Campaigning & Awareness Building
Campaigning and awareness building has been one of the major thrust areas of SRISTI — making people conscious about the possibility of exploring innovations in their own surroundings, fostering creativity and enabling traditional knowledge-holders to come forward.
Building a Vibrant Innovative India
The entire exercise of knowledge dissemination and awareness building goes along the spirit of building up a strong public opinion in favour of a creative and innovative society.
Our campaigning and awareness building programme, over the years, has branched out to rope in a diverse set of stakeholders — grassroots innovators, traditional knowledge holders, organic farmers, academicians, policy makers, scientists, and students — to build a common platform that shares the concerns of grassroots innovations.
Following are our major attempts in campaigning and building awareness for mobilising voice from grassroots as well as civil society in favour of a 'vibrant innovative India'.
Media Campaign
TV, radio & print outreach
Bio-Diversity Contests
School-level plant knowledge
Food Festivals
Organic crop awareness since 2004
International Campaign
Brazil, South Africa, China & more
Reaching Millions Through Media
Two video films on farmers' innovations have been produced in collaboration with DECU (Development Education Communication Unit) and ISRO. SRISTI's work has been covered by leading national and international media.
Doordarshan
First video film on farm implements innovated by artisans in Saurastra, produced in 1991 with DECU & ISRO, telecasted September 1997.
BBC World Radio & TV
BBC World Radio broadcast 'Bank of Ideas'; BBC World TV produced 'Patently Obvious'. Edward Milner (BBC/TVE) made a film for IFGRI, Rome on agro-biodiversity conservation.
EMRC, Gujarat University
Four films in the Shodh Yatra series covering three to four innovators per part across Gujarat; three more parts in development for Tamilnadu and Karnataka.
Zee, Star, Jain TV & Radio Mirchi
Several channels covered SRISTI activities; Radio Mirchi broadcast one innovation per day in its daily programme 'Hello Amdavad'.
Print Media
Far Eastern Economic Review (Oct 2000), Business Week Asia (2 Jul 2001), International Herald Tribune (11 Oct 2001), Business World (Feb 2002), Outlook (9 Jul 2005) — all featured SRISTI and Prof. Anil K. Gupta.
Bio-Diversity Contests
The concern for conservation of biodiversity and its sustainable utilisation has to be developed among children at a young age so that their attitudes in this regard can be moulded.
728
Plants Named
By winner in Rapar taluka, Kutch
364
Students
In Banaskantha district competition
612
Plants Named
By winner in Banaskantha
9
Schools
Per district competition
How It Works
Children in a village school are informed about the competition a few weeks in advance. Each child is told to bring, on the appointed date, a list of as many plants as they can find out, identify their uses after talking to their grandparents, neighbours or whoever, and collect samples in the case of plants which are not endangered. They are given points on the basis of each criterion and are also quizzed to find out whether they remember some of the things that they have written.
The top rankers are given prizes and social applause. Such competitions invariably lead to a process of knowledge churning in the village. In the last few years, bio-diversity competitions have been held in many districts of Gujarat across India.
Notable Results
Rapar Taluka, Kutch
A winning student recalled the names of 728 plants — wrote 572 names and remembered the use of 156 plants.
Banaskantha District
364 students from 9 schools. Winner named 612 plants — wrote 265 names, remembered use of 258 plants, collected 89 plant variety samples.
The Challenge
Much of this knowledge is lost over time because of the inability of the market to price these resources. SRISTI is looking into various kinds of incentives to conserve and augment this knowledge base.
Food Festivals — Since 2004
SRISTI has been organising food festivals since 2004. A large variety of crops — particularly from the interiors — are getting lost because there is no demand for them. The food festival, which brings together diverse foods, recipes and food products, is a cursory glance at the existing cultural diversity in our society.
To stimulate demand of local crops and their varieties from dry regions so as to generate market-based incentives for their conservation.
To generate feedback from visitors about the attributes they prefer in local varieties and in organic food.
To organise competition among women and others to identify recipes based on less common or uncultivated plants and create awareness about organic food.
To bring various institutions working for the cause of organic agriculture on a common platform.
Year of First Food Festival
Foods from different parts of the country are showcased, along with a separate chapter of organic food products. Recipe competitions and quiz competitions are held among women and children respectively.
Surveys have also been conducted during the food festivals to gauge people's knowledge, attitude and practice towards organic food and organic farming. This occasion has also been used to generate awareness about organic farming among children by involving them in various creative exercises.
Tapping the Budding Professionals
SRISTI has always valued the creative genius of budding professionals in different fields — especially those with a strong link to grassroots innovations, traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship, ICT, organic farming, and intellectual property rights.
There are 4,00,000 technical students in India. If even 1% of their creative genius were to add to the local knowledge, 4000 problems would get solved or at least get analysed.
Similarly there are numerous students in the disciplines of management and social sciences, who deal with issues that are close to SRISTI's fields of concern.
Recognising this vast pool of knowledge reserves, SRISTI taps these resources through internship opportunities, business plan competitions, and design solution competitions. In the past SRISTI has engaged students from reputed institutions in summer internship, organised business plan competition called 'Disha' in association with NIF, and competition on design solution called 'ENgenious'.
Internship Opportunities
Summer internships for students interested in grassroots innovation, traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship development, organic farming, natural resource management, Prior Inform Consent, IP rights, and ICT applications.
DISHA — Business Plan Competition
Organised by NIF with active SRISTI support. 313 teams from 79 institutes registered; 36 business plans received; 11 finalists presented at IIM Ahmedabad.
ENgenious 2005
Design competition at SHAASTRA, IIT Madras (8–10 Oct 2004). 17 teams, 26 entries. Five top entries received cash awards. Prof. Anil Gupta judged the top ten.
DISHA: The Business Plan Competition
The business plan competition called DISHA was organised by NIF, with active support from SRISTI. The major objectives were to involve students from business and technical/engineering schools in business plan development on grassroots innovations, enabling students to synergise their business acumen with grassroots genius.
250
Colleges Invited
Management, engineering, pharmacy & agriculture
313
Teams Registered
From 79 institutes
36
Business Plans
Received by deadline
11
Finalists
Selected for final presentation at IIM-A
Except the final round of presentation at IIM Ahmedabad, all other processes pertaining to the organisation of the business plan were done on-line. A separate website (www.disha.scai.org.in) was developed for the business competition and the managerial and logistical supports were provided by GIAN and NIF. Six teams were awarded and the awards were given away by Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, who delivered the presidential address at the Third Award Function of NIF on 5th January, 2005. Similar competitions are being planned in European institutions as well.
Campaign at International Level
International competition for scouting grassroots creativity, innovation and outstanding traditional knowledge has been taken up in right earnest by SRISTI.
Contacts established with the Presidential office, Brazil
Scientific councils and provincial bodies in South Africa
Tianjian University of Finance and Economics, China
Announcement circulated at UNESCO international conference on biodiversity, Paris (French government support)
Chinese Council of Science and Technology engaged for a Chinese sub-section of the international competition
Global Reach
The announcement of the competition was circulated at the international conference on biodiversity organised by UNESCO with the support of the French government in Paris. The Chinese collaborator — former Director of the management school at the university, now Vice Chair of the Chinese Council of Science and Technology — has taken a lot of interest, and it is hoped that the international competition may have a Chinese sub-section with the support of science council as well as private sector companies.
Talks, Seminars and Workshops
Besides reaching out through print and electronic media, SRISTI has left no stone unturned to rope in as many supporters as possible for the cause it espouses — through direct engagement with institutions across India.
There was discussion with the Chairperson of CBSE about the involvement in a national campaign organised by NIF to scout ideas and innovations from students, which would be co-sponsored by SRISTI and Honey Bee Network.
Prof. Anil Gupta of SRISTI addressed students and faculty at institutions across India, delivering keynote addresses at workshops of innovators, entrepreneurs, students and faculty.
'Inventors of India Workshop' has been organised by Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIMA, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and EU supported project on Knowledge Network for Grassroots Green Innovators.
Institutions Engaged
IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay
National Law School, Bangalore
St. Kabir Higher Secondary School, Ahmedabad
Rainbow School for Tiny Tots
SPICMACAY Group at IIT Delhi
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication Technology, Gandhinagar
Thiyagaraja College of Engineering (TCE), Madurai
Agricultural universities across India
Join the Campaign
If you are interested in exploring and contributing towards the issues of grassroots innovation, traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship development, organic farming, natural resource management, Prior Inform Consent, Intellectual Property rights, or ICT applications in the field of innovations — reach out to us.
Subscribe to and share the Honey Bee Newsletter
Volunteer for Shodhyatra walks and innovation scouting
Participate in bio-diversity contests and food festivals
Submit your resume for internship opportunities
Organise awareness workshops in your institution
Partner with SRISTI for media campaigns and outreach events
Amplify the Message
Whether you are an individual, an institution, or a media organisation, you can help amplify SRISTI's message about grassroots innovation and traditional knowledge. Every contribution — time, resources, or skills — helps build a vibrant innovative India.