Water is a basic source and amenity for all life forms on Earth. Still billions of people face water related issues which have a huge impact on their livelihood. Resources and innovations which are cost effective and high quality will increase access and help in addressing the water related problems especially in the resource constrained environments and settings. Frugal innovations have a great potential and a space for contribution in this domain particularly due to the focus on affordable and quality innovations. In order to have a maximum impact of an innovation, it’s important to involve consumers as active participants. Frugal innovation allows customization of the innovation to the needs and economic expectations of the user. This article emphasizes on the role of frugal innovation in impairing sustainable solutions to the water-related developmental challenges. It also discusses how different institutions and sectors like private and public can play a key and complementary role in defining and addressing the water challenges using frugal innovations.
One of the most essential components for sustenance of living beings is
water. Yet, billions of people lack water and sanitation facilities, 2.2
billion people have no access to safe drinking water and it is projected
that water scarcity could displace 700 million people by 2030. Each day,
nearly 1000 children die due to preventable water as well as sanitation
associated diarrheal diseases [1]. The hydrological cycle, which
guarantees that water cycles continually on Earth, provides humans with
a number of essential services, including clean water and food as well
as natural ecosystems. A rising demand for products and services,
including basic needs like shelter, electricity, food, and water, has
been caused by economic expansion topped up with population increase,
fast urbanization, and industrialization. Additionally, these factors
raise demand for home and industrial water, especially in emerging
nations [2]. The bulk of the poor and lower middle income nations
are found in Africa and Asia, which are also home to the vulnerable
areas dealing with water difficulties. Water-related issues are
anticipated to have an impact on many processes in multiple industries
because of the interdependencies between water and value chains.
The ramifications for those affected by water-related issues can be
wide-ranging and may significantly impede wellbeing and development
[3]. We require fresh approaches to address enormous water problems.
There is a need to go farther in addition to addressing issues on a
personal level, including access to clean water. As global
collaborations are stressed and business-led solutions and technology
are pushed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) published in 2015
[4], the private sector is increasingly being asked to assist in
addressing the major development concerns.The SDGs’ concurrent goals of
achieving sustainable society, the environment, and economic growth
include the sustainable production, circular economy and consumption.
Instead of focusing only on the result, this places greater attention on
the viability in the social context. This calls for a broader
perspective on water resources usage and management in the water sector
than only water supply and sanitation (WSS).
Due to their perception of cost and high quality, frugal innovations
have been suggested as a feasible strategy for catering to
resource-constrained customers in developing markets and also in the
low-growing developed economies [5, 6]. These innovations align with
the SDGs, and economical advances are frequently considered as
sustainable [7, 8]. However, current research has not carefully
examined the sustainability implications and has instead mostly
concentrated on the results of frugal innovation, or end goods. If the
world is to address the approaching water issue, innovation is required
[9]. Particularly for countries that are water-stressed, this is
thought to be true. The initiatives, which have various names such as
inclusive innovations and bottom of the pyramid innovations [10],
aim to promote inclusive development that reduces trade-offs among
growth and inequality. The concept of frugal innovation is relatively
recent that highlights a crucial component of the innovation process
[11]. The term is used to describe innovations created especially
for emerging societies that have little or no access to resources
[12]. According to this argument, frugal innovation responds to
restrictions in resources, whether financial, material, or
institutional, and employing a range of strategies, converting these
constraints into opportunities.[13]
Gandhian innovation and jugaad [11] are two more names frequently
used to describe inexpensive innovation; both phrases stress
characteristics with innovative economy. Frugal innovation includes
rethinking, not merely redesigning things, business models and
production processes. The notion of efficacious innovation has enhanced
our knowledge similar to the literature on grassroots innovation and it
has increased awareness of the significance of solutions created in the
societies where the issues actually exist [14]. It has challenged
the idea that innovations are essentially the results of
resource-intensive processes and the only province of more developed
countries with the financial resources to support significant
investments in the advancement of technology. Despite all the attention
it has gotten, the concept of frugal innovation is still poorly
understood [15]. This is due in part to the difficulties in
separating it from other ideas like frugal engineering or reverse
innovation [12]. A highly valuable addition is classification of
frugal innovation into three categories: frugal attitude, frugal method,
and frugal output. It also arranges existing related concepts into these
categories. It uses the term mindset to describe both the driving forces
behind behaviors and the mental frameworks that influence
problem-solving. According to their definition, the term ”process”
refers to both the production process and the resultant service. When
investigating the concept of frugal innovation, the focus has primarily
been on engineering, and more particularly, on the producer’s
inventiveness in being able to reduce the product to its most basic
components while yet meeting the demands of the consumer with few
resources. It is contradictory to see the consumer as a passive
participant in the innovation process. Instead, by actively
participating in the production process, the consumer helps the inventor
find the sweet spot that permits a considerable cost reduction without
jeopardizing the fundamental functions consumers desire to meet with a
certain product [16].
The discussion of frugal innovations has been sparked by the realization
of the commercial potential of customers with limited resources and the
escalating rivalry for these markets. These innovations have gained
attention from academics, practitioners, and policy-makers [6, 11].
They have appeared in a variety of fields, from daily use appliances to
healthcare equipment to energy solutions. Consumers with limited
resources are attracted by frugal innovations in order to provide them
inexpensive, high-quality goods and services.
Since the private sector is responsible for the vast majority of frugal
inventions, they might also be a way for the industry to start
supporting sustainable development. These inventions often aim to
satisfy comparatively simple objectives at a cheaper cost and so offer
significant value [5]. From a market and technological standpoint,
frugal innovations are often unique solutions. Although still a
relatively new idea, frugal innovation procedures are still implemented
in a variety of ways: some solutions are built from the ground up, while
others are based on already existing technology. The solutions in both
situations must address the unique requirements in their respective
target contexts. Thus, knowing local conditions as well as end users’
needs, wants, and behavior is essential for their success. It is
suggested that simplicity, simple functionality, and small feature sets
are criteria for attaining affordability and essential attributes for
the alternatives. Low-cost manufacturing, low-cost materials, and
low-cost design are all important considerations. Sustainability of
cheap innovations is said to result mostly from the frugal solutions’
simplicity and smart design. It is suggested that these characteristics
of the results lead to less resource usage and more sustainability.
[7]
If the value from innovation is seen to emerge from the supply of not
simply a product, but a service described as the process of delivering
benefit, it becomes clear that employing the lens of co-production in
the conception of frugal innovation is acceptable [17]. For a
product to continue to deliver on its promise, it needs complementary
approaches, materials, and infrastructure [15]. The importance of
the consumer in generating shared value is becoming more widely
acknowledged as a result of the service dominating paradigm in
marketing. The high level of customer centricity, which implies more
than just being consumer-oriented and includes working with and learning
from consumers as well as being flexible to their specific and changing
demands, is a crucial component of the value that results from frugal
innovation. A dominating logic that is service-centered suggests that
value is not entrenched in output but rather determined by and
co-created with the help of the user. [17]
A more comprehensive understanding of water and the problems it causes
can open up new opportunities and widen the scope of an organization’s
operations. Similarly, a frugal innovation mindset can help
organizations to come up with creative ways to organize their innovation
and to address the water-related problems faced by less affluent people.
Greater markets are opened by recognizing the prospects in the sector of
water outside of the companies’ typical areas of activity. Affordable
solutions are required, especially in low-income areas that frequently
deal with a variety of development issues. Prominent umbrella
organizations supporting sustainable business have also acknowledged the
promise of business-led approaches in addressing the difficulties of
sustainable development.
The benefit of frugal innovation is connected with its qualities—low
cost, high quality, and environmental suitability—in this expanding
water industry. Due to their focus on cost, frugal innovation approaches
sometimes necessitate a full rethink of existing operational practices.
Assessing the local context is crucial to the growth of frugal
innovation practices since they both aim to meet a radical cost target
and guarantee that they are appropriate for the area [8]. In this
way, cost-effective innovations may inspire businesses to explore fresh
approaches to their product development and operational workflows, as
well as modify organizational mindsets and operating models.
Furthermore, frugal innovations excel in offering end customers, even
those in lower socioeconomic levels, high-quality products at a
reasonable price. These innovative approaches can promote sustainable
development, especially at the individual and family levels, given that
many of these technologies also assist in welfare and the development of
livelihoods. When these recent inventions replace unwanted or
ineffective behaviors or are more advantageous in terms of the
environment, society, or the economy than the existing solutions, this
makes a further contribution to sustainability [18]. Issues with the
value chains of frugal innovation, which involve numerous phases from
raw material extraction through manufacturing, from actual consumption
to end-of-life and probable re-use, are directly related to
sustainability flaws. Being primarily aimed at customers means that
frugal innovations frequently place a high emphasis on product quality,
which might cause them to overlook the social, economic and
environmental ramifications in other areas of the value chain.
Frugal innovations place a strong focus on the relevance of local
context and requirements [19], yet they are frequently produced in a
global value chain. These value chains are frequently complicated and
involve a lot of individuals in various locations who have diverse
traits and features. The need for low-cost production is not always in
line with the bottom line of sustainable development; on the contrary,
there are instances of well-known corporations that have had difficulty
adhering to social and environmental regulations in nations with
affordable manufacturing [19]. China, for example, is well-known for
its affordable manufacturing, but it also has social and environmental
issues connected to its fast industrialization and lacks enforcement of
social and environmental rules [20, 21].
Constitutional flaws concern the obligations that all parties should
bear in the water sector. The water sector is distinguished by a high
level of public sector engagement in and responsibility for the
administration and, in several cases, even for the supply of the water
services, in contrast to certain other low-cost innovation industries.
At the same time, cost-effective innovations created by the private
sector frequently only address a single, narrow area relating to the
water industry. Even if such isolated innovations may be beneficial,
especially in the near run, they must also take into account the larger
societal aspect in which they are embedded; otherwise, they may not help
to build more comprehensive, public sector-driven solutions. Such
examination also aids in recognizing possible institutional deficiencies
and the ways the private sector might recognise and fill them because
the institutional environment in developing countries is frequently
problematic [22, 23].
The real innovation process typically involves a number of additional
players from the public sector, civic society, and academics even though
the actual inexpensive innovation procedures are frequently handled by
organizations. Public and private sector engagement in the water sector
may have somewhat distinct goals, but their styles of operation and
areas of expertise may be quite complimentary. However, to fully
capitalize on this, it is necessary to be clear about the obligations of
each actor. For instance, the private sector may work with various
research institutions to provide new products, services, and
technologies, while the government sector may foster an environment that
fosters these innovations and ensures that the new services support the
sector’s overarching goals and are available to all. Given the crucial
role that the public sector plays in the water sector, from the local to
the national and even international levels, it seems obvious that
private actors should be aware of this role and collaborate with the
relevant public sector players since the commencement of their frugal
innovation process. The public sector should continue to play a major
role in the development of the overall water sector [24, 25]. This
is because private sector actors frequently lack the authority,
comprehensive knowledge, and readiness to fill the regulatory gap
outside of their immediate areas of responsibility. [26, 27] A solid
capacity development strategy is necessary for large scale impact of
frugal innovations. activities of frugal innovations should be in line
with a country’s unique demands. Finally, frugal innovation should
support methods to invent that let innovators draw both locally and
globally ingrained knowledge, as well as develop the capacities of local
innovators and build a vibrant and competitive innovation system, in an
increasingly globalized and competitive world. Only then the locally
relevant frugal ideas can be created, broadly embraced, and help promote
long-term global sustainable development.
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