Students are not being challenged adequately. With just four and a half lakh engineering graduates, we should be able to harness at least 45,000 patents with the projects they do. Make it compulsory that projects must be innovative. Let them put the synopsis on the Web compulsorily to promote originality. Let that be the condition to the degree.
Why not have a country-wide kho-kho of innovation? After all the student cannot achieve much in 6 months for the project. Why not move it in phases from Suratkal college to Warrangal to Raipur?
If you look at the achievement in space science or in Railways, it is not by IIT graduates. They are from regular engineering colleges. We need to focus more attention on these colleges.
Of course we need more mentoring of our students. We have the experts like those on this panel who need to be a part of it...
That may sound revolutionary but the speaker has been one himself. Vice chairperson of National Innovation Foundation, Prof Anil Gupta who is also a faculty in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Prof Gupta was part of the panel addressing the press across the country in a video conference organised by Discovery Channel.
Prof Gupta scours villages looking for innovators in what he calls a ‘shodhyatra’, journey of exploration. During these journeys he takes knowledge to the villages and sniffs out innovations, always making sure the inventor gets a share of the wealth and recognition.
Sharing some of these at the video conference, Prof Gupta touched upon the tree climbing invention from Kerala where an elastic rope worn on the leg pushes the climber upwards; or the making of a non-stick clay pan for just Rs 35. “Another innovator found that ridges on the tava increased the heat conduction. Just imagine the energy that can be saved in your industrial units by having ridges on the tubes running through the boiler! Like the tree climber may find some use in our moon mission!”
An innovator in Assam turned bumpers into energy harnesser. “Whenever his cycle hits a bumper, his specially made shock absorbers retain all the energy generated via a gear system that passed it on to the back wheel. This is not just technology, but also science.”
Another invention showed how auto combustion can be increased by 40 percent merely by incorporating three simple steps into the combustion. “The solutions are often simple, it is just that we do not think!” said Gupta.
His NIF has made MoUs with CSIR, ICMR and IITs to bridge formal and informal science. For details check out nifindia.org or sristi.org
Jaipur foot
Dr S R Mehta spoke to the press about how the Jaipur foot is low cost, durable and waterproof and is the ‘strongest foot in the world today”. Costing about Rs 8000 the organisation runs clinic in 20 countries, which include those beset by landmines. Over a million amputees have felt the impact while nearly three lakh have been treated for free.
Raghunath Medge, chief of Mumbai Dabba association spoke of how his institution was placed on the list of Six Sigma rated companies. Around 5000 dabbawalas ferry 200000 lunches every day with not a lunch going astray, thanks to a code developed in-house!
Dr R Navalgund, Isro noted how the moon mission is more than a trip to the moon or reinventing the wheel. It would generate 3-D atlas of the surface and expand knowledge of the moon. Chidananda, programme director, Saras, NAL explained how the craft would be an efficient mode of travel between the smaller cities.
As technology makes deeper inroads, the video conference was another pointer to how precious time and money can be saved. Not to forget the soft impact on environment reeling under global warming to which air travels contribute largely!
No takers?
It is cheap. It is safe. It is eco-friendly and non-invasive, requiring no land. And it can be constructed quickly. It can be the answer to the traffic-congestion of Indian cities. Yet, there are no takers for the Skybus, according to its inventor Boggi Rajaram.
The Skybus can be constructed at an average cost of $12 million for a kilometre which is one fourth the cost for a metro or half the cost for an elevated system. “It can hold 150 people in one coach and run every minute so that 18,000 passengers can be transported every hour in any one direction. There are no safety concerns as it will not fall but only swing to the sides if there is a problem. It has not been taken up simply because no one has pursued it,” he said.
Noise pollution is reduced drastically as it is trapped into the concrete. It is eco-friendly as it is electrically driven.
The sky-wheels based Konkan Skybus, he said is an example of how the existing railway can be reconfigured to provide economic, safe transport to people.
Initially there was no appropriate Act could be applied and so certifying the Skybus was a problem but now there is a suggestion that the Tram law could be used, he said. The Skybus is being tested outside Madgaon station in Goa.
Discovery salutes Indian technology
On the eve of India’s 60th year of Independence Discovery Channel will showcase the country’s technological progress and power of innovation. Scientists and common man will be featured for their inventions that have impacted on people’s lives.
The ‘Daily Planet goes to India’ which will be aired from Aug 15 at 8 pm every Wednesday is a six-episode series will give viewers a glimpse into technological advancements across fields as diverse as the Chandrayaan moon mission to Bandra Worli sea link, to the ongoing Global Pagoda near Mumbai, to Saras the indigenous civilian aircraft and the SkyBus, a solution to the growing traffic congestion.
It will also cover the grassroots innovations like the tree climber or amphibious bicycle. As also the century-old Dabbawalla system in Mumbai or the globally popular Jaipur foot. Viewers will meet researchers like Rabindra Mehta who works at Nasa’s fluid mechanics lab and is assisting cricket bowlers to perfect the pitch! And how a Canadian company has modernised the auto rickshaw.
This is your chance to feel proud to be an Indian. Chakde India!
