Can Indians Innovate?

[Chetan Prasad]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Or is it? Are skills important too? Don't Indians possess the necessary skills or feel the need?

This Photo (Deccan Chronicle, Blr, 30/09/08, pg 9) where a FRP Nano car replica is being made for Durga Pooja in Kolkata shows we possess the skill. What is missing may be the motivation.

[Malini Prabhu]

I feel very angry when anyone raises this Q. But am slowly becoming a believer. Why?

Chetan Sir also posted a comment in 'Y DiY' regarding office chairs at Metro. When I was replying to that, regarding applying the same technique to Almirah's, the different ramifications of this whole thing hit me and hit me hard.

There I asked why Godrej can't sell knock-down almirah's to save on transportation costs. The bigger issue is here.

A huge company like Godrej with all the resources does not innovate because they like several other companies like Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles (who are now doing assembly jobs) are brain dead. Their idea of improvement is with reference to their own bottom lines. Better steel at cheaper prices, relocating to lesser expense areas, better imported machines for higher efficiency.
But then, a company is made up of people (Indians). Aren't they also to blame?
Like always, do we need a foreign company to help us?
Or is our concept of innovation only with BIG things like cancer research, stem cells, cloning, space exploration, IT etc.
Are simple innovations beneath the Great Indian?
If a big organisation like this cannot innovate or think out of the box, then

CAN INDIANS INNOVATE?

[Chetan Prasad]

FIAT AND THE ELUSIVE HAND BRAKE

Fiat cars were being manufactured in India by Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL).
These were designed by the Italians and the originals had 2 Bucket seats up front and the hand brake was between the seats. When being made in India, these were Indianised and replaced with a bench seat (to accommodate more than 2). But PAL forgot(?) to relocate the hand brake and it remained snugly inaccessible and forgotten, under the seat. Most Fiat car owners were blissfully unaware of the very existence of this life saving device in their cars.

* Why did PAL not just drill a hole in the chassis on the right hand side of the driver and bolt the hand brake lever there?
* What does this take, which we Indians did not possess?
* Does this speak of the careless attitude of only the management or the employees, or the lakhs of Indians who owned the car and never sued PAL or identified and rectified the mistake?
* This was not a lack of innovation since it was already invented for us. Worse still, this is a classic case displaying our lack of imagination, motivation and self help, the essential prerequisites of innovation.
* Could this or such Indian companies have given us MPFI, ABS, CRUSH ZONES, AIR BAGS, RUN FLAT TYRES, SYNCHRO MESH GEARS ............???
Many of the (innocent?, gullible?, stupid?) buyers paid with their lives.

'PAL' HAD TO SUFFER THE IGNOMINY OF SEEING THEIR COMPANY BULLDOZED OVER AND REDUCED TO MERE ASSEMBLERS FOR SUPERIOR FOREIGN COMPANIES

Is this an isolated case and are we better off today?
CAN INDIANS INNOVATE?

[Malini Prabhu]

Chetan Sir, The general tone of your post implies that we were incapable of innovation or doing anything on our own. You have got me thinking and I have a BIG Q, but before I post, please clarify how long ago was this?

[Chetan Prasad]

Malini, that would be post 1991 when the late Indian PM Shri. P.V.Narasimharao introduced economic reforms, abolished Licence Raj etc. So a safe bet is less than 16-17 years ago when there was a free influx of foreign technology and PAL lost out.

[Malini Prabhu]

My question is this.

How can a society which 15 years ago could not even relocate a hand brake or realise the import of one, suddenly transform itself and design a 'Nano' or a 'Scorpio'?

15 years is not even a generation. So what changed? Genetics, Attitude, Education, resources, monetary benefits, skills, motivation, need? Had behemoths like PAL suppressed all these?

I disagree.

In light of these revelations of our past, just 15 years ago, I am inclined to think it was the new influx of foreign tech, internet, TV, communications, design software, hi-speed computers, CNC machines, better steel etc. Unfortunately none of these are ours. The economic reforms just paved the way for us to buy all these.

If we didn't have these, what then?

[Chimang]

This a a very sensitive issue and Malini's 1st reply displays it. But I would like to quote what Chetan (skipper) once said to me. "When you go out every day, don't you first look in the mirror? This is not vanity but your urge to see reality. If your hair is askew or you have a stain on your face, you would rather know then, than be ridiculed on the streets."
I feel this should be the tempo here. All honest comments should be considered introspection and not grumbling. It is not wrong to know what is wrong with us and correct it before we go out on the streets (world).
And I can tell you from experience, NOT EVERYONE ON THE STREET IS KIND ENOUGH TO TELL YOU WHAT THE PROB IS. IMAGINE WHAT THE FOREIGNERS WILL BE THINKING ABOUT US.

[Nimo]

the innocent question of mine is..
Is there any thing left for us [Indians] to innovate??

6am - 8am : checking mail [PC is already innovated]
8am: break fast: cooker, gas, electric stove [ " " ]
9am-1pm: use of transportation:- already ahead by leaps and bounds be it in petrol efficiency, or designing the new concepts. [ " " ]
2pm-6pm: mobile, laptop, no need to tell about them.[ " " ]
6pm-9pm: HDMI, Blue ray,wide screen, soon coming up e-ink concept[innovating by Finesse]
9pm.....: air conditioner, refrigerator, water heater, and list goes on.

again second day starts with checking mail and it goes on...........and.........on.
If I [Indian] wasting my time innovating new stuff, where can I fit it in the above table we[ Indians ] only have 24Hrs, we are like 'this' leave us like 'this'.


Electronics hardware:- Korea,Taiwan,Malaysia,Singapore,
Auto motors:- Japan
Petrol:- OPEC countries
Design:- Italy[mahendra and mahendra owns a company here]
Military:- Germany, Sweden,Israel,U.K., U.S.A
Fashion,cloth, perfumes:- France, Italy.

we don't have time to compete with them.

[Malini Prabhu]

Skipper, I think you need to reply to this. I see and hear this thought expressed quite often. Even though you have been telling us all (for soooooo long, even before this club) to innovate and Diy, I cannot put it as clearly.

[Malini Prabhu]

Nimo, You will also need to read and understand the tone of discussions in 'Y DiY'. These two topics go hand n hand. Actually most of the discussions address the same issues from different angles.
Let me mention an example cited by Skipper.
In one of his lectures, a similar Q was posed. The Ans was something like this.

"Innovation is need based. So if we dont address our own needs, then we adopt somebody elses problem also when we use their solution. A case in point would be automibiles. Our needs are for smaller, more maneuvarable, easy to maintain cars. But by not solving these ourselves, we have congested our roads with big cars and made a mess.

A problem, very unique to India is 'red Paan Spitting marks on walls'. Now, how and why will anybody else address this problem and solve it if it is not there in their country. We have to find a solution for this and many such others OURSELVES.

Need based innovation is not always our personal needs nor is it work, comfort oriented. We need to open our minds, really look around and question everything. Most importantly we need to have confidence in our own abilities, irrespective of our educational qualifications. ANYBODY CAN INNOVATE ANYTHING."

I hope you get the idea. So start looking around. Every problem has a solution. Find the problem first, post it on a relevent forum. We can ALL find the solution.

'MERA BHARAT BAN SAKTA HAI MAHAAN'

[Nimo]

I hope you get the idea. So start looking around. Every problem has a solution. Find the problem first, post it on a relevant forum. We can ALL find the solution.

no to space queries, should I delete them.

[Chetan Prasad]

I dont know why you felt Malini's reply implied anything about your other posts. There is no need to delete anything. If you meant space like in Outer Space and its your area of interest, then keep it, add to it. But also try to see what is lacking in there, either by way of new products or expensive telescopes etc which may be built by you for a lot lesser.
That is the purpose of Diy Club.