Technopolitics of tinkering and the ‘new’ innovation economy: insights from India

Tinkering and its role in innovation economy have captured the imagination of policymakers across the globe. In India, a variety of tinkering spaces have emerged in recent years. In this paper, we make an attempt to analyse the mandates, motivations, actors and networks of these evolving spaces of tinkering. Tinkering has the potential to make innovation ecosystems more inclusive, offer solutions that are affordable, need-based and pro-social. Tinkering can delay technological obsolescence by promoting, re-use, and re-combination of technology. Our analysis, however, brings out that the policies on tinkering seem restricted to promoting technological temper, and entrepreneurship. A robust focus on local development and ecosystem building around tinkering remains wanted. The paper emphasizes the need for better embedding of tinkering into the policies on innovation, education, skill development and the local economy.