Simplifying Lives Through Innovation!

Last week, I was surrounded by the breathtaking views of Mt. Kanchenjunga where there was a sense of serenity and liveliness. I traveled almost 500 km in the hilly regions of Darjeeling & Sikkim! When it comes to traveling in the mountains, it becomes difficult because of various situations such as high altitudes, fear of landslides, and steep - narrow roads. Though mountains are all pretty and magnificent it comes with their challenges as well.?

While traveling across different places, the first thing I realized was that most of these hill stations don’t have public transportation - the locals are dependent upon either private taxis or state buses or on their vehicles, and last but not least to walk from one place to another. As these places are heavily dependent upon the tourists - what about elderly people or people who can’t walk a lot? Also, the same question stands true for the locals.?

Secondly, I saw the stalls of locals at the height of 10,000 - 12,000 ft. Yep, that’s true! And these stalls are their source of income, I mean how much they must be able to earn from the same? And the question pops in my head - what about their financial independence and is there any simpler way through which they can sell the stuff??

Apart from hill stations, I have traveled through quite a few villages where I haven’t seen enough health centers. Thus, if a person is ill or during the time of pregnancy, they have to travel to the cities for treatment. But is there any way through which these people can get at least basic treatment at their doorstep??

Have you ever wondered how people are living their lives in the remote villages & cities where they are still struggling to get even basic components of life? And what innovation can we bring to these cities which can make the lives of people living there - simpler and easier??

Surely, innovation is happening and changing the shape of our lives but the advantage is reaching a bare minimum percentage of the population and still, a large portion of our nation is yet to get the benefit out of these reshaping innovations! As we all know that our country is rich with different cultures, languages, and beliefs - thus what we need is more grassroots level and cultural innovations to reach the masses.?

The startup ecosystem was built with a purpose to support innovations and innovators and by innovations, it means the introduction of something new which simplifies the lives of humans. But somewhere in the race of running and chasing the maximum startups supported and funded - the whole idea of creating something fruitful on the grassroots level got lost.?

There are many entrepreneurs out there who are working on some great ideas, but somewhere not all of them get the required assistance, and thus, somehow it takes time for them to enter the market and the entire process of bringing innovation to the people gets delayed.?

But here, the government and the incubation centers of the particular cities/towns come into the picture - wherein they should encourage the locals to build solutions for the problems. Why locals? Because they are the best people to understand the problem and can innovate according to the requirements of the people of that specific area.?

Secondly, as we all know that there are various government schemes out there but somehow there isn’t much awareness about the same at the time, state governments should focus on along with the other stakeholders to create more region-specific schemes as each region has different issues to solve!?

The approach should be to create self-reliant state ecosystems which can be going forward become an entirely self-reliant national startup ecosystem altogether.?

Quoting one of the famous economists Mahbub-Ul-Haq, “the real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of material and financial wealth.”?

Thus, innovation should be complementary to the people of the nation, because then and only then people are going to adopt that innovation and make it a part of their lives!

See you next week, till then let's try to give it a thought on how we can positively change the lives of our fellow humans!?