Innovation development of the informal sector in India

The concept of the national innovation system has been developed since 1980s. This concept is changing and sometimes is criticized by different scholars. But one thing remains constant: it considers innovation processes within the formal sector only. India's experience shows that the informal sector also carries out innovation activities. The article examines the history of the formation of the support and augmenting system of innovations in the informal sector of India. The researches of the national innovation systems are based on the concept developed in 1980s by Freeman and Lundval. This concept is still developing. But all the developments are about the processes and linkages between the main actors of innovation system - government, business and academia. They do not consider the informal sector as a field of innovation activity. All manuals for innovation system estimation and analysis are based on this principle. Since 1980s India has experienced the processes that can make an important addition to the basic concept of national innovation system by challenging the principle not to consider informal sector as a part of innovation system. The informal sector in India covers a large part of the working population, in part because of a large agricultural sector that, according to the Oslo Manual, is generally excluded from the study of national innovation systems. In 1980, this phenomenon was noticed by Professor of Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) Anil Gupta. During the expeditions organized by the professor and his students-volunteers there were collected a large number of innovative practices and products (including brand new), developed by the villagers of different states of India. This is the so-called grassroots innovation. As a result of active work of the professor and his associates founded the Honey Bee Network. This is a volunteer organization that searches for grassroots innovation. Subsequently, this initiative was supported by the Government of Gujarat, and later by the central government of India. The Honey Bee Network actively interacts with institutions and organizations of the formal sector. For instance, institutes and research labs are involved in innovation verification and validation, private and government agencies provide support for IPR protection, etc. The infrastructure to support and promote grassroots innovation was developed. Within this infrastructure all phases of the innovative product development are supported: incubation, protection of intellectual property rights (or technology licensing), value addition, financing and commercialization. In fact, grassroots innovations of informal sector have been incorporated into the national innovation system of India, which is confirmed by the new development program "Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in India" issued in 2013 by the Government of India.

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