great innovations from rural india

[Bhaisahab]

i dont usually find a lot to be proud of in my own country, unlike when i was a kid, when the national anthem was all it took to get me fired up. however, recently i picked up an issue of Outlook magazine that had some inspirational stories of rural innovators with some crazy, and workable, ideas. i thought i'd share some of them with you. because i think this is the kind of inventive spirit we have to support if we are to overcome the energy crisis, among other things.
these are mostly lower-income to really poor folks, and it is heartening that they retain the spirit of innovation despite the hardship of their lives.
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Balram Singh Saini & Prem Singh
Pasiala, Haryana


As a billion ideas whiz past through his neurons, Prem Singh Saini is hard at work trying to reshape the future. Across his street two buffaloes sit languidly and stare, almost in wonder at the next great idea that is likely to pop into Saini’s head.

With over a hundred innovations to his credit, including over 30 which have found acceptance from the National Innovation Foundation, one would expect Saini to be crackling with energy. Instead, a man on the edge of frustration sits in his house looking at a pile of letters that are vague in encouragement and firm on denial.

In Pasiala village near Ambala, the Saini brothers are well known. Younger brother Balram, also an innovator, switched to politics after a similar disillusionment with the Indian scientific community’s bureaucratic alleys. Two years ago, Prem Singh was rubbing shoulders with the likes of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and CSIR director general R.A. Mashelkar on the Mughal Garden lawns. Prem Singh’s latest innovation—a water pump that is operated through a GSM mobile phone—was interesting enough to merit an invitation. "It’s quite simple," says Prem, "and you can use it to switch it on and then off by simply placing a call."

A call from the mobile phone switches the pump on. A few hours later, the owner can place another call and after an appropriate number of rings, the pump is switched off. "Even a call charge will not be levied," says Prem, cautioning that, "of course you have to remember whether you are switching it on or off." The pump will not work if there is a call from a wrong number.

Since then, Prem Singh and his ideas have made several trips to Delhi, including a trip to the PMO. He was asked to meet a joint secretary in the PMO for further consultation. "He told me that if they helped me, then they would have to help thousands of others. That ended the meeting and I came back to Pasiala," says Prem. His other innovation, which he claims can end train accidents, also evinced little interest in the railway ministry. "Earlier I was asked to meet several officials from the railway safety board but no one had the time. I finally gave up."

Prem Singh came to Delhi when he was asked to appear at an army technology seminar. Once again, officials only had advice and little else. "Army chief Gen J.J. Singh’s only advice to me was not share my technology with terrorists. I haven’t heard from the army HQ." Even a letter from CSIR’s R.A. Mashelkar in February 2003 promising help has now been buried in his pile of letters. "I never heard from them ever since."

His younger brother, who also doubles as the sarpanch, holds out his home-made mechanism to burst fire-crackers through a remote-controlled device. "Two years ago a nephew burnt his hands. Since then I have been working on this idea." A few months ago, Balram was approached by a Gujarat-based trader to turn his idea into a business venture. With seed money of Rs 25,000 in his kitty, Balram is now tinkering around in his makeshift workshop to build a prototype. "If this works, we will market it." From saving fuel to safety devices, running cars on auto-pilot to making robots that can man the borders, water pumps that switch on when the water is released and switch off once the tank is full—the Saini brothers have ideas a dime-a-dozen. But in little-known Pasiala, as the farmers get ready to rain-feed their thirsty crops, there’s barely any recognition of these home-grown Edisons.


Nripen Kalita
Jiakur, Assam

Nripen Kalita began his career repairing television sets and other electronic items.Today, he is known as the inventor of the zero-head water turbine, a low-cost equipment that can generate power to light up rural homes and run pumps to irrigate farmers’ lands. "Every monsoon, as the water level in the rivers rose, I used to think of ways to utilise hydro power in a cost-effective manner," says Kalita. In 1998, he developed a water turbine using a bamboo platform to keep the machinery afloat. But he soon realised that using bamboo was not practical.
He then developed an advanced model and has transferred the technology to a local entrepreneur. In a live demonstration, Kalita gets his equipment—an iron wheel with rotor blades, some pulleys, an alternator and a lot of wires—lowered into the river water, with two hollow plastic drums attached to the device to keep it afloat. The rotor blades start moving, lighting up a bulb and turning on a pedestal fan. Kalita has applied for a patent for his innovation but there are bigger dreams too: "I have developed a spinning device that runs on both alternate and direct current. This will be useful for the weavers in Assam." He also wants to create a ‘solar gasifier’ that can use the sun’s energy to generate gas for cooking.


Remya Jose
Nenmani, Kerala

She is just 18, and she has applied for a patent for her non-electric washing-cum-exercise machine. All you need is to pedal. Forget the power cuts. You get your clothes washed and dried, with less damage to them than in a conventional electric gadget. And you would have also burnt a few calories at no extra cost.

A rust-proof mesh cylinder inside a metal box is connected to two pedals. Put the clothes in the box, add detergent, fill half the box with water, and pedal for four minutes. The cylinder moves fast enough to scour off the dirt with constant beating against the mesh. Rinse, and clothes are dried 80 per cent. Cost: Rs 3,000. For another Rs 2,000, a cycle with a seat can be added on.

Remya’s father, P.A. Joseph, once turned down her request for a washing machine. Since then Remya’s thoughts hovered on a machine that works on mechanical energy. Several sessions with the local mechanic yielded a simple machine. The parents couldn’t have asked for more. "She studies well, has won prizes in elocution, essay-writing, short story, mono act—she also learns her catechism well," says her father. Remya, of course, brims with ideas: a smokeless oven, a vacuum cleaner that uses water.... Meanwhile, if the washing machine patent is accepted, she hopes she will have enough funds to pursue an electronics engineering degree in a reputed college.


Sheikh Jabbar
Nagpur, Maharashtra

He studied only till class four and has been a cycle-rickshaw plier since his teens. It was his failing health that inspired him to create a gear system to power his rickshaw. When Jabbar pulls the worn strings attached to the handle, he presses one of his four gears into service. So, while other rickshaw pliers get off and drag their vehicles up an incline, Jabbar just drops the gear to allow his rickshaw to glide up.

For 15 years, he saved money and built up courage to create the gears. Then over 10 years, took his rickshaw apart and rebuilt it with discarded parts, first with two and then four gears."People used to think I was mad when I told them what I was doing." Now, Jabbar has used a motley set of discarded parts to build a rickshaw where both wheels move and has four gears.

Jabbar has driven his rickshaw to Delhi and Wardha and has won an award from the National Innovation Foundation. There are a couple of rickshaws running in Nagpur and Jaipur to check if his model can be scaled for wider use. He estimates that his simple innovations would add just Rs 2,000 to the cost but would drastically reduce physical stress for millions of rickshaw drivers around the country.Meanwhile, he is ready with a new idea. He has fitted a rickshaw with a small engine to power it up inclines. To test this, he wants to drive it to Ahmedabad.

Today, his vehicle is recognised on the streets and feted. Many times he has to assure his woman passengers that it’s not her but his rickshaw that is inviting the stares.


Bhanjibhai Mathukia
Kalawad, Gujarat

When Mathukia was trying to build his tractor in the early 1990s, fellow- villagers would laugh at him."I used to experiment with whatever was readily available, the front tyres of a car, rear wheels and gear box of a jeep, a stationary speed diesel engine, and so on." But Mathukia is having the last laugh. His Vanraj has just received a patent in the US. It’s a unique tractor as it is convertible into three wheels from four, and has a variable track width."It can perform almost all functions expected of a large tractor, though on a small scale. Unlike the 24 HP tractor, it doesn’t consume much diesel and is perfectly affordable," says Mathukia. Vanraj may be just the thing for poor farmers with small land holdings.

"I’ve several other innovations up my sleeve," says Mathukia. Innovative designs of check dams, so vital in dry Saurashtra; a modified seed drill; a small bullock-operated pesticide sprayer; a semi-circular check dam-like design for the construction of water storage tanks for household and agricultural use. Recipient of several awards for innovation, member of an Indian delegation invited to South Africa to guide farmers and artisans about new technologies and innovations, Mathukia remains, at heart, a son of the soil. "I will be happy when small farmers benefit from Vanraj," he says.

[praxiz]

1. Not even finished reading. But Nominated! nt

[IChing]

2. Very Cool what is a sparach?

Humanity can solve our problems without war

thanks

[Bhaisahab]

3. hi iching. sarpanch is an elected village headman/woman n/t