In 1947, when Independent India was rebuilding itself sans the Raj, it had to contend with a population that was still fighting death and disease. The average life expectancy of an Indian was just 32 years. With communicable diseases rampant, the general mortality rate was extremely high at 27 per 1,000. Today, 75 years on, life expectancy has more than doubled to 68 years. “How did this change happen?” asks Delhi-based journalist and author Dinesh C Sharma, who writes on science and technology. “I feel that sometimes we are too cynical of the state of the country, overwhelmed by the enormity of problems around us. In the process, we lose sight of the big picture. As a writer, I felt all such stories in different sectors would make a compelling read for the younger generation of Indians,” Delhi-based Sharma explains in an email interview.

It’s what got him to write his new book, Indian Innovation, Not Jugaad: 100 Ideas that Transformed India (Roli Books), where he looks back at a wide range of innovative ideas, policies, concepts and institutions that transformed a young democratic republic into a thriving nation.