Innovation when embracing small is beautiful (A study that focuses on cottage industries of India, speculating the future and designing Human-centered solutions)

Introduction

Developing countries like India invested in labor and workforce, unlike developed countries who invested in innovation and R and D. The generation of new ideas and knowledge is central to economic growth, meaning growth depends on the number of researchers engaged in R&D and their productivity. But there is a difference between innovation and R&D. Innovation drives new value and value streams, whereas R&D only focuses on what we might already have. Although there is innovation in the making in various regions of the country, there is a drive to achieve bigger and to compete with developed countries in terms of technological development. When we think of innovation, we immediately think of technological advancements, but there are various forms of innovation happening around us in areas outside the cities. Studies in innovation’s geography overlook innovation happening in the periphery. There are innovative solutions brought daily in smaller firms, individual businesses, design solutions, infrastructural solutions, organizational innovation in smaller-local establishments outside the central area. Farmers in regional areas produce their own design solutions to manufacturing tools that can support their work than relying on expensive farming equipment. These innovative solutions are shared within their local communities for their upliftment. Innovation such as these may not lead to economic growth as these ideas may not be considered up to par due to lack of resources, the material used, technologically advanced.

“New ideas struggle to achieve legitimacy and receive recognition. Instead, legitimacy is reserved for the insiders: those in the core of the relevant industry. They have the power, status, and money to be heard. However, their insider status hinders them from achieving radical innovations”- (Gino Cattani, Simone Ferriani. 2020)

These innovative solutions in the periphery, help and support the maker's work and life. Similarly, there is innovation happening in the artisan community, transportation, medical, architecture, etc. When innovation occurs, it should be offered the recognition it deserves.

The researchers in India are concentrated in metropolitan centers, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, etc. “This means the focus on local and village economies as a vehicle of growth and the declared goal of integration into global supply chains are contradictory. Villages and small towns cannot become the hub of innovation and manufacturing, which is necessary to compete globally.” ( Prakash Singh. Aasheerwad Dwivedi.2020)

“The development of a region depends on its ability to produce new products and processes, for which tacit knowledge plays a crucial role”. (Pavitt. 2002)

Indian handicraft industry forms a major part of the rich cultural heritage and history of our country. Instead of uplifting and preserving these communities, our economic model, directly and indirectly, drive them from their own acquired skills to be a part of the modern industrial sector for economic growth.

Cottage and Commercial Industries are categorized based mainly on the number of employees, organizational structure, production techniques, the character of the labor force, Investment capital, location, markets, etc. Small scale Industries may be classified into cottage industries and modern small-scale Industries and an Intermediate type of Industry between the traditional cottage industry and small-scale modern industry. These small-scale traditional industries are categorized by a pre-capitalistic form of production. It is generally accepted that traditional industries are outside the scope of modern industrial capital structure, as traditional industries are predominantly agriculture and other spectrums that are disappearing at an alarming rate. The shortcomings of present development programs are too much emphasis on large-scale, automation, capital-intensive techniques.

The economic model tries to relocate processes from cottage industries to the modern industrial sector. People from rural areas that have worked as farmers, artisans, or any other sectors that are considered to be informal jobs, have to enter the workforce because their work doesn’t produce a liveable income, needs a change from their family owned business__this could be a personal choice based on passion or assuming what they seek is the solution to move up the ladder in society. Hence, they relocate to urban areas in search of employment opportunities that don’t exist for unskilled, unsophisticated migrants. This migrated population is left unabsorbed by the cities. It is regrettable that in the drive for modernization and industrialization, new social problems of multiple dimensions emerge such as growing unemployment rates, rise in urban city population, lack of natural resources, lack of housing, etc. These groups of people are forced to do other menial jobs to survive. Those who find full-time jobs, often find it hard to juggle their career to continue the line of work they like on the side.

The traditional work that has been passed down through generations, disappears, because of this. Foregoing the satisfaction of their traditional job for high pressured, unsatisfactory corporate/menial jobs just to take claim of better earner, is no way for a person to survive and thrive. We as a community must analyze this change in the human need to consume more than taking care of his own mental and physical well-being most judiciously.

Speculating the future

The industrial revolution replaced skilled artisans with low-skilled labor. Today machines automate manual work and job creation declined for middle-skilled occupations, tomorrow machines might automate cognitive work. What will, we as humans would contribute to making our lives more meaningful?

Imagine a world where people do not have to contribute towards producing a product or service. Will AI and Automation consume all of our work? Will the traditionally hand-made products have the same level of artistic authenticity when automated and mass-produced?

Ideation and Storyboard

When I speculated about future scenarios of automation in cottage Industries; From purchasing art or craft directly from artisans in the olden days, transitioned to purchasing from local retail shops, to purchasing products online, the method of finding and getting an artisan’s work has changed through the course of time. I ideated possible scenarios on how products would be available to us in the future and sketched a possible scenario in the form of a satirical comic.

The comic shows a girl attempting to acquire a flower pot, as a gift for her mother’s birthday with the help of Alexa. The changing times made her prefer automation over physically acquiring the product.

A few of the points I hoped to convey through the comic strip are:

• Humans desire to get things done faster and efficiently. This can be seen when the girl preferred to get an automated product than walking to a nearby local store or creating one herself.

• Automation and AI replacing human work.

• Humans relying on AI.

• People stopped depending on people.

• Change in consumption.

• People stopped thinking for themselves.

When we consider the population of India, even though there has been economic growth, the income inequality continues to expand and will move forward. Rural India faces a severe digital gap and the solutions found to bridge the gap have mostly been to teach them to perceive technology in a way we want them to, than create solutions in a way they would perceive and understand.

The history of Indian craft spans a millennium. Craftsmanship comes naturally to the people who have continued the work of art for hundreds or thousands of years. The need to support and cherish these traditional artforms is necessary to preserve our cultural heritage. It is essential to sustain the dying crafts and traditions.

Themes for smaller or developing communities or country’s for innovation

• Openness to shared knowledge and ideas
• Collaboration can trigger an increasing pace of innovation at substantially low costs.
• Not focusing on resources and development, but turning the innovative ideas and processes into communal upliftment.
• Infrastructural changes.
• A government that makes it their goal to support innovation of all kinds.
• A sense of personal, communal, and national mission to support innovation.
• Help those in need bring great ideas to life — through interventions, grants, mobilizing research, networks, upskilling.
• Making most of the existing advantages by innovating areas that can lead to prosperity for the long term.
• Recognizing the importance of capitalizing on its research strengths.
• Government and research institutions work closely with private businesses to co-fund innovation
• By understanding, innovation is much more than automation or converting cottage industries to commercial but, sustaining them.

Challenges

• Societies capturing and embracing all forms of innovation and not just technological advancement.
• Finding the right mode of intervention for the right group of people.
• How to effectively incorporate innovation.
• How to embrace small is beautiful when people opt for gigantism.