I have written earlier about how small towns are producing big innovations, how small institutions are producing big minds and even bigger hearts. Concern for social needs, whether of small industry or the informal sector, is not found universally among all social, professional or educational segments. But those who have it are often motivated by the urge to produce innovations for the larger social good. I call these empathetic innovations which are triggered by third-party problems.

Some innovations are guided by the affordability criterion in itself and are not aimed necessarily at meeting a social need. The idea is to make more social groups afford a machine or a device or a solution so that they can be more efficient and thus improve their livelihood. There are occasions when innovations are triggered just by the urge to excel or to do something different and maybe better. Such innovators exist in all organisations, municipalities, private sector, educational institutions, villages, urban households or even roadside workshops.

Using a half-cut tyre as a bag for workshop tools was visible in Meghalaya as a simple incremental adaptation of waste material. Similarly, a cycle rim as a pulley for drawing water from the well was a common sight in Ranchi. These are small adaptations of available material for meeting local needs. But when students from polytechnics try to innovate and develop low-cost solutions for small entrepreneurs, they make a more significant statement. They assert their creativity and a very down-to-earth approach to making a difference in the world. It is a pity that educational planners at state and central levels continue to neglect such institutions.

So much is talked about promoting innovation but there is no venture fund to invest in the ideas of students at any level, particularly among ITIs and polytechnics. Even for students from engineering, pharmacy and other science and technological and management streams, one needs a low transaction cost fund to encourage talent. Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) is likely to come out with such a fund for socially useful innovations.

Let me illustrate some ideas that may deserve attention. Six students from the LE College of Morbi in Gujarat felt there was a need for a low-cost injection moulding machine. Kavit, Ashish, Hiren, Sharad, Shailesh and Mayur, under the guidance of professors Chavda and  Akhariya, designed a fully functional injection moulding machine in just about Rs 45,000. It can work as well as (if not better than) costlier – sometimes 10 times costlier – machines in terms of wax moulding for investment casting.

Five civil engineering students of the Dr S&SS Ghandhy College of Engineering and Technology, Surat –  Nekzad, Hemant, Divyen, Jaymin and Ismail – designed a traffic junction at Althan in that Gujarat city with following features: (i) speed breakers with rollers embedded underneath to generate energy when vehicles pass over them (an idea received by the National Innovation Foundation earlier), (ii) having sensors to  detect vehicular traffic for safe pedestrian flow over the zebra crossing, (iii) drain of junction to take water to a garden and (iv) planting trees that can absorb sound and reduce noise pollution.

Chetna, Priti and Sadhana, students of Sarvoday Polytechnic Institute, Limbdi (Gujarat), have developed a system by which at every bus stop, a sensor will detect the bus identity or number from 100 metres away and display it on a dotmatix display for the convenience of passengers.
What do all these innovations scouted through SRISTI’s Techpedia.in-Gujarat Technological University cooperation show? That a state which is industrially so advanced still has a long way to go to make the life of the people better – at low cost. If things are not improving fast enough, it is not because we don’t have enough creative youth, or the GTU is not encouraging the students enough, but just because policy makers lack the hunger for leveraging innovations for inclusive, green and sustainable development.