Frugal innovation in rural India

Abstract

For major part of the millennia the focus of innovation in products and services has been on catering to the various needs of the high-income earners. The same approach was passed on to the developing countries when the MNCs started their operations there. This approach has neglected the low-income earners. This cause in concordance with resource crunch and aspiration to have good quality products have given rise to frugal innovators at grassroot level. Frugal innovators provide an affordable alternate to the existing products which cater mostly to the urban and high-income users. Frugal innovation at grassroot level has led to improvement in the standard of living by providing sustainable development and employment opportunities. However, despite plethora of benefits of frugal innovation an innovator faces multiple challenges throughout the product life cycle. These challenges are encountered right from the conceptualisation of the idea to the commercialization stage. The objective of this explorative study is to understand the nature and reason of the challenges that are faced by the innovators at each stage. For this study we will understanding the challenges faced in the developing countries. It draws on a literature review and additional interviews with people from diverse areas from the industry and academia around the world.