Fostering Local Innovation

While the case for stepping on the gas in the matter of rural education has drawn much popular support and journalistic attention, much less has been said about creating channels for local, paticularly rural, innovation to emerge. One result of not fostering such innovation has been that ideas and solutions from other contexts have to be transplanted, and, many a time, these have proved inappropriate and suboptimal.

Speaking of rural innovation, considering that Indian rural living has had the benefit of centuries long continuity, it's highly likely that there are centuries of wisdom and experience in rural India, epecially that which is suited to that context. Important technological breakthroughs like drip irrigation have emerged from other settings somewhat similar to this.

I had read about the Honey Bee network in this context. You can visit them here. This is an effort by a bunch of dedicated folks at IIM Ahmedabad. Their main focus is to create a network for the collection and dissemination of practical ideas in the context in which most of the Indian public is situated.

Another organization I recently heard of is the Rural Information Network. Check them out. Their web page describes their mission as follows:

RIN avidly identifies and incubates innovations that sprout in rural areas and lie untapped, in spite of their potential to transform lives.

Some innovations RIN has incubated include a water-efficient rain gun, an insect trap and a herbal pesticide.