Heard this fantastic piece by Bunker Roy on Ted Talks.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
The other day was having a conversation with someone on why India doesn’t produce a Steve Jobs…And, just like Jobs designed all solutions based around intuitive usability, so has Bunker Roy. The concept of a barefoot college is so brilliant, you wonder why it is not the norm.
So why is bunker Roy not a household name ? I suppose that we don’t tend to celebrate ’empowerment’ because there is no glamour in it. We celebrate charity because it makes us feel good. But, this is not charity. It is about people taking charge of their lives, choosing not to be victims anymore.
It is this empowerment that will create the prosperity, that will lead to creating customers who demand delight and well designed products.
Steve Jobs wasn’t merely celebrated for his ideas but because his ideas made money and he was capable of marketing himself. I can think of many Indians who have come up with brilliant ideas just that most of them have never sought financial profit and haven’t been into marketing. I think Arvind Gupta’s indigenous science teaching methods are very very innovative but neither does he market it in media nor does media care about it.
Purely on the level of ideas, India has its Steve Jobs. But if you combine marketability and profit, then no.
I was about to watch it on the weekend but your post forced me to watch it today. Half-way through, i really started sensing the similarity between Barefoot model and Gandhi’s Nai Taleem. And immediately, Sanjit mentions Gandhi. There are a few other schools which run on similar principles. You can look at them.
http://www.swaraj.org/activities.htm
http://cfl.in/
I would be glad if you can point out other such initiatives in education. Thanks.
But yes, it is a shame that even people who scavenge internet do not come across these initiatives easily.
sorry for the delay in replying.
I think that is the core difference – the difference between a monetizable idea, and one which leads to long term change. Ultimately, technologies die. Ideas live on.
When you use we, do you include me in it? If yes, please don’t.
no. i don’t. 😀
I think every few days we should visit this site of Indian Government to know the unsung Steve Jobs of India.
http://www.nif.org.in/
Its the National Innovation Foundation
India has a billion people with a gazzillion ideas, but they can never flourish here…
Only the Rajus, Tayals, Essar, Ambanis etc will..
India taught Jobs intuition and functionality in simplicity.It may have turned the monk Jobs into a businessman.
Laxmi Mittal is no different. He became a steel magnet with ex psu sail staff … only when he left indian shores.
As i have given up on this, the Sonia MMS govt, which has repeated the old Indira formula.
I hope whichever govt that comes next learns from Bunker Roy and jobs..
We desperately need innovative empowering policy from the govt..not shortcuts
One of the main reasons India wont have a Jobs is because competition, free enterprise and innovation and basic implementation of laws are stifled because of myriad of govt policy and license permit raj.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/PIL-alleges-nexus-in-Sebi-appointments/articleshow/10612161.cms
During Indira rule, Mukharjee the FM was called Minister of Reliance…. He planted the seeds of destruction of UTI.
Don`t know how many years they will take our country back …
JRD Tata was a broken man after Indira snatched his first love Air India … and look what its state is 3 decades later … it is a bankrupt entity…
All that this govt has done is to do Massive spending with an agenda to show such spending as charity from the Gandhi family….
http://www.firstpost.com/business/upa-nomics-spend-rs-5-8-lakh-cr-and-send-the-bill-to-voters-33607.html
NREGA has brought in a slowdown,
Most Power SEBs are again knocking the doors of bankrupcy
Sbi and PSU banks are badly under capitalized by the aftereffects of Farmer Loan Waiver and priority sector lending and lending to croneys.
Coal India and ONGC might go the IPCL way if the govt power policy continues …. and with their demise, the country’s energy security.
http://www.firstpost.com/economy/indias-folly-borrowing-abroad-to-create-a-sovereign-fund-124040.html
Food guarantee program will increase the stock of rotting grains and almost double the cost of rice and wheat for everyone else…bringing more lower middle class folks into poverty and poor into very poor category. while increasing inflation and the fiscal deficits and MMS Sonia combine will bring India to a situation we faced before necessitating regular devaluation of the Rupee.
People like Bunker Roy should replace entities like the planning commission,. But as the system stands he is one of the biggest enemies of the system, just like Hazare .
An empowered citizen will never be wanted by this system.
In Germany, i saw how organized and law abiding the people were, sometimes to a degree of absurdity. Most amazing thing was people there are empowered… If the govt has to repair the footpath in front of their house , it would take their signatures and give them an actual picture of how repairs would be done. The flip side is people have to remove the snow on the public footpath in front of their house and were liable for any accidents .