Organization:SRISTI
Contents
Overview
Purpose
- Systematic documentation, dissemination of, and value addition in grassroots green innovations
- Providing them intellectual property rights protection and risk capital support
- Help in in situ and ex situ conservation of local biodiversity and associated knowledge system.
- Empower the knowledge rich but economically poor people by adding value to their innovations,traditional knowledge and associated biological diversity including microbial diversity.
- Linkformal and informal science to enrich both the knowledge systems
- To provide early stage venture support to grassroots innovators, students and other mavericks to scale up products and services based on grassroots and youthful innovations through commercial or non-commercial channels.
- To embed the insights learnt from grassroots innovations in the formal educational, policy and institutional systems in order to expand the conceptual and cognitive space available to these innovations.
Distinct Differences From Other Offerings
Technological and institutional innovations developed by individuals and communities under SRISTI has provided a new way of thinking about conservation of diversity, generation of sustainable alternatives for natural and other resource management through self supporting viable economic and non-economic self reliant livelihood strategies.
Impact Achieved For Students and Campus
SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions), which means creation in Sanskrit, was born in 1993 as a result of the felt need for an institutional support to the activities of the Honey Bee Network.
SRISTI was set up to provide organizational, intellectual and logistics support to the Honey Bee Network. The primary objectives while setting up the organization were: systematically documenting, disseminating and developing grassroots green innovations, providing intellectual property rights protection to grassroots innovators, working on the in situ and ex situ conservation of local biodiversity, and providing venture support to grassroots innovators. SRISTI manages the Honey Bee database of innovations, and supports the publication of the Network's newsletter in three languages, English, Hindi and Gujarati.
Lately SRISTI has being focusing on more concerted ways of hitherto neglected domains like women's knowledge systems, value addition through a natural product laboratory, using ICT to establish knowledge network, connecting innovators, traditional knowledge holders with the centres of formal excellence, entrepreneurs etc and innovations in education.
Notes About How This Resource is Deployed
SRISTI has been able to upgrade its standing and legitimacy among the policy makers, intellectuals and grassroots innovators alike and at the root of such wide acceptance lies in the activities of the organization. Following are the major activities of the organization.
· Scouting, Documentation & Dissemination: The activity focuses upon scouting and documenting unique grassroots innovations and traditional practices from various parts the country and sharing the learning from such innovations and practices with the wider audience.
· Validation and Value Addition: The activities aim at developing the herbal formulations derived from the grassroots practices into viable, user-friendly and marketable products through proper research and development.
· Policy Analysis & Advocacy: The activities aim at bringing about policy level changes and incorporating more favourable policy regimes for the promotion of grassroots innovations and practices.
· Campaigning and Awareness Building: The activities focus upon generating awareness and building public opinion about grassroots innovations and traditional practices, organic farming etc.
· AASTIIK: It aims at creating a virtual and real knowledge community of professionals and experts in the field of invention, innovation and traditional knowledge.
· The Educational Initiatives: The activities aim at scouting, documenting, encouraging and supporting innovative means of teaching children about the subjects and building awareness about the rich bio-diversity around them.
· ICT initiatives: The activities focus upon integrating the services of information and communication technology with the concern of building the knowledge network to connect grassroots innovators and traditional practitioners across the boundary of region, language and culture.
· Natural Resource Management: The activities focus upon validating and initiating innovative means of conservation of nature and bio-diversity.
· Grassroot Innovations for Inclusive Development (GRIID PROJECT) :
- Understanding factors for the emergence, existence and successful functioning of GRIs within the NIS Study
- Institutional environment for promoting GRI
- Capacity building of individual and institutional actors for upscaling and promoting GRI
Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus
The students can connect with SRISTI directly via the Honey Bee Network. The network allows them to access the latest innovations made by the organisation. It also allows them to critique the cross stream innovations made by the organisation.
SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) set up in 1993 to support and strengthen the Honey Bee Network - a voluntary informal network of creative people, policy makers, scientists, NGOs and other professionals interested in augmenting grassroots innovations. The Honey Bee Network tries to:
- Provide a peer groups of farmers, artisans, scientists, academics across language, culture and regional boundaries to nurture, critique and encourage innovative experimentation.
- Break the nexus between the regions of high biodiversity and high poverty endowed with poor public as well as private infrastructure.
- Provide access to information that can help improve productivity without increasing cost using other farmers' innovations. Most of the grassroots innovators do not have access to relevant information, which cripples their ability to raise resources and explore opportunities in different markets. Thus poor demand of ecological and technological skill as well as their eco- friendly products forces them to become "unskilled labourers" in the urban houses and markets; galvanize existing institutions and community structures to inspire and sustain the curiosity and spirit of younger generation to pursue the path of experimentation and excellence in local eco-enterprises and natural resource management.
- Resolve an ethical dilemma about sharing and protecting traditional as well as contemporary knowledge of individuals and communities evolved through conscious efforts but guided by different value systems without keeping people poor. The fact that we have not found many young healers indicates that younger generation does not find the career of healer or herbalist worth pursuing when it entails a life of penury though with a lot of goodwill in the community.
Contact Information
Sristi Innovations
Contact Person :
Nirmal Shankar Sahay (Manager)
Address : A. E. S. Boys Hostel Campus, Near University Library, Navrangpura
Ahmedabad - 380009, Gujarat, India
Mobile :
+(91) - 9925320793
Phone :
+(91) - (79) - 27912792
+(91) - (79) - 27913293
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