BWI: Center for Knowledge Societies Launches the ‘Bihar Innovation Lab’, an Institution for Rural Innovation through Design Collaboration

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Design Public
Friday, April 20, 2012 05:49 PM IST (12:19 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Economy, People, Social issues; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Healthcare, biotechnology & pharmaceutical, Major diversified industrial groups; Healthcare
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Center for Knowledge Societies Launches the 'Bihar Innovation Lab', an Institution for Rural Innovation through Design Collaboration


New Delhi, Delhi, India, Friday, April 20, 2012 -- (Business Wire India) -- Centre for Knowledge Societies ( http://cks.in), an innovation consultancy that helps product and service companies imagine new possibilities, today announced the launch of the Bihar Innovation Lab (BIL), a revolutionary concept that promises to change the face of healthcare and rural innovation in Bihar. The lab is a collaborative initiative between the State Government of Bihar, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Center for Knowledge Societies.

The Bihar Innovation Lab is a novel Public Private Partnership model for rural innovation based on design collaboration. It will be the first designated environment in India entrusted with the task of design led rural innovation, to drive new products and better service delivery mechanisms and to demonstrate how the quality of service is improved using design.

Sanjay Kumar, IAS, Health Secretary and Executive Director of the State Health Society, inaugurated the Bihar Innovation Lab, and shared his vision of the Lab, "Over the last two years, through the Gates Foundation, we have had the opportunity to interact with the Center for Knowledge Societies and do some exceptional work in understanding and envisioning healthcare services in Bihar - some of the examples of this is the "34 Ways of Saving Lives in Bihar" and the Integrated Vaccine Services Delivery Kit. To leverage the impact that continuous innovation can have on the quality of healthcare services, we came up with the concept of the Bihar Innovation Lab. We want Bihar to set a benchmark for other states with this kind of a collaborative model of innovation for public interest and development."

Design and deployment of key healthcare solutions will be one of the key focus areas of the Lab. The Vaccine Delivery Kit, an integrated service delivery kit for Health Workers, is the harbinger in a series of five life saving innovations that will be designed, developed and piloted by the Lab. Prototypes of the Vaccine Delivery Kit, designed by the innovation team at Center for Knowledge Societies, are currently being manufactured and is slated for its pilot launch in the coming year.

Usha Kiran Tarigopula, Deputy Director India Country Programs, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed her excitement on this collaboration, ''Ananya - meaning unique or boundless - is a program supported by the partnership between Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the government of Bihar implemented by a number of national and international organizations to improve the health of women, newborns , infants and children under five. We keenly look forward to working with the Center for Knowledge Societies on setting up an innovation lab to promote and institutionalize the culture of innovation in partnership with the Government of Bihar. The Innovation lab will help Ananya partners in conceiving, designing and building prototype user-based solutions for improving rural health delivery in Bihar. It is indeed very exciting.'

The Lab will enable collaboration amongst various partners of the Foundation such as (but not limited to) Care, BBC World Services Trust, World Health Partners and CKS, and collaboratively discover latent innovation opportunities aimed at improving the quality of healthcare services. The Lab will also offer innovation training, by planning and hosting knowledge sharing seminars and capacity training with Partners and the Government Staff so as to accelerate the spreading of innovation techniques.

Reflecting on the need for a user-centric approach to develop healthcare solutions with high-potential for impact, Anant Shah, Program Officer, Vaccine Delivery Global Health Program at the Foundation, says, "The Bihar Innovation Lab is an attempt to institutionalize user-centric innovation and serve as a catalyst for change through creative problem solving and so-called 'design thinking'. Ultimately, it is about developing breakthrough solutions that meet the needs of everyday people facing everyday problems in health and development."

"Over the years Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has developed an understanding that health innovations around the world cannot come through without Impatient Optimism, and this is the best way to achieve this kind of work we hope to accomplish. We, along with the Government of Bihar, have a larger vision for a healthier and more developed Bihar," said Mr. Ashok Alexander, Director of Avahan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Aditya Dev Sood runs Centre of Knowledge Societies, India's leading innovation consulting firm. He is the convener of Design Public and has organized the conclave with a vision to develop India as an Innovation Society. He is one of the visionaries behind the Bihar Innovation Lab concept. At the event today he said he was excited about the Lab because it represented a new form of Public-Private Partnership. "The Bihar Innovation Lab is an attempt to use the expertise of the private sector in making Government smarter and more capable of identifying and solving problems on its own. This Lab will focus not on fundamental science and technology research but rather use ethnography, design thinking and user experience modelling to create new and more effective ways of delivering services."

The Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS) is India's leading innovation consulting firm. CKS partners with different kinds of companies to conduct research and design activities aimed at improving existing products and services and conceptualizing new ones focusing on the end user. The company has wide experience in India, but has also worked in different emerging economies worldwide including South Africa, China, Nigeria, Philippines, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

CKS has worked with numerous multinational firms and authored a series of reports. Vaccine Delivery Innovation Initiative and "34 Ways to Save Lives" in rural India sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, explores challenges and innovations for improving vaccine delivery service and maternal and child health in Bihar, India. The Nokia-sponsored Mobile Development Report explores the socio-economic impact of mobile phones in rural areas in emerging economies. Emerging Economy Report proposes innovative business models and key opportunity areas for creating new products and services in the developing world.

To view the photograph, please click on the link below:
Ashok Alexander, Director of Avahan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Sanjay Kumar, IAS, Executive Director of the State Health Society, State Government of Bihar


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Ashok Alexander, Director of Avahan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Sanjay Kumar, IAS, Executive Director of the State Health Society, State Government of Bihar


CONTACT DETAILS
Namrata Bhalla, Footprint Global Communications, +91 9873169803, namrata.bhalla@footprintglobal.com
Ayesha Vemuri, CKS, +91 9990266031, ayesha.vemuri@cks.in

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ECONOMY, PEOPLE, SOCIAL, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, HEALTHCARE, GROUPS, HEALTHCARE

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