science and research. Currently, the frontier innovation is driven by expensive sophisticated research capabilities, which are popular among policymakers and the scientific community. The costs of high research and development (R D) investments are recouped over a period of time through high-margin products. Whereas the driver for frugal innovation is the aspiration despite the scarcity of resources to create low-margin and affordable products. But high aspirations mean high-science-based and high-quality products, like what Myshkin did.
I hope this wonderful and timely book by Malavika, Anil and Kaushik will inspire the young generation of innovators to opt for high-science-based frugal innovation, which will bring prestige and pride to India for their magic of combining scientific excellence of a high order with relevance to large sections of our underprivileged society.
July 2020
Dr R.A. Mashelkar, FRS Pune
Introduction Frugal Innovations in Modern Society
Frugality has its roots both in Eastern and Western traditions. Major philosophies of the world, be it Buddhism, Epicureanism or Stoicism, religions like Jainism and religious texts like the Bhagavad Gita, all espouse frugality and simplicity in life, stressing upon the need for discipline and self-restraint. As early as in the eighteenth century, keeping in view the growing population and rising demands, philosophers like Adam Weishaupt stressed the need for frugality and moderation to maintain peace and social stability. 1 The philosophy of frugality helps remind us that resources are limited, so their use must be prudent.
The warp-weighted loom, an innovative weaving technology dating back to 7000 BCE, in which bundles of warp yarn were tied to hanging weights to keep the threads taut, is an example of need-based simple innovation that greatly increased weaving efficiency in ancient times. 2 Historian Samuel Noah Kramer recorded in 1963 that the people of Sumer had an unusual flair for technological invention . The creativity of Sumerians (later known as Mesopotamians) in inventing new technologies and perfecting the large-scale use of existing ones, according to Philip Jones, associate curator and keeper of Penn Museum, Philadelphia, was driven to an extent by their lack of natural resources. 3 One can find many such examples of innovations due to the need for effective solutions using limited resources available to its people. Notwithstanding the unprecedented technological advancements that the world has experienced since the beginning of the last century, the stark inequality in distribution of wealth and resources among societies, coupled with concerns over sustainability of the earth, has encouraged the world to turn to frugality and conservation. In the world of novel products and processes, it s frugal innovations that are more likely to sustain and support inclusivity across economies.
The last decade has seen a surge of literature on the idea of frugal innovations, their significance, relevance, scope and limitations in today s world. The subject has mostly dealt with assessing their commercial utility, role in sustainable development and accessibility of technology. However, not only the context but the definition of frugal innovation itself has also undergone several changes during this period. In the beginning it was seen as a viable option for resource-constrained developing economies, as no-frills and affordable innovations that could fulfil the needs of economically weaker sections and in the process also garner impressive profits by the sheer n
