Asia and the Pacific Incubator Conference (AAPIC)

Hanoi, 3-6 October, 2007

Innovation, Incubation @ GrassrootsInnovation, Incubation @ Grassroots

Sandeep Sharma

Chief Innovation Officer (A), National Innovation Foundation & Hon. Advisor, SRISTI

sandeep@nifindia.org, info@nifindia.org

Phone: +91-79-26732095 / 2456, Fax : +91-79-26731903

Honey Bee Network

A faceless, nameless person, unrecognized innovator, comes in touch with network, gets the identity, recognition,

respect and reward

What Logo says …

Honey Bee

A philosophy of discourses which is authentic, accountable and fair and believes in:

• Networking in local languages • People to people (P2P) learning• Sharing of benefits • Database of Grassroots Innovations &

outstanding tk practices

SRISTI(Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable

Technologies and Institutions)

www.sristi.orgEmail : honeybee@sristi.org

Give me a place to stand, I will move

the world

SRISTI : The primary institutional support mechanism for Honey Bee network

Objectives :

To strengthen the creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and other resources, developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems

Activities

• Networking, scouting, verification, documentation and dissemination of grassroots knowledge

• Electronic Textual and Multi-media Database

• Validation and Value Addition

• Campaigning, Awareness Building and Knowledge Dissemination

• ICT initiatives

• Policy Level Advocacy

• Transfer of technology

• AASTIIK

NETWORKINGCollaboration with multiple stakeholders: Gram Vidyapeethas, Local Honey Bee Network Collaborators, Green Cultivators, Grassroots Innovators, Regional and National Collaborators , Institutions of Higher learning at National and International Levels

SCOUTING, VERIFICATION & DOCUMENTATION• Survey of odd balls in the villages • Organizing competition for scouting of innovations• Organizing biodiversity contests among school children • Shodh Yatras (Journey of Exploration)• Detailed Studies through students• Scanning of old literature

SHODH YATRA

Biodiversity Contests

Encouraging Children to Explore and Understand Biodiversity

• Publication of Honey Bee newsletter in six regional languages

• Publication of books on traditional knowledge practices, grassroots innovations etc.

• Participation in fairs, exhibitions,seminars

• Road shows, advertisements• Shodh Sankals • Clearing house• Annual Meetings of the Honey

Bee Network• Workshops, Conferences and

publications in local language• Website

DISSEMINATION

ELECTRONIC TEXTUAL & MULTI-MEDIA DATABASE

• Honey Bee multimedia multilingual database of 4500 practices (www.sristi.org)

•Database on Technological Innovations

• GILD: Multimedia Database (MMDB) on Traditional Knowledge, Grassroots Innovation

• Multi media Database on Medicinal Plants

• Proximal and Remote Access to touch screen and online databases

• Screening of the Practices

• On-station and on-farm experiments

• Laboratory testing and value addition

• R & D on farm and non farm machinery

• Value Addition to Products

• Launch of Herbavate and Herbal growth promoters and pesticides

VALIDATION & VALUE ADDITION RESEARCH

Sadbhav-SRISTI-Sansodhan Lab

CAMPAIGNING, AWARENESS BUILDING &

KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION

• Bio-diversity contests during Shodh Yatra.

• Traditional Food Festivals: Sattvik.

• Talks and seminars by Prof Gupta at various national and international forums.

GIAN Model: The GOLDEN TRIANGLEfor Rewarding Creativity

Innovation

InvestmentEnterprise

KnowledgeNetwork

GIAN-West

GIAN-North

GIAN-North East

GIAN Cells

Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network Activities

GIAN mainly performs the following activities:

• Incubation Support• Intellectual Property Protection• Venture Promotion • Benefit Sharing amongst stakeholders

National Innovation Foundation

Setup in in February 2000, by DST, GOI, as an autonomous society

The key purpose is to build upon Honey Bee philosophy, and provide a nurturing platform to unsung heroes/heroines of our society who have solved a technological problem through their own genius without any outside help.

NIF is committed to make India innovative by documenting, adding value, protecting intellectual property rights, disseminating on commercial as well as non-commercial basis, the contemporary unaided technological innovations as well as outstanding examples of traditional knowledge.

National Competition on Grassroots Innovations & TK

Functions

Scouting Scouting andand

DocumentationDocumentation

Dissemination &Dissemination &Information Information TechnologyTechnology

Value AdditionValue Addition& Product& Product

DevelopmentDevelopment

IPRs IPRs ManagementManagement

NIFNIF

EnterpriseEnterprise& Business & Business

DevelopmentDevelopment

Animal Science House Hold Innovation

Idea

Animal health & hygiene (disease/pest)Animal ProductionHerbal Formulation for Animal DiseasesPisciculture

EngineeringMechanicalElectricalComputerCivil/construction

TransportFarm VehicleVehicles for rural/urban Transportation

Food and nutritionEquipments

MechanicalElectricalTransportHousehold/consumerEnergyAgricultureOthers

Artisans

Energy

Human Health Practices

RuralUrbanTraditional Crafts

Energy generationEnergy conservation

AllopathicCosmeticsTraditionalHerbalAyurvedicAcupunctureHomeopathicOthers

Natural Resource ManagementProductsPollution Control Practices

Agriculture

ForestryAgro forestrySilvi - horticultureSilvipastoralForest based productsOthers

AgronomyPlant VaritiesWater managementWeather IndicatorsRural MachineryPlant protection TechniqueHerbal Formulations for Crop ProtectionLand ManagementHorticultureMushroom cultivationOthers (Ericulture, sericulture)Food and Agro processingFarm MachineryNon-Farm Technique/MachineryBiotechnology

INNOVATION CATEGORIES

Collected more than 70,000 innovations & tk from over 450 districts of India (till 5th competition)

Honoured 302 outstanding Innovations & TK till fourth competition

163 patent applications filed in India, 7 filed in USA, 23 granted in India, 5 in order for grant in India, 3 granted in USA, 1 filed under PCT

89 enterprise investments (through MVIF), 28 technology transfers in India and 1 in US

g2G : Products sent to six continents

KEY STATISTICS – All India

Case study on Social Diffusion

Modified hand pump

Origin

• The improved hand pump is a combination of two innovations recognized by NIF during its second and third National Competition of grassroots innovations and tk practices

• One of the innovation was an idea

Issues addressed1.Over drawing of water

other than actual requirement– diameter of conventional pump outlet is usually 2” which leads to high discharge volume and therefore wastage of water also

Issues addressed

2.Water not available for animals-Although there is a lot of runoff, water is not retained over ground thus making it unavailable for wild and farm animals

Issues addressed3.Uncomfortable

position for drawing water and drinking at the same time, with a lot of water wastage

The solution

• New hand pump has a provision of 25% water donation for the animal (TDS) trough, which is collected from the runoff

• A provision of about 1 liter water storage inside the head of the pump which can be utilized through a tap for use as a drinking source just by pumping once

Dissemination• Installations at Danta and Sikar

districts of Rajasthan through gram panchayats with support from GIAN-North

• A total of 120 hand pumps were modified and provided to PHED for installation at selected sites

• Expenses incurred were met from the fund provided by HDFC to GIAN-North

• Water Resource Management, GoR is pursuing the matter with the concerned authorities to make it mandatory for all the installations

Development & Commercialization of Cotton Stripper Machine

– success story of incubating grassroots innovations

In the dry cotton growing tracts of Gujarat and other parts of the coutry, there are some varieties of cotton (Kalyan – V 797, G-13 etc.) where the lint is tightly attached to the inner side of the shell. This lint has to be stripped from the shell before ginning. This is a laborious process, manually carried out usually by women and children labour.

Genesis of Innovation

Shri Mansukhbhai Patel, Studied up to 7th standard, An Electrician in Textile mill by profession & farmer from Gujarat solved the problem. He was scouted by a student of Gram Vidhyapith in the year 1997.

•It totally replaces the manual method of separating cotton from the harvested cotton shells.

•Social relevance - reduces drudgery of women and child labour

•Wider commercial application

As an answer to this problem, Mansukhbhai developed a machine which mechanically strip the cotton lint from the shell in a faster & efficient manner and leave it ready for ginning.

INNOVATION

A unique solution to a tedious, manual process Social relevance-reduces drudgery of women and child labourIncreasing efficiency & Quality of output by eliminating staple cuttingWider socio-commercial application

Selection criteria:

Performance Features:

INR. 2,51, 000/-(USD -6275/-)

800 kg/ hrMini Jambo model12 HP ( 8 KW / hr)

INR. 4,41,000/-(USD – 11025/-)

1500 Kg/ hrJombo Model15 HP (10 Kw / hr)

Price (1 $ = 40 INR)Capacity:Model

Results in much higher running cost

A labour can process 20 kgs of cotton in a day

Children and women are the labors, who are engaged in this cumbersome and low value task

Gets lower price in the market due to poor quality output

Inferior quality of cotton output

Cotton is wasted in case of un-seasonal rains due to deterioration

Extremely cumbersome and tiresome process

Manual Separation of cotton from shell

Traditional Process

Cover all its cost within a single season

Can operate 800 Kgs of Cotton in an hour

Requires only 2 labors at any point of time to handle the operation

Fetches higher price in the market due to better quality

Superior quality of cotton output

Faster processing saves cotton from deterioration in case of un-seasonal rains

Extremely easy to handle, efficient and effective

A completely mechanized process

Cotton Stripper Machine

Comparison with conventional methods

The machine required just three workers and processed 100-160 Kg of cotton per hour. Innovator exhibited this model among the villagers. Mansukhbhai himself was not satisfied with this model, still the design was largely appreciated by those witnessing the exhibition.

Roller with fillet

Spike Roller

First Prototype:( 1992)

First Demonstration in village

A fiend who was manager in local cooperative financed innovator Rs 150,000/- ( USD 3750/-) as a loan and innovator further worked for a year on removing the shortcomings of his first model. He completed his next model before the start of next season.

New components Introduced

•Net •Aluminum conveyor •Added super cleaner rollers

•Wheels

Second Prototype

Two shaft were used in this model. All around the radius of the shaft spikes are protruding out. With the help of the spiked shaft, the balls was opened up to access the cotton instead of crushing it. This increased the quality of cotton to a great extent. In addition to breaking up balls shells this shaft alsotransported the seeds from the feeding roller to the super cleaning rollers. The super cleaners were used to transport the balls to the wire meshed roller. This does the primitive cleaning of the balls.

This model was developed during off season and it was not introduced to the market. A modified version of this model was developed for the season in the month of October, 1995.

Spiked shaft introduced in model in model -3

Concept Model : 4 ( 1995)

In this model 4, two large rollers of different RPM with wire mesh were used . Introduction of these two wire meshed wheels , the life of these wheel were further increased upto about 30,000 kg of processing.

Innovator used to provide these machines to cotton processing plants on rent and run them under his own supervision and observation. This way he was able to accurately monitor the performance of machines.

As shown fig, one more brushing wheel and one more small roller with fillet was used corresponding to the second large roller with wire meshing introduced in model 4.

Around 15 machines of this model were sold. The performance of these machines was much better than previous machines. Still there were some shortcomings in the model.

Concept model & Prototype 5 ( 1998 )

A very detailed and comprehensive market and feasibility study was carried out for the machine. The study also included development of Project Management plan for the innovator for his anticipated shift into commercial production.

Concept Model : 6 (2000) – Mr. Alexander, a German student from National Institute of Design has provided

inputs and TePP (DSIR) provided financial support

The machine contains two 5HP motors one of which rotates the Blower and the spike shaft and other rotates three big rollers. There is also another 2HP motor, which is used to run smaller brush rollers. In this model , innovator has offered full guarantee for one season to the customers. This confidence has been gained over a decade of indigenous R&D on the prototype.

Model 7 – Final Commercial Model named as Millennium Model (2001)

Stage wise development………….

Commercial model – ready for dispatch

IPR Protection:

India patent awarded on Feb 6 , 2006 ,No: 198755

US patent Awarded on April 8, 2003. US 6, 543, 091B2

•Innovator himself become Entrepreneur – Established ChetakAgro Industries ( October 2000)

•Initial venture fund has been provided by SRISTI (Oct 2001)

•GIAN has arranged working capital through commercial banks

•Market research & business plan prepared by GIAN ( 2000)

•About 400 machines have been sold in last five years.

•Today he is a owner of one big and small five companies. Total turnover of group companies is around 500,000 USD (2 crore INR)

•Pioneer in setting up Innovators’ fund for innovator’s of western region of India and made open offer to the other innovators to use his workshops free of charge. Today his industries is like a regional incubator for local innovators.

Business Development

1997 - From Scrap to …….

2007 - Solid Ampire…….

THANKS

THE ICT INITIATIVES

Touch screen Kiosk in villages (1997), The InfoDev Project by World Bank.

GILD project by NISSAT

Multimedia, multi-lingual database

Indiainnovates.com portal and other portals

Online incubation system

Objectives

•To allow entrepreneurs to pick up innovations for production, marketing, etc. based on licenses or deals and profit-share with innovator

•To facilitate potential investors by providing them searchable database of Innovations to view and make investment decisions with total control of sharing information to different people online or on request

• To provide collaborative tools, eg. forums, file-sharing capabilities, whiteboards, etc. to support collaborative development efforts

• To make it available in a multilingual interface for maximum applicability among regional masses

INDIA INNOVATES PORTAL(www.indiainnovates.com)

InnovationPedia

INDIA INNOVATES PORTAL(InnovationPedia)

Allows an Innovator to register his innovation and avail the following services from the portal:

Research support from Supporting institutions and other bodies

Funds from interested investors perusing the siteService providers: people or firms pursuing the site ready

to provide Marketing Research, Mfr, Sales, marketing services

Patent related supportExpert opinionTo allow Supporting Institutions to browse for the

problems to pursue research for value additionMaximum number of enquiries

INDIA INNOVATES PORTAL(InnovationPedia)

Have the following pages in a logical sequence:

The innovation categories coveredProduct InnovationsProcess InnovationsTraditional KnowledgeThe user categories for each category of InnovationInnovatorLicenseeVenture PartnerService ProviderFund ProviderCustomerConsultantGuestRegistered UsersSupporting Institutional Member

Features of the portal

Innovation EntryMarketingBenchmarkingMarket ResearchPrototypingTechnical EnhancementsDeal MakingSalesProfit SharingForum PostingProcess ExperimentationValue Chain for each innovation to go throughDatabase detailsScreen detailsTechnology to be used

INDIA INNOVATES PORTAL(InnovationPedia)

What is InnovationPedia?

• InnovationPedia is a web-application and portal which aims at providing an online platform for incubating grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge

• People from varied background can contribute in the distributed manner from around the world in the incubation chain

• Technologies available for licensing on exclusive as well as non-exclusive basis for potential/existing micro, small and large entrepreneurs

• Poly-centric propagation of open source technologies,

• Knowledge asset tools to facilitate the submission of comments, text, photo, video, speech etc.

• Processes:– Transaction costs of different actors have to

be reduced so that golden triangle linking innovation, investment and enterprise gets formed

– Clearing houses– Road shows– Advertisement, Web portal – Industry associations– Word of mouth– Knowledge network

InnovationPediaA platform Online Incubation of Grassroots Innovations

The Incubation Value Chain

• Scouting• Documentation • Prior Art Search• Prior Informed Consent• Gathering further details• Verification & Validation• Intellectual Property Rights• Value Addition and R&D• Business Development• Benefit sharing • Dissemination

Key features of InnovationPedia

• Centralised knowledge pool/bank/platform • Multi-language –multi-media user interface and content

– can communicate information in any language– ( First mm-ml Honey bee database was shared at

global knowledge conference, Toronto, 1997, there are very few if any such databases even after ten years, suggesting that illiterate people who want to learn in their mother tongue and from not just local but also exotic knowledge are not yet clients of the information technology application community) )

• Ability to archive multimedia content – all media related to innovations can also be stored centrally

• Web-based application – can be accessed from anywhere with a web browser

Scouting for Innovations• Primarily by collaborators and scouts who are a part of

the network or based on submissions by innovators themselves

Is it an innovation: Prior art search• Searches done using contact with industrial clusters,

market survey ( since most SSIs and SMEs do not have as yet web presence) patent & other databases, Internet, journals and other publication archives

Prior Informed Consent from Innovators

• Permission from innovators on how their innovations should be protected or shared and how should benefits be shared among innovators, their communities, nature, women and innovation fund etc.

Formula for sharing of benefits

Category Benefit ratio

Innovator 30Nature 05Community 05Innovation Fund 20Research & Field Trials 15Overhead expenses 15Contingency Fund 05Women Fund 05

Total 100

Detailed Scouting Information

• Collecting more complete and detailed information from innovators

Verifying and Validating Innovations

• Benchmarking, testing, on-farm trials, clinical trials etc.

Managing Intellectual Property Rights

• Registering patents, protecting innovators IPRs, trademark, copyright

Value Addition and R&D –Augmenting Innovations

• Adding value to innovations through experts, collaborators, CSIR/ICMR/BSI, SCAIs and others, and continued R&D

Business Development

• Creating a business case for innovations through market research, business plans and licensing

Storing multimedia content

• InnovationPedia provides means of uploading and browsing rich media content related to innovations

• These can be downloaded, shared and used whenever required

Overcoming three barriers in lateral learning: Language, Literacy and Localism

• Being able to share details of innovations in multiple languages and media is one of the major goals of InnovationPedia( three barriers identified in HBN for dissemination and lateral learning are: language, literacy and localism). Therefore :

• The user interface can be translated into any language• Complete multiple language support is built using

standards-based Unicode technology and is platform and browser independent

• Translation can be done collaboratively so that anyone knowing English and an additional language can help in translation

The Collaboration Portal

• Enables public registration for various types collaborators: innovators, students, experts, entrepreneurs, academics, researchers, translators ...

• Portal participants can discuss innovations, give feedback to innovators, leave audio comments on innovations, add value by way of translation or improvements, license innovations for further business development and so on

• The main idea is to extend the reach and effectiveness of grassroots innovations in multiple ways

How is InnovationPedia developed?

• Completely implemented using Free / Open Source Software on the GNU/Linux operating system

• Uses the best in web-technology to deliver ease of use and convenience

• Extremely low cost of deployment and running• Extendable to include more features in the future

Process / Methodology :

• The ready –to- be- commercialized technology to be handed over to the entrepreneur(s) who are interested in scaling up the current technology to the level of entrepreneurship.

• Entrepreneur has to sign the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) • Two ways - Exclusive and Non-exclusive rights of

manufacturing & / or marketing against the monetary gain in form various mode of payment basis

• SRISTI/GIAN to act as a nodal agency for offer and negotiation for execution of agreement and its follow up

• Entrepreneurs has to pay money either by way of down payment or it can be a combination of down payment and royalty on Sales turnover of the business.

• The financial offer may vary depending upon the nature of rights and geographical area / territory

• The purchaser will have no right to transfer the technology to any sub party

• Agreement period

Technology Transfer

Planing for technology transfer

Notification / Advertisement

Evaluation of offer received

Short listing the potential parties

Final Selection

Entering into Agreement

Monitoring the agreement implementation

Evaluation / Feed back

Steps involved in Technology Transfer

• Idea licensing• Innovator needs support for proof of concept• Innovator develops proof of concept, needs financial support for further prototyping• Innovator comes up with prototype and entrepreneur gets involved in developing a commercially viable product• Innovator turns into an entrepreneur• Innovator develops technology, licenses to entrepreneur• Innovator develops prototype and commercialize through SHG model• Joint Venture : Innovator and Entrepreneur• Corporate Acquiring Technology

Models followed by us in Technology Transfer

Initiatives by SRISTI

• 20 years of experience - managing innovations, incubation, value addition, IPRs, commercialisation and dissemination – cross-sectoral and cross-regional

• First International competition of innovations with IFAD – 75 countries during Global Knowledge conference. Award ceremony in Malaysia and second competition during Asia pacific conference in Bangkok

• An APCTT and SRISTI’s initiative :

Building Capacity for Scouting, Documentation, DatabaseDevelopment and Dissemination of Green Grassroots Innovations in Asia Pacific Region – 11 countries

• Global GIAN – An initiative of India, Brasil and China

- All managed with least resources and utmost frugality

Partnership with InfoDev

• No formal sector working on grassroots innovations – separate & special consideration for GRI

• Mission going on through various projects, however, the duration is small

• To enhance the capacity of Governments and other stakeholders in exploiting grassroots innovations in the Asian and Pacific countries

• International competition where entries will be assessed by SRISTI and Award presentation during National Award Function of NIF

• Development of multimedia multilingual content

• Strengthening the incubation portal (posting of technologies, feedback to innovators, whiteboard, technology discussion forum) and linkages with other sites

• Innovation museum

• Mobile exhibition

• Promotion of lateral market through SHGs

• MVIF for /and micro incubators

Thank You

…Making India Innovative

www.sristi.orgwww.nifindia.orgwww.nif.org.inwww.gian.org

www.honeybee.orgwww.indiainnovates.com