This VC funds granny recipes, innovations

MUMBAI: Mansukhbhai Jagani is a farmer in Gujarat, but these days he wears a new hat__that of technology entrepreneur. He lives in Saurashtra, where the frequent droughts and famines have prompted him to modify the traditional bullock-driven plough. He has replaced the bullocks with the powerful Bullet motorcycle. While the incongruous picture of a motorbike-driven tractor and seed-sower has sparked surprise, the machine''s superior performance has silenced its detractors.Mr Jagani, who whose educational qualifications can best be described as `fifth standard pass'', now licenses his technology to other farmers. His is but one of the many stories told by Honey Bee, a non-governmental organisation that works to transform informal grass-roots innovations and traditional knowledge into commercial enterprises. Grandmothers'' recipes for herbal medicines, farmers'' concoctions for natural pesticides, innovations to keep water cool on hot summer days, or small machinery that increases theefficiency of artisans and farmers, Honey Bee has worked with all these ideas to form new business ventures. ``These grass-roots enterprises can make India a truly entrepreneurial society,'''' says Anil Gupta, a professor at IIM, Ahmedabad and founder of Honey Bee. At a conceptual level, the NGO''s mechanics and goals are not too different from those of the Silicon Valley networks that have launched IT start-ups. Honey Bee, along with its sister organisations, provides `incubators'' for innovations. Once the innovations have been developed into marketable `products'', the NGO often supplies micro `venture capital''. Most critically, perhaps, Honey Bee provides a network through which entrepreneurs and innovators can exchange their experiences and diffuse their knowledge. Some of Honey Bee''s innovators are quite happy to share their knowledge and innovations for free. Others, however, seek to commercialise their technology, and Honey Bee helps them acquire patents and licences. In encouraging commercial proprietorship over knowledge, Honey Bee takes a stand which is quite different from that of most NGOs who propound free dissemination of all information. But Mr Gupta is unapologetic about his group''s support for intellectual property rights. ``Knowledge is the only resource in which poor people are rich. If even that is taken from them without any reciprocity, what then is left? They have to pay for everything they buy in the market, but they are expected to give what they have for free. How is that sensible?'''' he asks. It is a logic which appeals to many__the NGO''s honeycombs have spread to 75 countries, and its newsletter is published in six different languages. Its database of traditional knowledge and grass-roots innovations is the world''s largest, and it is sought after even by the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Another testament to Honey Bee''s success is the launch of the National Innovation Foundation under the auspices of the Department of Science and Technology. With a corpus of $5 million from the government of India, the foundation seeks to replicate the Honey Bee model across the country. Mr Gupta thinks that this is another step in recognising that traditional knowledge and grass-roots innovations are an untapped strength of Indian society. ``We need to change the mindset of society to ensure recognition and reward for grass-roots innovators, because enterprises based on this knowledge can create a new model for poverty alleviation and employment generation,'''' he says.