'Most Innovations Are Scouted By Volunteers'

Anil K Gupta talks about supporting and encouraging grassroots innovations

- Manu Balachandran

Anil K Gupta has a particular knack for finding innovators. Over the past three decades, he has spent much of his time guiding them. As the founder of Honey Bee Network, Gupta, 69, spots and reaches out to innovators in remote villages, and helps them with scientific validation, patents and entrepreneurial structures for their discoveries.

Every year, Gupta, who is also the executive vice chair of the National Innovation Foundation, traverses around 250 km across India over a week as part of Shodh Yatra (Research Walk). Started in 1998, the walk has been included in the curriculum at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where Gupta teaches.

In an interview with Forbes India, Gupta talks about Honey Bee Network, and the highs and lows in his quest to help innovators. Excerpts:

Q It’s been three decades since you started Honey Bee Network. What has the journey been like?

When we started Honey Bee Network, our goal was to change the paradigm of decentralised development; make scholarly discourse on people’s knowledge more open, reciprocal and responsible; and develop grassroots knowledge and an innovation-based approach to poverty alleviation by recognising, respecting and rewarding creative individuals and communities. The search for a sustainable approach to conserving biodiversity, the frugal use of natural and other resources, building upon unaided people’s innovations, and outstanding traditional knowledge led us to walk through the villages and look for oddballs.