Fireflies of creativity will brighten future-II

This sixth edition of the awards is the first time we are recognising herbal technologies for communities whose knowledge has withstood test of rigorous scientific scrutiny in an unambiguous manner.

It is likely that many more technologies will be recognised in this category. It may be worthwhile to mention that for last 8-10 years, we did not recognise many herbal technologies for animal and human purposes as they took a long time for validation. These awards are a belated recognition of the vibrant and viable traditional knowledge systems of the country.

NIF seeks active help from designers, fabricators, R&D institutions, mentors and other marketing and media support agencies for giving new wings to ideas and imagination of the common people.

Some of the new initiatives started by NIF in last few years are creation of Technology Acquisition Fund [TAF] for expanding public domain and strengthening open innovation platform; creation of innovation based incubators through setting up of community fabrication workshops at the place of different distinguished grassroots innovators to nurture innovation in their neighbourhood; mobilising CSR resources from international companies such as Alstom for diffusing technologies such as low-cost windmill from the poorest people such as salt workers; establishment of Fab Lab with MIT Boston which now finds application among innovators, young and old; and partnership with not only R&D institutions but also large marketing firms like the Future Group for taking ideas forward through the market channels.

The social diffusion of innovations is also receiving much more support than ever before because of augmented resources of NIF after it became an institution with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

I take this opportunity to thank all stakeholders including directors on the governing board, Department of Science and Technology, various R&D institutions belonging to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Medial Research (ICMR) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

We are also thankful to other universities and colleges, private designers and design institutions, intellectual property firms and the large number of volunteers with Honey Bee Network. I must particularly thank all members of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) without whose support it would have been impossible for NIF to have made so much progress. Everybody including students, staff, faculty and administration has wholeheartedly supported all initiatives of NIF.

I hope that more and more entrepreneurs and scientists and public and private companies will come forward to join hands with NIF to make this Decade of Innovation a truly inclusive one.

However, I must add a small regret at the end for which we have not found any answer. This is about extreme imbalance between available resources and tasks ahead. If we stop scouting for any further innovations and ideas, at this rate of budget, it might take us a few centuries to just properly screen, validate and add value to people's knowledge.

The fact is that flow of knowledge will continue, may be at a higher rate. If such is the case, then how will we be able to do justice to aspirations of creative communities and individuals of our country?

I thank staff and volunteers of NIF, SRISTI, GIAN and other partner institutions for their unstinted support to make grassroots innovations movement of our country a global benchmark.

I hope that we will be able to make a small difference in the lives of common people by disseminating the knowledge, innovations and practices of creative communities and individuals recognised in the award function.