Innovation lessons from handmade paper

Ever since I travelled to Arunachal Pradesh in the beginning of 2020, that northeastern state of solemn and rugged beauty has fascinated me. It was therefore with excitement that I noticed that a 1,000-year-old craft tradition, of making the Monpa handmade paper, had been revived by the state-run Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in Tawang.

It seemed to me to be just the sort of localised, unique innovation that I have spent most of my career advocating (and purchasing as a customer). As the age of the local dawns upon us once again, the demand for authenticity and indigenous products is growing exponentially. Products that can tap into a rich history, bring something that cannot be mass replicated, and tells a unique story have always held a premium in the market. It is just that many developing countries did not, in the past, have the wherewithal to tell the story right, and develop their cultural heritage into products of value around the world.

I did not know this until I chanced upon this story but Monpa paper has an incredible history. It is the great handmade paper of Buddhist monasteries, in which hymns, and sermons were written. Born in sacredness, it travelled from the monasteries of Arunachal Pradesh across Bhutan, Thailand, Tibet, and Japan at a time when such paper was not much prevalent in those regions.

Monpa handmade paper, called Mon Shugu locally, is made from a local ingredient—the bark of the Shugu Sheng tree. A handmade paper unit has been set up in Tawang by KVIC and locals hired and trained to rejuvenate this tradition.

I like this story because of a variety of reasons. First, it is driven by KVIC, one of the biggest success stories among companies in India (both private and public; its 2019-20 turnover was around $12 billion) in recent years. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constant and diligent urging, the company now breaks its own record in terms of turnover and profits year after year. KVIC, or Khadi as it is popularly known, is now one of the biggest FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) brands in India. It, therefore, has both the technical know-how to build, brand, and scale such a project, and the distribution muscle (it has more than 15,000 sales outlets) to make it sustainable.

The revival of Monpa paper is also an example of the kind of experiments that must mushroom across India to really let the economy benefit from the diversity of the country. A country like India cannot try and apply a one-size-fits-all model of manufacturing; instead it needs to better use the idea of geographical indicators and create a map of thousands of unique products which are produced in local (mostly non-urban) areas and sold anywhere in the country, and indeed, in the world. Technology now allows such a model to thrive. In fact, even within the government, the GeM (Government e-Marketplace) model of online procurement has shown that hurdle-free procurement could be done—sourcing tens of thousands of products from an equal number of vendors—using digital technology. Even the prime minister’s office could buy a couple of thermos flasks from a small-scale entrepreneur in southern India using this platform.

It is also the right time to push indigenous handmade paper with deep history as the market for such products is on the rise around the world. In Vietnam, the popularity of the Dó handmade paper (which is said to last 800 years), first made in the 13^th century, is growing again, and Japan’s ‘washi’ paper, handmade from the bark of the Kozo tree, is revered enough to be on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. And South Korea’s Hanji traditional paper is finding markets around the world, not least with a new agreement for its promotion with the Central Institute for Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Library Heritage in Rome. In fact, one of the key predictions of the analyst firm Technavio is increased demand for handmade paper in the global printing and paper business between 2020 and 2024.

If Monpa paper takes off, India would have given a unique product to the world, and it would come from a place where entrepreneurship is growing again (in my last column on Arunachal Pradesh in February 2020, I had written about the success of kiwi wine from the region). These are perfect examples of the democratisation and diversification of innovation that we so urgently need. Now I hope this beautiful, underexplored state takes my suggestion of a branding tag line: ‘Arunachal Pradesh–Find Silence’.

Views are personal. The author is vice president and head of research at Invest India, the national investment promotion agency of the government of India. He is a multiple award-winning author.