Indian Innovation, Not Jugaad - 100 Ideas that Transformed India

Dinesh C. Sharma

Description

As India turns 75, Innovating India unpacks 100 ideas that transformed a young democratic republic into a complex and thriving nation of a billion-plus people.
With compelling urgency and the lucidity of a skilled narrator, Dinesh C. Sharma writes of an India newly independent in 1947 after the British colonial powers left it to its own destiny, of its subsequent wavering journey through the decades all the way to a raging pandemic and of the small and big innovations that paved the way for India. In doing so, he turns on their heads prevailing notions of innovation often propagated in a galaxy of books on the much used and abused narrative of jugaad that romance the idea of how the ‘poor’ innovate to get by.
Very often, a bulk of the writing heavily focuses on technological, novel, IT or digital solutions and disruptions alone, most of which fizzle out as one-time wonders. Sharma does the difficult job of writing about the disruptions that revolutionized the way things were done in a particular sector and context. Covering policies, concepts, and institutions in areas such as, but not limited to, science, healthcare, education, governance, business, grassroots movements, agriculture, fashion, law and others, this is a book one needs to read to better understand India.
Propulsively put together, with effortless prose, Sharma’s writing, with his decades’ long journalistic understanding of science, technology, environment, and communities, is teeming with stories and anecdotes of innovations that went on to change the lives of Indians forever. From software parks to shampoos sachets, jan sunwais to oxygen langars, Lijjat papad to mohalla clinics, the Chipko movement to Khabar Lahariya, this is also the story of the unknown, unsung people behind these innovations that are continuing to shape India as we know it.

Sujets

• Gestion de carrière
• Efficacité professionnel
• Problem Solving
• Decision-Making
• Gestion et management
• Partido de la Causa Obrera
• Khabar Lahariya
• Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad
• ISD
• PCO
• Chipko movement
• Necessity
• Liberalization
• Economics
• Téléphone
• Pandemic
• Business
• Nonfiction
• Leadership
• Independence
• STD
• Innovation
• Marketing
• Entrepreneuriat

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 24 janvier 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789392130083
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

As India turns 75, Indian Innovation unpacks 100 ideas that transformed a young democratic republic into a complex and thriving nation of a billion-plus people. With compelling urgency and the lucidity of a skilled narrator, Dinesh C. Sharma writes of an India newly independent in 1947 after the British colonial powers left it to its own destiny, of its subsequent wavering journey through the decades all the way to a raging pandemic and of the small and big innovations that paved the way for India.
In doing so, he turns on their heads prevailing notions of innovation often propagated in a galaxy of books on the much used and abused narrative of jugaad that romance the idea of how the ‘poor’ innovate to get by. Very often, a bulk of the writing heavily focuses on technological, novel, IT or digital solutions and disruptions alone, many of which fizzle out as one-time wonders.
Sharma does the difficult job of writing about the original disruptions that revolutionized the way things were done in a particular sector and context. Covering policies, concepts, and institutions in areas such as, but not limited to, science, healthcare, education, governance, business, grassroots movements, agriculture, fashion, law and others, this is a book one needs to read to better understand India.
Propulsively put together with effortless prose, Sharma’s writing, with his decades’ long journalistic understanding of science, technology, environment, and communities, is teeming with stories and anecdotes of innovations that went on to change the lives of Indians forever. From software parks to shampoo sachets, jan sunwais to oxygen langars, Lijjat papad to mohalla clinics, the Chipko movement to Khabar Lahariya, this is also the story of the unknown, unsung people behind these innovations who are continuing to shape India as we know it.
 
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FORTHCOMING TITLE Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo Cartoos Saa
 

 
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© Dinesh C. Sharma, 2022
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I. The Revolutions
1. Green Revolution
2. White Revolution
3. Blue Revolution
4. Yellow Revolution
5. The Egg Revolution
6. IT Revolution
7. Communication Revolution
II. Food, Water and Sanitation
8. The Swaraj Tractor
9. India Mark II Deep Well Pump
10. Midday Meal Scheme
11. Ready-mixes for Indian Foods
12. Food for Work
13. Integrated Child Development Scheme
14. Right to Food
15. Sulabh Toilets
III. Health and Medical Research
16. National Family Planning Programme
17. ASHA
18. Generic Drugs
19. Affordable Vaccines
20. Pulse Polio
21. Aravind Eyecare Model
22. Affordable Heart Surgery
23. Universal Iodization of Salt
24. The Jaipur Foot
25. Oral Rehydration Therapy
26. Mohalla Clinics
27. Home-based Palliative Care
28. Open-source Drug Discovery
29. Swasthya Sahayak
30. Green Corridor for Organ Transplants
31. FELUDA and Low-cost Ventilators
32. Oxygen Langar
IV. Transport and Mobility
33. Three-wheeled Scooter Rickshaws
34. Maruti 800
35. REVA Electric Car
36. Delhi Metro Rail
37. E-rickshaws
38. Air Deccan: Affordable Air Travel
39. The Golden Quadrilateral
40. Yulu Shared E-bike
V. Information and Communication Technologies
41. Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)
42. Software Technology Parks
43. STD/PCO
44. Internet Kiosks
45. Simputer
46. Missed Call Marketing
47. Online Matchmaking
48. Chota Recharge
49. Traditional Knowledge Digital Database
VI. Governance, Public Utilities and Law
50. Indelible Ink and Other Ideas
51. Electronic Voting Machines
52. Computerized Passenger Railway Reservations
53. Bhoomi
54. Lok Adalats
55. Employment Guarantee
56. Public Interest Litigation
57. Cyclone Warning
58. Right to Information
59. Social Audits
60. Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar
61. Jan Dhan Yojana
VII. Education
62. Indian Institutes of Technology
63. Indian Institutes of Management
64. All India Institute of Medical Sciences
65. National Institute of Design
66. Total Literacy Campaign
67. Navodaya Vidyalaya
68. Birla Industrial and Technological Museum
69. Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research
70. Foldscopes
71. Happiness Curriculum
VIII. Grassroots Technologies and Movements
72. Improved Chulha
73. Nutan Wick Stove
74. Sachet Revolution
75. Sanitary Pad-making Machine
76. Honey Bee Network
77. Lijjat Papad
78. SEWA Microfinance Model
IX. Art, Culture, Cinema, Architecture, Sports
79. Playback Singing
80. Binaca Geet Mala
81. Indipop
82. SPIC-MACAY
83. Nehru Jacket
84. Designer Khadi
85. Festivals of India
86. Palace on Wheels
87. Dilli Haat
88. Birla Mandir
89. Chandigarh
90. Laurie Baker Architecture
91. Indian Premier League
X. Environment and People’s Movements
92. Project Tiger
93. Chipko Movement
94. Revival of Arvari
95. Navdanya Seed Bank
96. Dhara Vikas
97. Barefoot Engineers
98. Artificial Glaciers
99. Khabar Lahariya
100. MigrantWatch: Citizen Science
About the Author
 
Acknowledgements
Drawing up a mega list of innovations spanning decades and across sectors can be challenging, hazardous and vulnerable to criticism. Here is how I navigated through this.
To begin with, let’s look at the advantages. I have lived through a large part of the period the book covers. In that sense, it is broadly a journey of exploring innovations that impacted the lives of people of my generation. Procuring grains from a ration shop was a routine activity for millions of Indians in the 1960s. Kids would often be sent to ‘fair price’ shops to check if the stock of wheat had arrived. This was because the food supplies were erratic and dependent on imports. I also remember the images of lush green farms, signalling the Green Revolution, in the Films Division newsreels screened in cinema halls. Just as the grain supplies were easing, the Oil Shock hit us in the early 1970s, making kerosene scarcer. The response came in the form of a red-and-green wick stove named ‘Nutan’, which made its appearance in millions of Indian kitchens. Its blue flame became the talk of the town. The long waiting list for a landline phone connection, serpentine queues to book a railway ticket or trying to buy a car in ‘black’ were all part of the folklore of the 1970s and 1980s. Innovations and creative policy changes helped us address them all. The economic liberalization and globalization in the 1990s and beyond ushered in several changes. This lived experience was at the back of my mind while drawing up a list of post-Independence innovations.
In addition, my professional experience of writing a book on the history of electronics and computing a few years back has helped me develo