Saradindu Bhaduri
Associate Professor, Centre for Studies in Science Policy
at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Frugal innovation is increasingly promoted as a solution to meet the needs of a growing human population while remaining within planetary boundaries. This article presents a nuanced understanding of what frugal innovation is and is not; highlighting that a wider understanding of frugality has the potential to promote the resilience, dignity and economic prosperity of people and communities that are not traditionally seen as part of innovation ecosystems.
It highlights the necessity of overhauling the existing social and economic spaces of innovation, production, and consumption to envisage a just, inclusive way forward towards an effective ecological transformation.
