FRUGAL INNOVATION - THE INDIA WAY

Frugal innovation or frugal engineering is the process of reducing the complexity and cost of a goods and its production. Usually this refers to removing nonessential features from a durable good, such as a car or phone, in order to sell it in developing countries.

 Here are some examples of Frugal Innovations in India

JAIPUR FOOT

Jaipur Foot, also known as the Jaipur Leg, is a rubber-based prosthetic leg for the people with below-knee amputation.

The inventor Dr. P.K. Sethi won the Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1981 and the Padma Shri (by the Indian government) in the same year. 

The NGO Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the world's largest organisation serving the disabled, is receiving governamental and voluntary support from home and abroad to enable the disabled to stand on their feet.

The procedure costs about USD 45-USD100.  A similar procedure in the US would cost apporx. USD10,000/-

MITTICOOL FRIDGE

A traditional clay craftsman, Mansukhbhai Prajapati, literally turned soil into gold. He harnessed the cooling properties of clay and created a low-cost, biodegradable refrigerator made out of clay, Mitticool. 

This Village Entrepreneur has been recognised and awarded by national and international organisations.

The device costs USD50/- and uses no electrical power.  It can keep vegetables fresh for about 5 days.

BAMBOO WINDMILL

Mehtar Hussain and Mushtak Ahmed built bamboo based windwill for USD 100/-  to pump water from a small paddy field.  

The invention has now been adopted by Gujarati salt workers, who are some of the poorest people in the state. 

Petrol/Diesel powered pumps running costs are about USD1000/- per year whereas the windmill runnin costs are about USD50/- per year. 

BIO MASS GASSIFIER SYSTEM

Raj Singh Dahiya (46) has developed an efficient biomass gasifier where he has changed the conventional design, especially of the filters and cooling unit to get clean gas, ensuring smooth operation of engine at low operational cost.

It costs about USD7000/- and produces gas from bio waste which is used to run and engine. 

It provides for electricity can be used to filter water and run mills in far off villages in the country.

MOTORCYCLE DRIVEN PLOUGHING DEVICE AND BICYCLE MOUNTED SPRAY DEVICE

Mansukhbhai Jagani (40) the farmer cum artisan with a passion for mechanical innovations hails from Mota Devaliya village in Amreli district, Gujarat.

Maintaining tractor is not easy for all the farmers especially those having small land holdings and small scale farming. Also sometimes heavy weight and high fuel consumption increases the production cost and makes few jobs in land preparation difficult like inter-culturing.

These devices cost USD 500 to 1000/- and USD 85/- respectively and are most cost efficient to maintain and own than expensive tractors. 

TREE CLIMBER for plucking coconuts etc.

D. Renganathan alias D.N. Venkat is an agriculturist from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and has developed a coconut tree climber with a sitting arrangement, locking system and a safety belt.

He noticed the problems in climbing coconut/palm trees and decided to address all the issues and designed a simple low cost tree climber.

It has a seating provision and has two frames. The upper frame is operated by hand while the lower one is operated by leg. The user sits comfortably on the seat and by the up and down movement of upper and lower frame, one can climb the tree.

 A locking system has been provided, which enables the climber to work without fear at any height. To avoid the possibility of a fall, a four lock pin can be fixed at any height. 

One can climb up to 40 ft in 5 minutes (this includes time needed in fixing, climbing up- down and removal of device from tree). One of the major advantages of this machine is that it is useful for trees with different girth. 

Its costs between USd 75 - USd 100.

Developed nations with their most expensive R&D teams are baffled by our out-of-the-box solutions. 

Engineering and management institutes are starting courses and financing research studies to better understand our mundane yet prodigious thinking.

Leading companies around the world such are practising various principles of jugaad or frugal innovation and are learning from our grassroots innovators.

Indian entrepreneurship is a success story of such "crude" human ingenuity and when it meets the erudite minds, unbounded possibilities await.

Navi Radjou, co-author of the best -seller 'Jugaad Innovation', points that leveraging on available resources and simple and flexible thinking are the fundamental principles underlying it.

In 2014, Navi Radjou delivered a talk at TED Global on frugal innovation which has since got 1.5 million views.