ABSTRACT
The foregoing narratives – of the contextualising frames of the history of science and technology in India, of the many meanings and understandings of jugaad and of the multi-layered empirics of C. Dharmadhikari’s instrument building – provide us with key points of engagement with the current innovation policy discourse. Most discussions on innovation with the scientists veered quickly to issues of publications, patents, royalties and the success or failure in the attempts to commercialise. The innovation, which is the “carrying out of new combinations”, is the linchpin of economic development. Innovation is an investment effort in which, knowledge, financial capital, and other resources including cultural and social capital are deployed over time to create value. Jugaad Innovation and Reverse Innovation too are explicit in their commitment to using ideas of innovation as solutions for Western economies and corporate deep in the throes of a serious economic meltdown.
