Innovation, Investment, Enterprise: Generating Sustainable Livelihood at Grassroots through Honey Bee Philosophy

Abstract

In memory of Dr. C.V. Seshadri, a maverick scientist and a social change agent, it is suggested that a new model for sustainable livelihoods is followed. The ex-ante and ex-post transaction costs of innovators, investors and entrepreneurs will have to be reduced if the new paradigm has to work. The benchmarking of unsolved problems of the society have to be linked with R&D and management institutions so that the societal tendency of living with problems indefinitely is contained. The innovation challenges are recommended to involve masses in solving persistent problems. A reference is made to challenge thrown open by Gandhiji in 1929 offering an award of Rs.1 lakh [worth about Rs.10 crores now] to improve the spinning wheel. In the post-independence India, we have never offered an award of this kind to solve any problem. I describe a framework for building value chain and a horizontal supply chain to reinforce in-situ value addition and people to people exchange and marketing system. Recalling the spread of Buddhism in the eastern Asia, more than 2000 years ago, it is stressed that culture cannot be made culprit. These very countries were heralding new models of economic growth. India has to likewise promote grassroots to global model reversing the current trend of globalization. A plea is also made for a Global Innovation Foundation premised on the philosophy and practice of Honey Bee Network.