COMMONWEALTH ASKS INDIA TO HELP SET UP AN INNOVATION FOUNDATION
The Commonwealth Science Council
(CSC) has sought India’s support to help set up a Commonwealth
Innovation Foundation. Impressed with India’s National Innovation
Foundation, the CSC has been sending delegations over the last
three years to study, our experience in the grassroot innovators
network called the "Honey Bee Network" NEB. The Chairperson of
the CSC and South African Minister for Science and Technology
Dr. B.S. Ngubane is convinced that such a Foundation will go a
long way in giving a boost to grassroot innovations as well as
the rural economy. The Society for Research and Initiatives for
Sustainable Technologies of India, (SRISTI) whose brainchild being
the Honey Bee Network, has been approached by the Commonwealth
in this regard.
In fact, Dr. Ngubane proposes to
pursuade the Ministers for Science & Technology from Commonwealth
countries, meeting in Johannesburg next week, to explore the possibility
of setting up a National Innovation Foundation in each commonwealth
country, like that of India.
The National Innovation Foundation
of India was set up in March 2000 by the Department of Science
& Technology, to build up a National register of grassroot
technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge
and build linkages between excellence in formal and informal science,
as well as help convert these innovations into enterprises and
make India a global leader in sustainable technologies. In the
first year, the Honey Bee Network mobilized nearly 1000 entries
with more than 1600 innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge
examples, from 24 states and union territories. In the second
year there were over 13,000 entries, which is likely to go upto
nearly 50,000 entries in the 3rd year.
