Innovation strategy for aspirational regions and communities

In one of the most agriculturally developed states like Punjab having one of the highest share of scheduled caste population, there are hardly two per cent SC graduates.  Just implementing existing schemes will not take us far. We need structural reforms. With average investment of less than 25,000 rupees in some states and less than Rs one lac, not many will cross poverty barrier in near future. Diversity of resources, skills and opportunities is needed to build upon cultural diversity  and biodiversity. How will income inequality go down unless some transformative ideas are tested and improved incrementally?

The  strategy could be: A) find out resources abundant in the regions where disadvantaged communities live, these could be floral biodiversity, or minerals, or any other natural or physical resources found abundantly. By making such weeds or other resources as basis of developmental opportunity, there less chance of poor being excluded. Whenever we build upon scarce resources, they are elbowed out by the more powerful communities. B) map all the available technological knowledge with formal R&D institutions or informal R&D networks like honey bee network or healing networks and make it the basis of sponsored on farm trial to explore potential of these resources for augmenting livelihood strategies or market friendly enterprises. As we have realized in every Shodhyatra including the latest one in Gadhchroli, scientists have never shared their compilations of research findings back with the people who provided the knowledge in the first place. 

C) we should galvanize district innovation fund into district innovation venture fund to invest in risky ventures particularly by disadvantaged youth, to set up enterprises including eco-tourism, innovation-tourism and other ventures such as traditional food joints. D) While funding disadvantaged youth, we need to provide mentoring support also. For the first generation learners, the mentoring makes all the difference to the fate of their enterprises. E) the huge network of entrepreneurs funded by various financial institutions should be accessible to these micro and small entrepreneurs for seeking or selling their products/services.  Not only that, one entrepreneur  can be franchisee of another. Such networks are necessary to unlock the potential for scaling up these ventures by exploiting under or unexploited potential of each other. One does not have to limit the scope of investments to only locally available resources, even external resources can be mobilized for the purpose, eg. hilly regions with less pollution may lend themselves to flourishing of electronic enterprises. 

F) Without creating knowledge Networks, we can build viable entrepreneurial value chains. These networks will extend technological, institutional, financial and other supporting knowledge systems to entrepreneurs and educational institutions. Free coaching systems made a big difference to filling the gaps that existed in civil service. Cannot similar service enterprises be set up in each aspirational district to help young boys and girls to aspire for the positions they deserve in various public and private sector enterprises. Not every young person can be entrepreneur. Their access to higher education as well modern skills must be mobilized by innovative means including MOOCs and other online common learning centres. Each block should have study centres with library, audio-visual study materials and access to online mentors.

G) It is also important to create a GEM kind of platform for SHGs and other small micro-entrepreneurs. H) the innovations from and for such regions and social communities need special and faster delivery track. There has not been so far any fast track diffusion effort to improve productivity in a mission mode. We need to plan at least ten thousand trails in different blocks for showcasing different innovative production and processing technological innovations it make a drastic improvement in the awareness profile of the communities. 

The author is founder of Honey Bee Network & visiting faculty at IIM-A 
anilgb@gmail.com