dna edit: Harnessing home-grown talent

Indians are an amazingly innovative and inventive people. Machines made for a particular purpose are easily adapted for other uses, sometimes with so much ease that one can’t help wondering why no one ever thought of that before. For instance, when about two decades ago, washing machines became popular in India, some clever milkmen began to use them to churn lassi.

Then, in villages, where public transport is erratic, some farmers merged a water pump with a few wheels to fashion a contraption that could pull a trolley and transport dozens of people. This popular innovation was called “jugaad”, which can best be approximated as “make-do”.

Now, some young kids from KJ Somaiya College have put together Jugaad ’13, a single-seater vehicle made of fibreglass and bicycle wheels, that offers an unbelievable 200 km per litre! Talk about finding a solution to rising fuel prices. This concept car will be shown at an international competition to be held in Malaysia. Whether the car wins an award or not, the 40 engineering students who put it together have shown talent of the kind that India needs to nurture and grow.

A few days ago, the European Inventor Awards honoured Ajay Bhatt for his role in inventing the USB (Universal Serial Bus) cord that most computer users today take for granted. Bhatt graduated from India and moved to the US, where he now works with Intel.

There are other inventors and innovators lurking in the shadows, simply waiting for an opportunity. India needs to make the emergence of such inventions and innovations a part of our daily life. We need institutions and awards that recognise talent and a system that can fund and utilise inventions.