France Can Pioneer Wise Diplomacy in India

As the Covid-19 crisis worsens in India, I applaud French President Emmanuel Macron for sending 8 world-class, high capacity oxygen generator plants to India as part of France’s solidarity mission.

I also praise French Ambassador to India, H.E. Mr Emmanuel Lenain, for humbly thanking India for providing life-saving drugs to France in Spring 2020 when French hospitals faced acute shortages.

Other Western countries are sending oxygen cylinders to India, which address India’s short-term needs.

But the French oxygen generator plants will supply oxygen to 8 Indian hospitals non-stop for 12 years, hence boosting their long-term autonomy.

While this is praiseworthy, this is akin to “giving a fish” to someone daily for 12 years, rather than just 1 month.

How about France helping India “learn to fish” by fostering the growth of its local innovation ecosystem focused on healthcare?

With French financing and expertise, Indian entrepreneurs can learn to develop frugal medical solutions — that are 100% “made in India” using 100% local resources — that could help overcome not just Covid19 but future pandemics as well.

The graphic above shows 4 distinct but complementary ways France can help India. Each corresponds to a particular diplomatic approach:

• Approach #1 is France “giving a small fish” (a ready-made French product) to India to address its short-term tactical needs
• Approach #3 is France “giving a big fish” (French know-how like oxygen generator plants) to India to address its long-term strategic needs
• Approach #2 is France “teaching (India) how to fish” by using local talent and resources to build locally frugal products and services in a particular domain
• Approach #4 is the most advanced. It’s France helping Indian institutions and individuals who already “teach other Indians how to fish”, by building and scaling a local innovation ecosystem in critical sectors like healthcare and energy.

France is currently applying the Approches #1 and #3 in India with some success.

France has yet to learn to practice Approach #2. But France can’t make much impact in India with Approach #2 since India knows more about frugal innovation than France.

Instead, what if France could bypass Approach #2 and leapfrog straight to Approach #4 ?

France can rapidly master Approach #4 by supporting what I call Meta-Innovators in India.

A Meta-Innovator is an innovator him/herself and is dedicated to training hundreds of others become innovators, thus creating a virtuous cycle that spawns a robust and sustainable innovation ecosystem in his/her country.

In Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a spiritually-advanced being who foregoes enlightenment in order to help entire humanity evolve in consciousness.

Likewise, a Meta-Innovator is a Bodhisattva-like wise entrepreneur who foregoes his/her dream of becoming a billionaire. Instead (s)he dedicates his/her life to train hundreds of other entrepreneurs and innovators in his country so they fulfill their own dreams and collectively uplift their nation.

One such Meta-Innovator is Vaibhav Chhabra, who was named by President Macron as a Young Leader India-France in 2018.

Vaibhav, and his partner Richa Shrivastava, are co-leading the M19 Maker Collective.

In 2020, the M19 Maker network, spread all over India, managed to produce 1 million low-cost face shields in just a few weeks to help frontline health workers fighting the first wave of Covid19 across India.

Today, India grapples with a tsunami of new Covid cases and an acute oxygen shortage.

M19 has sprung into action again. It is now training 100s of Makers across India in 300 cities/villages to build capacity to produce nearly 3,000 low-cost Oxikits (open-source oxygen concentrators) using local resources in a decentralized manner.

By supporting Indian Meta-Innovators like Vaibhav and Richa, France can pioneer what I call Wise Diplomacy, a conscious new foreign policy paradigm fit for the 21st century.

Wise (conscious) diplomacy leverages local talent in partner nations to build a networked innovation ecosystem that produces frugal solutions that address long-term societal needs in critical areas like healthcare and climate change that afflict entire humanity.