CRIFT Conclave on “Value Creation by Clusters and Frugal Philosophy”

New Delhi: Center for Research and Innovation in Frugal Technology Management (CRIFT) at FORE School of Management, New Delhi, organised the FORE Virtual Conclave on ‘Value Creation by Clusters and Frugal Philosophy’. Dr. Anil Kumar Singh, Professor-In-Charge CRIFT and Dr. Mukul Joshi, was the Co-convener of this event, held on Jan 29-30th, 2021.

Center for Research and Innovation in Frugal Technology Management (CRIFT) at FORE School of Management, New Delhi, collaborates with “One Cluster one Focus” – a virtual community; and Srijan Sanchar for this conclave, to deliberate on how indigenous business clusters in India can boost value creation by embedding “frugal innovation” philosophy.

Indigenous business clusters cover an assortment of sectors, often each one having its own distinctive product and associated strategic resources spread over proximal geographical areas. These are often led by individuals as their venture founders. Thus, they fuel the Indian entrepreneurial dream and empower individuals to follow their passion. These indigenous small business ventures also offer people the ability to gain financial freedom, build opportunities as job creators, and promote creativity.

The FORE Virtual Conclave on “Value Creation by Clusters and Frugal Philosophy” identifies an expanding need for cluster-based information to aid research, encourage comparisons of clusters across districts, and enable policymakers and experts to formulate territory-specific strategies.

The conclave included the following four broad session themes:

· New Trajectory and Novel Initiatives for Clusters

· Integration of Frugal Philosophy and Innovation for Enhancing the Effectiveness of Clusters.

· Evaluating Value Creation Potential of a Cluster and Methods to Harness it.

· Role of “One Cluster One Focus” Community, Srijan Sanchar and CRIFT in the Contemporary Context.

To deliberate on these issues, the conclave was attended by eminent personalities and scholars like Padam Shri Dr. Rajani Kant (Executive Director, Human Welfare Association), Dr. Heera Lal (Additional Mission Director, UP National Health Mission), Dr. Jitendra K. Das (Director, FORE School), Dr. Gopichand Katragadda (Founder and CEO at Myelin Foundry; Past Group CTO, Tata Sons; Past MD, GE John F. Welch Technology Center), Dr. Priya Somaiya (Executive Director – Usha International), Unmesh Kulkarni (Founder Member – Oceanic Circles), Praphul Misra (Managing Director, Oi Media), Dr. Sangeeta Agasty (Ph.D. Scholar under Guelph University, Canada and TERI University – under SSHRC Fellowship Canada), Ankur Shrivastava (Director – Centectra Solutions Private Limited) and Richard Hay (Academician; Author – Book, “Professionalization of Teachers and Institutions”; Former Member of Parliament).

Center for Research and Innovation in Frugal Technology Management (CRIFT) at FORE School of Management, New Delhi, is a first of its kind in India. CRIFT is a multidisciplinary hub for creating intellectual wealth around frugality and developing, synthesizing, and sharing academic and practitioner knowledge on frugal innovation.