A 25-ft home-theatre, a car that saves 40% fuel, an automatic idli-maker, roads from plastic waste. Our innovators have gone beyond making lassi in washing machines.
And yet a country that spews over 3,50,000 engineers a year has surprisingly few innovations and ideas to show for all that effort. Research and development in an average organisation is often little more than a tax-saving device, usually budgeted lower than a modest Hindi film.
However, there is a faint hint of change today. Old systems and habits are giving way in a few places. The youth, lost somewhere in the material world, may not be driving this silent revolution but the old guard seems strong enough. And the seeds of remarkable new ideas are growing on their scribbling pads and other, more sophisticated devices. These ideas aren’t necessarily arcane and inaccessible; many of them have the power to transform the way we live. Here are 10 of the best.
In culling these projects from the many, many more currently running in India, Outlook sought as wide a spectrum as possible. Projects with dominant foreign inputs were dropped, institutions that pleaded confidentiality were grudgingly spared and the interest of the person always demeaned as a layman was considered paramount.