Developing MIS for National Innovation Foundation: Choosing Process, Product & Vendor The

National Innovation Foundation (NIF) was created to provide a platform for underprivileged
innovators and a medium to expand the traditional knowledge base of the country. With the help of
an extensive network of volunteers, NIF had succeeded in providing service to these grassroot
knowledge bearers at their doorstep. Exponential growth in a network of volunteers, as well as
grassroot innovators, had put immense pressure on NIF to develop a system to track their various
activities. Being an autonomous body of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government
of India, the organization needed to maintain accountability and transparency. NIF has always been a
lean organization. In the initial phase, we could manage with face-to-face reporting with minimal
reliance on e-mail for communication. However, as we grew, we faced several issues. Issues like,
information through email was staggered, there were different versions of the same file. Simple
versions of smart sheets were not much useful. Now we use Google docs; they are quite helpful to
share information in real-time, but reporting capabilities are still lacking. – Professor Anil Gupta,
Executive Vice-Chairman, NIF. The organization with a growing network of volunteers and grassroot
innovators, needed to know the status of activities for working effectively. Different software
managed various activities, however, these standalone applications did not interact with each other.
Most of the activities were executed manually, and data was stored in physical files. Gupta had
always been enthusiastic about trying various innovative solutions that could solve their problems.
He encouraged experimentation, but also realized that a system that could track their progress was
an urgent requirement at NIF. The Honey Bee Network The Honey Bee Network (HBN)1 was an
organization of individuals, innovators, farmers, scholars, academicians, policy-makers,
entrepreneurs, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Over the last 25 years or so, HBN had
created a network of grassroot innovators. The Network believed that a knowledge system had to be
just and fair to become sustainable. Just as a honey-bee collected nectar from the flower and in turn
benefitted it by helping in pollination; in a similar manner, HBN obtained knowledge from the
knowledge holder and acknowledged him/her by protecting the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) of
the knowledge provider. A fair and reasonable share of proceeds accrued from the local traditional
knowledge and innovation went back to the knowledge holders.
1[Link] 2 of 30 IIMA/CISG0133 The organizational activities
included documentation and dissemination of local and traditional knowledge and innovations. It
also worked towards creating a database of traditional knowledge and grassroot innovations. Partner
organizations, who constituted HBN were as follows: 1. Society for Research and Initiatives for
Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) 2. National Innovation Foundation (NIF) 3.
Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) 4. Sustainable – agriculture & Environment
Voluntary Action (SEVA), Madurai 5. Prithvi 6. Innovation Club, Orissa 7. A network of Gram
Vidyapeethas 8. Palle Srujana, Andhra Pradesh National Innovation Foundation2 The National
Innovation Foundation was established in March 2000 with the objective of strengthening and
promoting grassroot technological innovations in India. It provided institutional support to grassroots
innovators and facilitated diffusion of traditional knowledge through various channels. NIF also
handled filing patents and licensing of grassroot technology. It worked toward providing scouting,
value adding, sustaining, scaling up of grassroot innovations and facilitating their transitions to self-
supporting activities. Refer to Exhibit 1 for the organizational structure of NIF. The core activities at
NIF were as follows: 1. Scouting and Documentation ) 3 Scouting involved extensive fieldwork;
traveling in rural and urban areas and searching for local community and knowledge experts in the
society. Scouting and documentation (S&D) required coordination with various governmental and
non-governmental agencies for assistance from their grassroots level functionaries to search for
innovations. It also required screening, documenting and verifying the claims about the innovations;
generating mechanisms to incentivize the innovators and involve them in scouting process and
providing assistance in creating decentralized networks of inventors/knowledge experts. NIF shared
the permitted innovations in the public domain with the knowledge providers through different
media channels. 2. Value Addition Research & Development 4 Value Addition Research and
Development (VARD) process (Exhibit 2) involved scrutinizing innovations to ascertain the novelty in
each innovation. Brainstorming sessions were conducted with the internal value chain members
from IPR and Business Development division and the innovations that had the potential for
improvement and value addition were identified. Either some innovations were tested in laboratories
or their efficacy was tested through on-farm trials or in-field testing. 2[Link] 3
[Link] accessed December 11, 2015. 4 [Link] accessed December 11,
2015. 3 of 30 IIMA/CISG0133 3. Intellectual Property Management 5 The Intellectual Property
Management (IPM) Division conducted drafting and filing of patent applications. It also coordinated
with various IP firms/attorneys globally for mobilizing pro-bono or paid support for grassroots
innovators in filing patents, trademarks and other means of IP protection on their behalf. It provided
legal assistance to the innovators in negotiating and drafting licensing arrangements. Legal aid was
provided to deal with issues of infringement of Intellectual Property rights, screening of patents and
patent applications based on Indian traditional knowledge and grassroots innovations. 4. Business
Development and Micro Venture Innovation Fund 6 The basic goal of Business Development (BD)
Department of NIF was to build a value chain around identified grassroot innovations to facilitate
their transition into self-supporting sustainable enterprises. The objective was to make the products
available to the masses through the market mechanism or otherwise. Micro Venture Innovation Fund
(MVIF) offered assistance for various steps involved in technology and business incubation, i.e.,
prototype development, testing, validation, and certification. It also provided support for market
research/ marketing, promotion/advertising, commercialization of technology and intellectual
property protection. Refer Exhibit 3 for an overview of incubation process at NIF. Explaining the
average time that incubation process takes Dr Nitin Maurya, (Innovation Officer/Scientist, NIF)
described, NIF handles ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge across different sectors each
innovative technology has a different timeline for incubation, which included detailed
documentation, verification, validation, value addition, IPR protection, and commercialization. Each
innovation comes to us at a different stage, some at the idea phase, some prototype, some at the
stage of final product development and timelines of incubation change accordingly. Every innovator
is different; our work on any idea/ innovation also depends upon the consent of the innovator. Kind
of technology also determines the duration. Human health-related innovations take a longer time
due to mandatory regulatory tests as compared to, phase-wise trials, agricultural tests, veterinary
tests and their validation, that takes lesser time. The activities for which in-house expertise was
unavailable, NIF took help from external agencies. For example, patent filing, validation, value
addition, and so on. The entrepreneurs and NIF had to work with third parties and to get them
onboard and coordinate with them was a time-consuming process. Typically, a minimum of 2-4 years
were required for scientific incubation of innovation. 5. Management Information System7 The data
obtained from scouting and documentation was used to create a database of innovations and
traditional knowledge to build a National Register and manage an archive of online communication.
It also involved developing and installing multilingual, multimedia kiosks at various public places,
educational institutions and local bodies, and 5 [Link] accessed December 11, 2015. 6
[Link] accessed December 11, 2015. 7 [Link] accessed December 11, 2015.
4 of 30 IIMA/CISG0133 establishing decentralized Indian language databases of innovations and
traditional knowledge. 6. Dissemination and Social Diffusion8 The Dissemination and Social Diffusion
(DSD) Department worked in close coordination with the S&D and IT departments. The specific tasks
undertaken for dissemination activities included coordination of publication activities of NIF online as
well as in print media. The DSD department took care of developing content for newsletters, books,
compendiums, posters, CDs, kiosks, websites, etc. It also facilitated the demonstration of
technologies for their possible uptake by relevant stakeholders. Establishing linkages with other
institutions and networks for dissemination was also one of the principal activities of NIF. 7. Other
Activities NIF also conducted award functions to felicitate grassroot technological innovations. Refer
Exhibit 4 to understand the screening and documentation process of entries. There were mainly two
kinds of award functions: a. National Biennial Competition for Grassroots Technological Ideas,
Innovations, and Outstanding Traditional Knowledge9: NIF felicitated unaided technological
innovations and traditional knowledge developed by individual or group comprising farmers,
artisans, women, slum dwellers, students, etc. These innovations could be for processes or products
for farm/non-farm operations, household utility, transportation, energy conservation or generation,
development of herbal remedies for humans/animals or low cost sustainable green technologies.
There were special awards for women and people with physical disabilities. Creative ideas for
innovative technologies could also compete for the award. b. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE
Competition10: Original creative technological ideas and innovations of the students or/and any
technological idea/innovation that solved daily problems were invited as entries. The students had to
submit properly documented entries to the schools or directly to NIF and were given appreciation
certificates from NIF. For each innovation/traditional knowledge practice spotted and documented,
he/she was credited as the 'Scout' for that particular innovation/traditional knowledge in NIF
records. Organizational Culture at NIF NIF was a highly innovative organization. It had a very organic
culture where everyone was involved in all events of the organization. All members of NIF family took
collective responsibility and worked in close collaboration for all activities. The employees interacted
freely with each other and informally participated in all events of the organization. Information
System Landscape & Issues Faced at NIF When NIF was established, not many organizations were
working in this domain. Project management was followed but not in our context. Ground realities
are very different for us; every innovator is different. There was no off-the-shelf MI