Monday, June 9, 2008 (Srinagar)
Prof Anil K. Gupta is a professor at the Centre for Management in Agriculture at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Prof Gupta has many firsts to his credit. He is the man who helped set up the National Micro Venture Innovation Fund, first of its PDF Print E-mail
What led you to set up Honey Bee, SRISTI, and NIF? What objectives will these outfits serve?
In fact, my desire is to develop a platform to recognize, respect and reward local innovators and this was the stimulus behind the creation of the Honey Bee network. The name Honeybee was chosen just to reflect how innovations are collected without making the innovators poorer and how connections are created between innovators. Believe me the last time when I was in Kashmir someone gave me a copy of the Holy Quran. I was impressed to read about Honey bee's in Quran. As regards these organizations we established them to help provide support to grassroots innovators. And to link formal and informal knowledge we set up SRISTI and finally DTS (Department of Science and Technology) set up NIF just to make India a Global Leader in sustainable technologies.
How many times have you been to Kashmir? What was the experience like?
I have visited Kashmir thrice. For me it was a wonderful experience. My impression of Kashmir and Kashmiris is a different one. I praise them and would also criticize them. I was happy to see that every Kashmiri household has a vegetable garden. You would see old Chinars every where in Kashmir.
Though all this is inspiring, it is really bad that though there are Chjinars in Kashmir, they are all old. You will not see new saplings of Chinar being planted anywhere in the valley. While vegetable gardens are there, the new generation doesn’t seem to be interested in them. Similarly, forests are there but conservation remains an issue. These are the things you need to take care of.
Having visited Kashmir thrice, how did you find the place? And what was your impression of its innovators?
Well, I found it satisfactory. But the responsibility of showcasing the talent lies on the shoulders of the powers that be. Educationists too have an important role to play. They must encourage all these local innovators at grassroots level by providing them every facility so that they do not stop at any level. This is something I found missing in the valley.
What future do you see for these grassroots level innovators?
As I already told you, we want to provide them a platform so that they could earn recognition, and respect. We will convert their ideas into products and would send these products for Patents also. The moment their products are in the market, they will get a good share out of it.
Being an educationist and innovator of repute, what is your message to the people of Kashmir particularly to its unsung innovators?
My vision is to make India innovative and generate a new model of poverty alleviation and employment generation relying on innovation based enterprise which can be replicated in other countries as well.
As regards my message, the people of Kashmir should preserve their heritage. They should not let it go waste. My message to school students is that they should think out of box and keep on innovating. They should not remain confined to bookish knowledge only.
How did you find Kashmir Images and how do you view its attempt at reporting the stories of valley’s unsung innovators?
It is a wonderful paper. You score 10 out of 10. Though you have started carrying stories about valley’s innovators, lot more needs to be done. There is room for improvement. You must keep experimenting.
 
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