Getting ready for OMAN vacation...going tomorrow for few days.....v. excited..its a much needed break for all 3 of us....will update once I return..hope all goes as planned
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Getting ready for Oman vacation
Getting ready for OMAN vacation...going tomorrow for few days.....v. excited..its a much needed break for all 3 of us....will update once I return..hope all goes as planned
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Rural INDIAN innovator, a candidate for NASA award
Uddhab Bharali
is a living example of the maxim that adversity causes some men to break,
others to break records. As a 23-year-old in remote North Lakhimpur in Assam,
he was left saddled with his family's debts amounting to Rs 18 lakhs when his
father died. "At the time, I heard that there was a requirement for a
cheaper model of a polythene manufacturing machine. I knew if I could come up
with model for the same, I could find my way out. I came up with model that
cost only Rs 67,000 as opposed to the prevalent market price of Rs 5 lakh. I
haven't looked back since then," he says.
Bharali with his model of a pomegranate de-seeder
Bharali,
who has been the recipient of numerous awards for his grassroots innovations,
has recently again shot to the limelight after he was nominated by NASA for a
technology award for his model of a pomegranate de-seeder that can be placed on
a table top and used even at home. "I got the notification on 2 July. I
believe they heard of me through the Assamese diaspora in the US, who had
written about me in New York this April. After that, I got nominated for the
World Technology Network's World Technology Awards, and now this. I had already
invented an industrial model of a pomegranate de-seeder in 2006, which was
exported to the USA and the UK. But then I innovated further on it and came up
with a table top version," he says.
Bharali
would have remained undiscovered but for the efforts of the National Innovation
Foundation that took him on board as a grassroots innovator in 2005. Bharali is
grateful to Prof Anil Gupta of the foundation. "They have done laudable
work in bringing to light the work of grassroots innovators like me," he
says. The foundation awarded him the Shrishti Samman – Master Innovator award
in 2007. Four years later, he also received the Meritorious Invention Award
from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
How
long does Bharali take to invent a new product? "It might take days or
months to build the machine, as I have to source the appropriate components and
materials. But if you cannot crack the basic model in 48 hours, then there is
no time in spending your life trying to build it. It has to happen
quickly," he says.
Bharali
could have had a cosy life in a metro, given his achievements and the fact that
several companies have offered him millions to design products for them. But he
has chosen to stay close to his roots and help out the people. His UKB
Agrotech, set up in 1992, is a research and development centre where he trains
poor and illiterate students. People who speak of corporate social
responsibility should take a leaf out of Bharali's book. He earns 25% profits
on his inventions through royalties. But he keeps only 5% of that for himself,
preferring to spend the rest on an orphanage and an old age home. Most of his
innovations are also in the field of agriculture, and are aimed at making the
lives of poor farmers, living in rural areas, simpler.
Not someone who rests on his laurels,
Bharali spends two hours every day trying to come up with an aid apparatus for
physically challenged people. He has come up with a low cost and low power
consuming concrete brick making plant, aimed at promoting rural
industrialisation. Last week, he came up with a machine that produces an
Assamese delicacy, kharisa (bamboo chute). He's almost finished
wrapping up a mini rice mill that produces unpolished, nutritious rice, which runs
on domestic power connection. "Innovation is something that you have to be
involved with 24/7. You can't just leave your work and go out partying if you
are working on something," he sums up his mission.
Lets
us make Shri Uddhab Bharali the winner; he deserves it. Voting is on and open
until August end.
Vote
for him online at the following link: