The world is realising that Indians are particularly good at frugal innovation, said Roddam Narasimha of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

He was addressing graduates at the third convocation day at Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) here on Saturday. A total of 1,266 candidates were awarded degrees at the ceremony.

He said these ‘frugal’ innovations offer products and services comparable to the best international standards at a fraction of the prices paid elsewhere in the world. He cited surgery, manufacture of generic drugs, world’s cheapest mobile telephony services, supply of automobile components and subsystems as examples to frugal innovations.

At a time when the world is facing potentially severe problems due to climate change, and the last decade experiencing huge fluctuations in economic health all across the world, frugal innovations seem like a worthwhile course to pursue, especially for our country, he added.

Observing that innovation is something that requires a great deal of attention, he said it has strong appeal to Indian minds because we are still a highly cost-sensitive society. Many economies of the so-called developed world do not act on the principles of frugal innovation and would rather maximise revenue for offering products and services.

Transformation

Mentioning that transformations are taking place daily, he said mobile phones represent a product that is a result of very large number of innovations. Medicine provides another instance of doctors of the country having pioneered new ways of offering health services at a fraction of the cost that is demanded in the rest of the world.

On education, he said there is a minor boom in private universities — more than a hundred now — with most of them being semi-commercial. But, there are some which show signs of having serious academic ambitions.

Narasimha said it has now become necessary that leading private institutions start asking themselves deeper questions about an educational system that would best fit the needs of our society.

Medalists

Post Graduation: Nandini M N, Jayapalraddi V Alavandi, Titu B G, Shambhavi R S, Varsha K G, B S Kavitha, Niranjan M N, Praveena S, Nihal Mohammadi, Megha B Harogopp, Supreetha P P, Deepadevi M, Chaitra Kurlageri and Babitha E M.

Graduation: Shivashree, Sudheendra S, Varun B Patil, Chakitha B, Brahmesh Jain S D, Thekkar Nishanth Prabhu, Tanuja M, Akash H M, Raksha Nayak, Bhagyashree H R, Abhishek Bhat and Pooja Hariharan.