INDIA’S GROWING TECHNOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY

Another very interesting article in the Business Line dated 7th November 2011

  that totally caught my attention was about Harnessing diffused creative knowledge.

Its about this book called “The India Idea: Heralding the era of path-breaking innovations” by L.K.Sharma, where he talks about how the interplay between society and technology has been intensified, each influencing the other, and how its full force is being felt in India.

Reminding us that satellites and mobile phones are providing education, expert advice, weather information and other critical information to farmers, fishermen, patients, and students, Sharma paints a reassuring picture of the Indian villager who once had to trudge miles to sell her farm produce at whatever price she got: “Today she gets the mandi price on the cell phone before setting out for the market, averting exploitation.” Likewise, “On a Village Resource Centre(VRC) computer, the farmer sees an image of his small plot taken by a remote-sensing satellite, gets to know its soil characteristics and a list of recommended crops.” Interesting isn’t it?

LIFE SAVING SMS

A chapter titled “Indian needs, Indian solutions” lists more than a dozen snippets, ranging from the streaming of moving images to villages, to the triggering of irrigation pump remotely by a mobile phone by Santosh Ostwal. In the context of recent cap on SMS, it should be interesting to learn that mobile phone msgs – generally derided for the signals of love sent by the young, advertising texts by the businesses and the effective use by activists – can also save lives, thus: “Veerampattinam, a fishing village near Puducherry, used to lose seven to eight ppl every year to the tidal waves. But since 1998 not a single life has been lost at sea. Now the fishermen know in advance when it is dangerous to go fishing.”

There is a also a snatch about Gautam Kumar, winner of the 2011 Technology Review Social Innovator award , for developing a fire alarm system/device, Suraksha, that consists of a sensor that smells gas(in case of cooking gas leakage) and sends SMS to five registered users.

R.A.Mashelkar’s piece on “Inclusive innovation” is all about MLM, more performance by using less resources for more people(rather than for more profit). Tata Nano you know, but ‘nano’ refrigerator, may come as a surprise to many! Developed by Godrej and Boyce, the ChotuKool is ‘world’s cheapest refrigerator with a $69 price tag’. The portable, top-opening unit weighs only 7.8kgs, uses high end insulation to stay cool for hours without power and consumes half the energy used by regular refrigerators. It does not uses a compressor but runs on a cooling chip and a fan similar to that used in computers.

WASH CYCLE

Another example of innovation showcased in the chapter is the pedal-driven rural washing machine that can work without electricity. Remya, a Kerala school girl, developed it bcos she had this incredible combination of constraints coupled with her inspirations. “Her father was down with cancer. Her mother was perennially ill. She had to change 3 buses to go to school, come home and do her studies. She created this washing machine, so that she could read, while the clothes were being washed, while she pedalled away.” 

Interesting to know how India’s growing connectivity is helping improve rural development. I would recommend all the readers of my blog to definitely read this book. If you can get ur hands on it, nothing like it! A celebration of innovation, which can leave you asking for more!!