New Delhi: Noida high school student Anugya Yadav stole the spotlight with his innovation, Field Sathi. It’s a mobile shed designed to provide much-needed shade for farmers working in extreme weather conditions.
Yadav was the youngest among the 100 innovators who had travelled to Delhi for the five-day-long People’s Festival of Innovation 2024, hosted at India International Center last month. Organised by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), the Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network (GIAN), and the Honey Bee Network, this was the festival’s third edition.
“I wanted to help the farmers who endure so much hardship working tirelessly in the field, be it rain or scorching heat. I created Field Sathi to ease their burden,” Yadav told ThePrint.
The festival brought together inventors of all ages—from Yadav (14) to Rameshwar Lal Khichar (59) from Bikaner, who cultivated a thornless variety of a popular local vegetable, khejri. It proved that there is no age limit on innovation—imagination is what counts.
“I have an unstoppable thirst for learning, so when I heard about GIAN’s incredible initiative to bring together innovators and create a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, I couldn’t resist being part of it,” said Khichar.
The festival buzzed with local innovations that tackled global challenges, such as a crash-safe vehicle prototype, a fuel-efficient carburettor, an ingenious device that turns bicycles electric, and clippers that protect apple trees from breaking.
These innovations aligned perfectly with the festival’s theme of fostering collaborations to develop scalable, inclusive, and affordable solutions at the local, national, and global scale.
Grassroots innovators from the economically weaker sections of India’s hinterlands, with little formal education, seized this opportunity to connect with policymakers, investors, NITI Aayog officials, and researchers. They shared their stories and engaged in meaningful conversations.
By giving voice and visibility to the ideas of ground-level creators, Honey Bee Network and GIAN pave the path for common people to become changemakers.
“If every unmet need is a market, the Honey Bee Network Creativity and Inclusive Innovation Awards [HBNCRIIA] put grassroots innovators at the heart of innovation policies and institutions,” said Anil Gupta, the founder of Honey Bee Network and GIAN.
Walnut revolution
At his booth, Army veteran Suneel Singh, winner of the HBNCRII award, ecstatically discussed his “walnut revolution” in Kishtwar—a small village in Jammu and Kashmir—with every visitor.
“Traditional walnut trees, notorious for fatal accidents due to their height, also take a decade to bear fruit, with inconsistent kernels leading to poor yields,” said Singh.
To tackle these challenges, Singh—a self-taught expert in grafting—dedicated 13 years to transforming traditional sky-high walnut trees into smaller, more manageable, high-yielding, and early-fruiting varieties.
To achieve this feat, he connected with walnut-growing communities in Turkey through social media. Although there was a language barrier, their shared passion for walnut cultivation bridged the gap. Singh observed the farmers’ innovative methods through their videos to learn how he could adopt global best practices.
He managed to obtain an impressive 95 per cent grafting success rate, leaving scientists from top agricultural labs stunned—the national standard is 45 per cent.
They had a whole list of questions for Singh: how he created 20-foot walnut trees, how he could make them bear fruit in just three years, and how he managed such a success rate.
“I have cultivated and gifted 40,000 walnut trees to farmers in my hometown, which is a hilly village battling drought, water shortages, and rugged terrain. It amazed both locals and scientists,” said Singh.
Singh said that his dream is to bring a walnut revolution in India’s temperate zones—Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and a few states in the Northeast—by planting 5,00,000 walnut trees in in his lifetime.
Clad in dhoti and kurta, Khichar proudly shared his journey to becoming a khejri expert. “After in-person surveys village after village about the tree’s fruit, leaves, and bark, I collected stems from khejri trees to kick-start my experiments,” he said.
The vegetable is popular across Rajasthan and is even exported to New Zealand. It fetches a high price, up to Rs 3,200 per kg. However, the tree’s sharp spikes pose a problem—or they did, until now.
Driven by curiosity, Khichar learned grafting from scientists at Bikaner’s Central Institute for Arid Horticulture and field workers in his district. He was determined to make the plant thornless.
Once he had mastered grafting, which he called “the surgery of plants”, Khichar travelled across districts, studying over 275 arid tree varieties. His hard work paid off in the form of 14 new varieties, including two thornless ones: Thar Harit (Thar’s green) and Dhoro ki Tarkari (vegetable of the sand dunes).
Khichar’s innovations are transforming the way farmers interact with this valuable plant.
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Transforming Atlas cycles to EVs
Moved by the struggles of local dabbawalas, milkmen, and newspaper vendors relying on bicycles for their livelihoods, Maharashtra-based engineer Priyank Dodhia (27) decided to act. It led to him founding the e-bike technology startup Six Dimensions Pvt Ltd.
“We designed a clamp-on device called Hook, which transforms a regular bicycle into an electric one in seconds,” said Dodhia. “This innovation empowers delivery workers, who often endure income losses due to challenging road conditions, long distances, and the sheer physical strain of cycling.”
Dodhia’s invention resonates with the festival’s theme of affordable, inclusive, and accessible social innovations.
Instead of forcing gig workers and delivery personnel to invest in electric bicycles, priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000, Dodhia’s team introduced an ingenious rental model. Through city-wide kiosks, workers can rent the Hook device for around Rs 50 per day: a flexible, budget-friendly solution.
“The electric assistance our technology provides is a game-changer,” said Dodhia. “For example, milkmen hauling up to 80 kg on traditional Atlas bikes can now cycle effortlessly, boosting their efficiency and income.”
With a seven-member team in Mumbai, Dodhia is diving headfirst into the challenges of delivery unions and dabbawalas, gearing up to revolutionise their work lives with his pilot project.
His mission—to turn their daily grind into a smooth ride.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)