Rebuilding & Refining Local, Appropriate & Innovative Technology, Entrepreneurship & Artisanship

Even 73 years later, following the western model of industrialisation, India has few leading Brands in commonplace items like TV, mobiles etc. Even in IT, that much celebrated success story, India continues to serve the world as a sweatshop or a backyard with no products, hardware or software, of its own.

On the one hand we have failed to preserve artisanship and the culture of handicrafts and on the other failed to produce high-end technological goods and services in line with our ethos of being local, sustainable and appropriate.

Why? Because we attempted the creation of the post-Independence industrial complex, with talent drawn from a mere 2% of our urban populace, while excluding grass-roots artisans, craftsmen, farmers and technicians endowed with indegenious wisdom largely located in rural geographies.

And this English-speaking elite cut off from the grass-roots, that has been tasked with creating policies and taking decisions on behalf of those they neither empathise with nor understand, just slavishly copied the western practices without adapting and recreating them to suit our contexts!

Sri Aurobindo foresaw this and spoke about integrating the alienated masses with the mainstream; while imbuing them with the spirit of self-help, self-confidence and Swadeshi. 

What is appropriate technology for India? Is Industrialisation the way, clearly prohibited by Sri Aurobindo or should we find a new pattern of production and creation? Is artisanal culture important? If so, how can it be revived? How do we create that culture of excellence and precision, the foundational values for any creation!

Join us and other industry leaders to rethink technology, on this nation-changing journey of bridging the urban-rural gap, while integrating untapped rural resources that could power the enterprise and economy of 21st century India.