Gujarat Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network (GIAN) was set up on March 1, 1997 with support from Government of Gujarat, Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA).
GIAN is registered under the Bombay Public Charitable Trust Act of 1861 as a Trust and a Society. All donations to GIAN are exempt from Income Tax under Section 80G(5) of the Income Tax Act.
GIAN West has been given the status of Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO) by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India.
Governing Board of GIAN comprises eminent academicians, policy framers and social workers. Representatives to the board are from Government of Gujarat, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Commercial Bodies such as Gujarat Venture Fund Limited and social organizations such as SEWA, SRISTI and Gopaldham (Gram Swaraj Shikshan Kendra).
GIAN’s major aim is to scale up and spawn grassroots innovations and help development of successful enterprises. In this effort it provide the innovators with adequate linkages to modern science and technology, market research, design institutions and funding organizations. The ultimate objective is to generate new models of poverty alleviation, rural development, employment generation and conservation of natural resources without impairing the ecological balance.
GIAN has since its inception functioned as an incubator for such grassroots innovations and has successfully launched ten such innovations as commercial products and five as social products in the market .
GIAN hopes that the success stories of these grassroots innovators may turn them into role models for our youth and help percolate the spirit and ethic of innovation, and enterpreneurship deep down their minds. We are hopeful that our small initiative will become a revolution with your participation for making these innovators a successful lot.
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Leveraging creativity of children for a new, invigorated and youthful India: 42-shodhyatra Kutch
Naresh, of Class 1, sambuvad, bowled us all over with his creativity. Just a five-year-old, Naresh was the third most young student giving a brilliant idea. Earlier, two students from Tamilnadu and Tripura were recognised with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Ignite awards by NIF. Naresh wanted the wind energy to be used for compressing air to run a pump and fill air in the tyres of vehicles.
It is not an uncommon sight to see the driver and a nurse of 108-ambulance struggling to lift the victim of an accident on the road to take him to the hospital. If the person is well built, the situation is tougher.
Krish, of Class 6, was very concerned and suggested a stretcher having a jack kind of lifting mechanism. Related to this, Vikas, Class 6, Medhapar, felt that whenever an accident takes place, an automatic message should get to call 108 ambulances.
Every year, birds get injured by the strings of kites. If Harish, of Class 7, Nilpar, had his way, then it will be mandatory for every string manufacturer to have a bird repellent substance coated on the string.
Care of injured birds or humans is so evident in these ideas. I wish we could absorb little more of empathy from our children so that our society becomes more kind and compassionate. We have all seen children sometimes watching TV from a close distance affecting their eyesight. Those who have spectacles sometimes don’t wear them. Ramdeo Kanji bhai, class 8, Sambuwad was very keen that TV should stop if somebody is sitting too close. Not a difficult thing to do technologically. There were dozens of more ideas no less impressive. Some were very practical though not very new. These had been sent to us by children earlier. For example, if one did not wear a helmet, the two-wheeler would not start. But, the ideas givers cannot be blamed for not knowing that others children had already submitted these ideas. One way to promote originality and innovativeness along with empathy and social sensitivity to share the list of awarded ideas with every school. The teachers may be encouraged to share these ideas over time with the children so that slowly and slowly, their awareness about these ideas would increase these could be painted on the wall or posted on the notice board in bold letters also. The problem is that we pay negligible attention to ignite the creativity of the children. Inspire-Manak programme seeks ideas from the half a million schools but does not yet focus on sharing the awarded ideas with all these schools. This is a problem even more evident at the higher education level. That’s why SRISTI made a database of two lac engineering projects by about five lac engineering students at techpedia.in. A similar database of children’s ideas will be developed by SRISTI, to create widespread awareness of children to make them more originally.
GIAN will work with SRISTI and designers and voluntary fabricator volunteers of the Honey Bee Network and try to convert some of these ideas into products with the help of NIF’s fab lab and SRISTIs natural product lab. If the banana skin can heal eye diseases, then we should thank Mata Daya of Lakavat, for sharing this insight learned from the elders in the family. Those of the readers who are sceptic about such claims may believe it when they visit the site steemit.com where a scientific report about its effect on cataract disease is mentioned. There are several other references.
Children are not just a sink of sermons but can be a valuable source of ideas. I hope education ministers of different states are listening so that Indian renaissance can be speeded up by making children an active partner in the country’s rapid progress. Unlike our generation, they will not learn to live with the problems unsolved indefinitely. Let us get ready for a new, invigorated and youthful India.
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