Anti-molestation watch, coconut breaker draw crowds at fair

An anti-molestation watch, an SOS device in vehicles and a tender coconut breaking machine are among a host of innovative products on display at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

As many as 65 innovators exhibited their products at the week-long ‘Festival of Innovations’ inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday.

Developed by Delhi’s Manu Chopra in 2012 when he was just 16, the anti-molestation watch –a wearable device like a wrist watch- monitors the pulse rate and nerve impulses of the user and delivers a powerful shock to the person harassing her.

“Any significant increase in both (pulse and nerve activities) due to an emergency, especially when someone trying to trouble, will activate electricity in the upper portion of the device. When the person trying to molest holds the wrist, he would get a shock that would give sufficient time to the girl to run away,” a Rashtrapati Bhavan press note said.

The SOS device for public transport, designed by Gujarat’s Satiya Sonal Khetabhai for women’s safety, allows commuting women to send an audio or a text message to the nearest police station with details of the vehicle and its location.

Also among the display was ‘TURBO’, a modified hydro-electricity turbine developed by G K Rathnakar from Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka. Rathnakar installed about 360 turbines ranging from two to 25 KVA in Dakshina Kannada, Kadagu, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and other districts.

The turbines have gone into community-based power plants  where in 20 villages (254 houses) power generated from the turbine alone are in use. He also supplies the turbine to temples in Dakshina Kannada and to BSNL, the Rashtrapati Bhavan press note said.