Grassroots innovation-based entrepreneurs in Indian villages have a deep understanding of local issues and create innovative and affordable solutions to address local challenges. Most grassroots innovators have to develop material resource-restricted solutions within a constricted local context due to scarcity of tools, materials, funding, etc., and access limitations. As a result, entrepreneurs from the grassroots seldom succeed in scaling up, and grassroots discoveries often have limited local application. Moreover, market access is also limited. This study presents learnings from a pilot project that developed interventions to foster grassroots creativity. This paper describes: (i) the framework for the selection of innovations, including factors such as scale of the problem, potential markets, etc.; (ii) examples of gaps that were mapped in order to scale the innovations up after studying the grassroots innovations, interviews with innovators, technical benchmarking, market research, and academic inputs; (iii) the interventions designed to make the chosen innovations either better designed or have a higher fit with the market; and (iv) the results of the interventions, their limitations, and potential future possibilities; and (v) complementary policies and resources that can help grassroots innovations as a sector. In order to scale up and serve a larger customer base, this article also suggests several future directions for creating and sustaining an ecosystem that can support grassroots ideas and innovations.

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Scaling Grassroots Innovations: Insights from Pilot Interventions in Indian Villages

  • Prathyusha Thammineni,
  • Ankit Somra,
  • Anamika Dey,
  • Ramadevi Giddigi,
  • Anil K. Gupta,
  • Uday B. Desai

摘要

Grassroots innovation-based entrepreneurs in Indian villages have a deep understanding of local issues and create innovative and affordable solutions to address local challenges. Most grassroots innovators have to develop material resource-restricted solutions within a constricted local context due to scarcity of tools, materials, funding, etc., and access limitations. As a result, entrepreneurs from the grassroots seldom succeed in scaling up, and grassroots discoveries often have limited local application. Moreover, market access is also limited. This study presents learnings from a pilot project that developed interventions to foster grassroots creativity. This paper describes: (i) the framework for the selection of innovations, including factors such as scale of the problem, potential markets, etc.; (ii) examples of gaps that were mapped in order to scale the innovations up after studying the grassroots innovations, interviews with innovators, technical benchmarking, market research, and academic inputs; (iii) the interventions designed to make the chosen innovations either better designed or have a higher fit with the market; and (iv) the results of the interventions, their limitations, and potential future possibilities; and (v) complementary policies and resources that can help grassroots innovations as a sector. In order to scale up and serve a larger customer base, this article also suggests several future directions for creating and sustaining an ecosystem that can support grassroots ideas and innovations.