Maneka Gandhi pitches for 'Ministry of Invention' to push frugal ideas

MUMBAI: Stressing on the need to adopt ecologically sustainable and pragmatic solutions, Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi today said there is a need to create a ' ministry of invention' at the government level to encourage proprietary work.

"What we need in India is not just a ministry of skill development, we need a 'ministry for inventions'. We need to pay for people to do inventions," she said while addressing financial sector participants at the BSE here.

Citing the case of IIM-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta, who has 800 patents to his credit, Gandhi said a country like ours need solutions for addressing a diverse set of problems.

She said a 'gobar' or cowdung collecting initiative, one such frugal innovation, is helping her earn Rs 60,000 a month from her 'gaushala' or cowshed in the national capital.

From being a "problem", the dung has now become an asset that is being monetised and is being used for the ecologically beneficial invention of 'cow-dung bricks' or as manure in farms and cremations in form of 'cow-dung logs', she said.

In the over 27-minute speech, the minister who has been closely associated with animal rights' causes, also informed the audience about progress done by Indian-origin scientists in creating alternatives for meat from cells created in labs and asked the financial world to back such ideas with resources.

She also spoke strongly for organic farming, illustrating the damage done by the pesticides like Bayer- manufactured (chemical, health care MNC) neonicotinoids pesticide is causing in death of bees which are the prime agents for pollination of seeds.