Anang Tadar’s winning of the National Grassroots Innovator Award has once again cemented the truth that there is no dearth of intelligence, innovative power and talent among the state’s tribal boys and girls. Also, the fact that 59 awards were given away to 64 innovators chosen from 12500 ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices from 428 districts of 34 states and union territories this year is an ample testimony that creativity abounds everywhere in equal measures, throughout the length and breadth of the country. And if there is effective scouting, rewarding, empowering and providing right linkages, information and opportunities, wonderful things can happen.
Anang’s case, if closely studied reveals two things. If one is that of sheer intelligence and innovative power, the other is of deep human compassion. It was during school days when he once helped a blind lady to find direction. The problem encountered by that lady, universally true for all visually impaired humans, acted as a flicker of inspiration for him to find a solution and it was after intense effort, we now have what we know as the goggles for the blind or the G4B.
A large portion of the credit for discovering such talent(s) must also go to National Innovation Foundation-India, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India which started its journey in March 2000. It has, so far made its presence felt and earned accolades as a frontline national initiative to strengthen grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. NIF has been able to build up a database of more than 2,00,000 technological ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices from over 575 districts of the country and till date it has recognized more than 800 grassroots innovators and school students at national level through its various awards. Also through collaborations with various R&D and academic institutions, agricultural and veterinary universities and others labs in public and private sector, thousands of grassroots technologies have been validated. It’s due to its relentless efforts that India has proved to the world that her innovators can match and in some cases outperform anyone in the world when it comes to solving problems creatively and frugally. The grassroots to Global (g2G) model that NIF is propagating is all set to change the way the world looks at the creativity and innovations at grassroots.
Thus there is an innovation culture in the making, drawing upon which we may find solutions to the concerns in diverse domains such as health, education, food security, energy, environment and national security.But additional efforts are also needed to enable these innovations to emerge as  commercially viable products.
Anang has exhibited the tribal potential, and now it is for the rest to follow his footsteps and make Arunachal proud.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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