“Do more with less” is the trending and wide scope in the field of innovation. Being a south-Asian country, our ideas of frugality have been remarkable over the years now. Think of it as a career. Frugal innovation is also known as reverse innovation, catalytic innovation, inclusive innovation, or bottom of the pyramid (BOP) depending on the areas you innovate in. Frugal innovations are defined as the process of simplifying complex ideas, equipment, etc., and making them durable at an affordable cost. They are the incremental type of innovation. Adding value into people’s lives using existing technology and process is its only aim.
The idea gained popularity in developing countries. India was one of the most appreciated countries for coming up with several improvised products. A vein diagram shows a common area among the Frugal, flexible, and inclusive circles. Which we call “jugaad” (improvisation). This article will help you understand the need and why you should contribute to frugal innovation.
As students, we tend to have many ideas that can be explored. This is like a breeding ground for Frugal innovation. Our interests and/or situations often inspire or force us to come up with ideas that could make our lives easy. To give a few examples:-
- Mitticool: it’s a small refrigerator that was introduced to keep water, vegetables, and other degradable substance under low temperature to preserve them. The idea was to use the cooling properties of soil to maintain the freshness of edibles in an eco-friendly manner.
- Flipkart: While amazon was taking a boost and consuming revenue, the IITians of our country came up with their shopping website which revolutionized the scene of the Indian Market.
Coming up with a new idea is not always possible. It’s a blue moon now. But working on existing ideas or products is possible. daily upgrades on the apps you use, a new model of your favorite bike, car, or gameplay are a general example of frugal innovation.
Scope
Sales, marketing, technology, fashion, and healthcare are some of the industries that require constant monitoring of the changing trends, needs, and demands. There is a huge scope for you to come up with a good “jugaad” in these fields. To give another example of Indian’s biggest achievement; Jaipur foot. The prosthetic leg is made up of rubber for people with physical disabilities. This was affordable and has helped people achieve their dreams (Sudha Chandran).
Need of Frugal innovators.
The world is progressing towards a stage of exhaustion. Resources are depleting, the clock keeps ticking. Everything should be on the go, in this period of globalization. This has increased the demand for cost-effective, reliable products and services. This becomes the core reason to invest time into working on products and services that can get better if put in efforts.
Teenagers have come up with ideas that brought about a change. Example:-
- Arul Shrivastava: A student in Madras came up with a mask that used Vetiver grass as a filter to protect people from pollution and make breathing easy.
- Haaziq Kazi: A young boy who was determined to get rid of ocean plastic considering the environmental threats that were destroying the ocean. He came up with a prototype of a ship that could suck up the plastic in the ocean. He got the opportunity to present his idea at the TED-eds club and received global attention.
These examples are just to give an insight into the world of innovations. We tend to have a notion about innovations being completely scientific. Categorizing based on subjects will hold you back. While designing smartphones, one was thinking in terms of technical aspects and not the chemical elements of the phone. Those proportions arose with advancement. Every process requires a scientific approach. This means logical reasoning and not using physics or chemistry.
Process and approach
Since Frugal innovation is attained from limited or fewer resources, now is the best time to put on your thinking caps. When we say innovation ones again it may not be something huge! Coming with a healthy work-space environment was a simple approach. Yet today it is the priority of many companies to ensure the psychological well-being of their employees and use healthy work-space programs.
It is also possible for one to be completely theoretical in terms of producing ideas. This means one can just think of ideas and not give them a practical approach. In such cases, you can consider taking their idea to a person who can make it work.
Conclusion
Overall, remember to be critical and always think about improvement to be a part of the change. In recent times the government has come up with “Aatmanirbhar Bharat Schemes” to help young minds be successful in producing the change by providing them with a necessary amount to spend on resources. If you have an idea that deserves attention, then get up! The world needs sustainable improvement.
Have questions and research! Get professional help to improve on the idea you have. It can be a lengthy process but not impossible!
Also Read:
