Exploring Indigenous Innovations

EXPLORING INDIGENOUS INNOVATIONS:

Ascertaining the Scope for Design Interventions for their Successful Commercialization

Shashank Mehta Faculty of Industrial Design, National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India, e-mail: shashank@nid.edu and Ravi Mokashi-Punekar Associate Professor, Department of Design, IIT Guwahati e-mai: mokashi@iitg.ernet.in

Synopsis It has now been recognized that indigenous innovations are crucial for any developing nation in order to achieve cumulative growth, both economically and socially. These innovations, as they will be mostly in the form of appropriate modifications in the existing products, will require further critical interventions and hand-holding efforts for their transition into markets. Design intervention can help bring in the much needed empathetic understanding and holistic vision to connect and integrate the various efforts towards a positive outcome. One would come across amazing indigenous innovations in India that can be developed into marketable products and thereby help in creating business success. These could provide vital directions for a country like India, to transform into an innovation-driven economy. Innovation – A Necessity Tom Peters reminds us in “California Management Review”: ‘Get Innovative or Get Dead’. Innovation, has long been recognized, as a major driving force in economic growth and social development. According to the Growth Theory, developed by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow, technological progress and innovation is the greatest engine of economic growth. Studies have shown that industrial policies of the world’s developed nations give importance to the strategic role of innovations in generating new business ideas which will translate into greater economic growth. For any country aspiring to become a developed nation, it is imperative therefore, to transit to the innovation-driven economy (Goh 2005). Economic condition of business organizations and the society as a...