The return of herbal fuel

Thankfully it isn't Ramar Pillai...

Every problem and every solution, it is often reported, can be found in India. But there are also a subset of problems that, to my great pride, are being addressed only in India.

For instance, I remember a computer science professor in my undergraduate school emphasising the need for making telecom exchanges (PBX) cheaper through technology. The affluent west, he said, could afford to achieve desirable telecom penetration at the current prices but the same level of reach can be achieved in India only through greater innovation. This is the kind of innovation that will sell only in Asian and African countries so the west isn't (wasn't) much interested.

Among the Asian and African countries, clearly only India and China are in a position to lead and deliver this kind of solutions. Let me actually gather all my biases and claim that it is India which is doing pioneering work in this realm. For example, though the auto and telecom industries in China are quite advanced, most of the models sold are exact replicas of the western ones sold by local subsidiaries. In India, on the other hand, considerable innovation in both telecom systems and auto parts has played a major role in maturing these markets. These solutions, hence are more suitable for use in say, African countries.

This bio-diesel (check the IISc profs report at the end of the article) and the group SUTRA are just another example of the many such projects in progress in India. The interesting diferentiator in these projects is that they are not intended to scale on capitalistic levels but are meant to be sustainable in smaller rural settings.