Frugal Innovation and CSR Interactions: Creating Value for development

Social Projects selected for Case Studies: Education, Energy and Livelihood Creation and Enhancement
Duration of the study: 2 years
Proposed Date: January 2021 – December 2022
Lead researchers: Dr. Rupamanjari Ghosh and Dr. Saradindu Bhaduri

Frugal Innovation is mainly centred around designing and redesigning of products and services and also the business models that come up with less complexity and reduced costs with increased functionality to have more user value at affordable costs, particularly for low-income groups. Frugal Innovation from the perspective of Management literature has been addressing business opportunities among the marginalized society to sell and produce products at a lower costs through frugal innovation. On the other hand Frugal Innovation from Development Economics perspective has incorporated both top-down and bottom up approaches. Frugal innovation for livelihood enhancement are delivered by people at the Bottom of the Pyramid themselves as an outcome of resource constraints.

Interaction with students at Digital Innovation Hub developed by SRF Foundation
conflict governance

Frugality in Innovation Governance: Learning from the Polycentric Human-Animal Conflict Governance

Project Duration: 2 years
January 2021-December 2022
Lead Researchers: Dr. Manish Kumar Shrivastava and Dr. Saradindu Bhaduri
The question of decentralization and scale is central to many policy debates in the context of governance for sustainable development. Many argue that decentralization (localization) of solutions, grounded in community-based practices and local resource management, local partnerships as well as technologies suited for local needs and constraints are critical in dealing with sustainability challenges This line of reasoning is best articulated in the context of managing common property resources recognizing the multiplicity of scales and difference in actors and stakeholders and their autonomies, the landscape of localization of innovations in a multi-level governance context is captured by the concept of polycentric governance.