Social Innovation
in India
Social
Innovation:
The products, services, process or technology
innovations that cater to the needs of the under privileged sections of society
are termed Social Innovations.
The
need:.
A.
In Industry:
· The
Indian industrial sector is heavily dependent on imported technology. This
makes it weak and vulnerable.
· The
cost associated with imported technology is much higher than that of a
domestic, in-house technology. This additional cost is passed on to the
consumer and makes it a luxurious unaffordable product to the low income
groups.
Examples:
1. In the nuclear energy
sector, we import expertise, reactors, auxiliary parts and spares from
abroad. For example, The Light Water Reactor (LWR) technology employed at
Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (Agreement between India and Russia signed in
1988) is a first of its kind in India. The NPCIL is completely dependent on
Russia for the design, drawings and all the equipments necessary. The project
failed to take off for the next decade, due to the dissolution of the Soviet
Union.
2. In transport sector,
the Chennai Metro Project for example, imports train coaches from Brazil (
Company: Alstom ). This is despite the fact that one of India’s largest and
oldest coach manufacturing facilities (The Integral Coach Factory, Perambur) is
located within the Chennai Metropolitan area. This clearly indicates that
though we are experts in manufacturing traditional, well-established products
we lack expertise when it comes to new arenas as a direct consequence of lack
of innovation especially innovation of the social kind.
B.
For Inclusiveness of the under privileged:
In a country with a large economic
divide such as ours, social innovation is mandatory for the inclusive growth of
all sections of society.
Example:
· In India, only the middle and
high income groups can afford proper housing while the low income groups depend
on the government for housing. However, conventional construction methods are costly
and time consuming,
thus restricting the government’s ability to provide effective housing to all
those in need and they end up living in cramped, potentially unsafe conditions
with poor sanitation facilities such as slums.
· At IIT Madras, technologists
have constructed a two-storey apartment in 31 days at very low costs. If this
is mentored and funded on an industrial scale, it could go a long way in
eliminating slums in India.
C.
For Bridging the Urban – Rural divide:
Technological innovations are targeted
majorly towards the urban population. This leaves the rural population backward
and denies them several opportunities such as education, exposure and
white-collared employment.
Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
· Fostering
and nurturing entrepreneurship is crucial for social innovations to take place.
· Old,
established institutions and industries find it difficult to adapt to new
challenges and demands. They react to social innovations slowly and with
caution because of the risks of failure. However, new enterprises and start-ups
which are born from social innovations constantly work towards
transforming their lab prototypes into successful market-ready wholesome
products.
· These
start-up enterprises and the entrepreneurs driving them have to be mentored,
supported with resources and insulated from the ill-effects of failure by
the government.
· The
student community, especially the bright minds in our prestigious
national technology institutions must be encouraged to become entrepreneurs
because they show the maximum interest and capability towards entrepreneurship.
Challenges
Faced by Social Entrepreneurs:
· Most
talented minds go abroad for pursuing their research due to sub standard
R&D facilities in India’s higher education institutions which is in
turn, due to the lack of capital.
· The
target market is the low income group. Thus, the innovation must be of
low cost and high quality and durability.
· The
actual transformation of a lab prototype into a marketable product is often
associated with very high initial investments with no assurance of immediate
profits.
· A
prototype that functions perfectly
in a lab environment may fail completely in the real world or be rejected by
the intended target market.
· Lack
of mentoring in skills and methods by industry
persons.
· Innovators
lack clarity about Intellectual Property rights. The Protection and Utilization of Public
Funded Intellectual Property Bill, (PUPFIP) has been pending in Parliament since 2008. If passed, it could help to leverage
the best out of the intellectual properties of patents and enable innovators to
earn more revenue from their innovations.
· Alumni involvement
in the governing boards of universities is non-existent in government
institutes in India. The top 19 of the 20 universities of the U.S NEWS rankings
are run predominantly by their alumni. Alumni involvement will ensure that the
university’s interests are most supreme and everything else is secondary.
Measures
taken to foster Social Innovation:
1. Establishment of Research
Parks at IIT (Madras):
a.
Research Parks are arenas where
students and entrepreneurs can showcase their innovations to industry persons
and interact with them.
b.
Industry persons can provide more
information on the real world scenario and market trends which the
entrepreneurs lack and can serve as “mentors”
c.
Chances of winning sponsorships or
funding from the industry for worthy innovations.
2. The Science, Technology and
Innovation (STI) Policy, 2013:
a.
SRISHTI= Science, Research and innovation system for High
technology led path for India.
b.
The Prime Minister
launched this policy for faster, sustainable and inclusive growth.
c.
The policy
envisages the following:
i.
Positioning India
among the top 5 scientific powers by 2020
ii.
PPP (Public
Private Partnership) to increase R&D spending upto 2% of GDP within 5
years.
iii.
Treating R&D
in the private sector at par with public institutions for availing public
funds.
iv.
Making careers in
R&D and innovation more attractive to the talented minds and retaining them
within the country.
v.
Establish large
R&D facilities through PPP.
vi.
Provide new
financing methods to entrepreneurs to encourage them.
vii.
Gender parity to
be achieved by bringing in more women researchers.
viii.
Providing
incentives to innovations focused on “Green Manufacturing” i.e Innovations that
are environment-friendly.
ix.
The Science and
Technology Boards / Councils in the States to be strengthened.
x. Science
Diplomacy – forging strategic
partnerships with other countries to develop state of the art research
facilities.
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Conclusion:
· Though
concrete steps towards fostering social innovation such as the STI – 2013
policy are being taken by the government, the goals envisioned must be made
measurable, time-bound, regulated and monitored.
· Government
must realize that bringing R&D facilities to global standards cannot be
done overnight and must analyze and learn from the failures of the earlier
policies.
· Government
must monitor whether the incentives it awards to private entities are not
misused and whether the beneficiaries contribute actively towards
development of social goods.
