In 2009, Vinay Venkatraman was strolling the streets of Mumbai with two colleagues when he saw a group of people tinkering with old computer monitors and turning them into televisions.
After observing the men over three weeks, Mr. Venkatraman and his team found that the workers were stripping the computer monitors, usually brought from the secondhand markets, and inserting T.V. circuits.
They even made T.V. remotes by scavenging components from the scrap market, said Mr. Venkatraman.
“It was really eye-opening as an experience for me,” he said in a recent telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal from his home in Denmark.
India is home to many such master recyclers and re-purposers and Hindi even has a special word it, ‘Jugaad’, meaning “frugal improvisation” which is catching on as a business principle.
The country also boasts of some innovative products such as Mitti Cool, a refrigerator made with clay, and a floating soap, that is less dense than water.
Inspired by those workers involved in what he calls “silicon cottage industries” in India’s financial capital, Mr. Venkatraman, started Frugal Digital in 2010 — a research organization based in Copenhagen and specializing in making low-cost technology equipment.
The nonprofit company makes use of common items such as outmoded mobile phones and clocks to design equipment such as hearing aids and projectors.
Mr. Venkatraman, 34, who grew up in India, graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2003– the top design school in India — and completed his post graduate studies in Italy.
It was his childhood and experiences of Jugaad in India and while living in Nigeria, that inspired his current venture to help people access basic things though inventive recycling.
via India’s Hardware Mashups Inspire Frugal Technology Abroad – India Real Time – WSJ.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 