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National Innovation Foundation |
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Awards of the First Annual Competition 2001 |
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The National Innovation Foundation was set up in March 2000 by the Government of India to give voice and visibility to the unsung heroes of our society. The awards of the First Annual Competition were announced at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad on June 14, 2001. As many as 998 entries from 24 states and Union territories were received. The total number of innovations as well as outstanding examples of traditional knowledge received for the first competition stands at 1637 and it now forms part of the National Register of Grassroots Inventions, Innovations and Outstanding Traditional Knowledge. The maximum innovations were from Gujarat 496, followed by Kerala 276, Tamil Nadu 218, Assam 155 and Karnataka 116. The prizes in different categories: National - First prize Rs 100,000, second prize 50,000, third prize 25,000, special consolation prize Rs 5,000 and consolation prize Rs 1,000; Scout – first prize Rs 50,000, second prize Rs 25,000, third prize Rs 15,000 and consolation prize Rs 5,000; State – first prize Rs 25,000 and consolation prize Rs 1,000; Idea – first prize Rs 50,000, second prize Rs 25,000 and third prize Rs 15,000.
Nif will be very happy to mediate technology transfer agreements among the innovators and entrepreneurs, besides helping the innovators to become entrepreneurs themselves, if they wish.
CATEGORY: PLANT VARIETY
First prize - Mr. Sebastian Joseph & Mr. Regimon Joseph Njallani: A New Variety of Cardamom
Spread over an area of 5087 km Idukki is Kerala’a largest district. For Sebastian Joseph an ordinary farmer from Idukki his efforts in farming proved first time unlucky. His tapioca and banana cultivations failed miserably and he was left bankrupt. Not one to give up however, in the next year he took to the cultivation of cardamom. He had observed variations in the shapes of the cardamom berries. He decided to experiment with the help of his son, Regimon Joseph. He selected the good berries and cross pollinated them. For this purpose he selected four cardamom plants and nurtured beehives in their midst. He then covered the plants with a mosquito net. He would also mark the flower that produced the berries. These berries were pure clones. Next, the clones which bore more and bigger berries were selected. The selected four clones had born 148 berries each and every berry or capsule was double the size of the common Mysore variety! He called his innovation Njallani after his ancestral family name. Mr. Joseph began to multiply this selected variety by the clonal propagation method. Consequently it was observed that a Njallani plant bears 120-160 capsules when compared to 30-35 in the ordinary variety. Each berry or capsule contains 25-32 seeds as against the normal 10-12. And the yield per hector is 800-1000 kg compared to 250-300 kg of the normal variety. Today, 88.7 per cent of Idukki’s total area under cardamom cultivation has switched to this variety.
Second prize - Mr. C Rajendran Chinna Ponni: A Popular Variety of of Paddy
Mr. Rajendran was not always a social worker. He served with the Tamil Nadu Government as an agricultural officer for 20 years but retired prematurely because the Government instead of encouraging him sued him for innovating a superior variety of paddy seed. Mr. Rajendran started his informal research in 1989. He developed a pureline variety of paddy seed and called it Parani. In 1991 he began to release it for use of farmers in his neighbourhood. This variety had a maturity period of 105-115 days, excellent drought tolerance, resistance to pests and disease and higher yields giving a net profit of nearly Rs 4650 per acre. Then he developed the Visakam variety which could withstand water stagnation due to heavy rainfall. But his experimentation finally paid off in 1994 when he developed a superior variety which he called Chinna Ponni. People from all over Tamil Nadu started enquiring about this high yielding, drought resistant and disease safe paddy variety and today upto 1/3rd of Tamil Nadu’s paddy growing area sows the Chinna Ponni seed variety.
Third prize - Dhulabhai Punjabhai Patel GDP-I: Pest Tolerant Pigeon Pea Variety
A sharp observation power is an important aspect of innovation. Once when Dhulabhai was taking a round of his fields something unusual caught his attention. He observed that three tur dal (pigeon pea) plants had grown very different from the rest. They were free from any disease, they had a higher number of pods and these pods consisted greater number of seeds than the normal variety. Most importantly, these had pink/red flowers while normally the tur dal has yellow flowers. The farmer sowed seeds of these plants and in the next harvest to his surprise the grown plants not only showed characteristics of the parent plants but even early maturity and a higher yield. These also showed excellent response to irrigation and low requirement of fertilisers. Dhulabhai named his selection as Gadha Dhulabhai Punjabhai–1 or GDP-1. Today, this variety of pigeon pea has become so popular that not just in Gadha but even in the surrounding villages GDP-1 is the prefered choice of farmers.
CATEGORY: FARM IMPLEMENTS
First prize - Sri Narasimha Bhandari Efficient Dehusking of Arecanut
The arecanut is the major commercial crop of the western ghats of Kerala. In the Koppa taluka of Chickamangalore, Karnataka, Mr. Narasimha Bhandari innovated his new famous arecanut dehusking machine at Durga Engineering Works. This automatic machine can dehusk upto twenty kilos of arecanut in an hour as opposed to the five kilos by a labourer. Also it can peel arecanuts of any size. Already, he has an order of twenty five dehusking machines. Mr. Bhandari has also designed an arecanut drier that uses only agricultural waste as fuel and can dry arecanuts within 24 hours without affecting its quality.
Second prize - Ram Naresh Yadav Human, Diesel/Bullock Powered Pump
Ram Naresh Yadav from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh has innovated a unique pump, the Power Saving Technical Pump (PSTP) which he claims can help solve the energy crisis faced in the agricultural sector. The pump is amazing in the sense that it can be animal driven, using two bullocks or the smaller version can also be run by two to four humans without affecting output when compared with those being run on electricity or diesel. It can however, when required, be run on electricity or diesel as well, using a two HP electric motor or a 3.5 HP diesel engine. It pumps water from wells or tubewells having a water level of eight metre below ground level. A centrifugal pump is neither suitable for animal power nor can it pump beyond five to fifteen minutes under such conditions and a centrifugal pump requires priming where as this pump does not. The pump would prove very useful in drawing water from wells, borewells, ponds and canals and to irrigate high value crops at the same time acting as a much required fuel saver.
Second prize - Mr. Mansukhbhai Jagani Modifying Motorcycle for Farming
In the drought prone area of Amreli in Gujarat it was getting increasingly difficult to use animals to plough the land. Keeping bullock was not viable for many farmers due to fodder scarcity. Also, labour had become scarce as the tough times had led to migration to the towns. In search of a solution, the villagers went to Mansukhbhai, who had been a self motivated researcher in farming for the past ten years. Mansukhbhai did not let his people down. In 1994, inspired by a local mode of transport, the three wheel taxi, he designed the 'Bullet Santi'. This amazing contraption was made for attachment to an Enfield Bullet, a hardy motorcycle. The rear wheel was removed and replaced with an attachment with two wheels. Once a tool bar was fixed to the attachment this unique machine could plough, weed and even sow seeds! The machine was also cost effective and fuel efficient, it could plough an acre of land in just half an hour consuming only two litres of fuel. Ten hectares of land could be weeded in a day and cost of weeding was a mere eight rupees a hectare. His innovation has been displayed at the Indian Science Congress 2000 and the Swadeshi Vigyan mela at IIT Delhi where it received an excellent response.
Third prize - Annasaheb Udgavi from Karnataka Rotar Sprinkler Chandraprabha
Raingun
Annasaheb of Sadala village of Chikkodi taluka, Belgaun district, North Karnataka, has designed a sprinkler system which covers about 140 feet radius. To save his betel-vine orchard from the acute scarcity of water, he fitted PVC pipes, after making perforations in them with nails. He spent Rs. 30,000 to cover two acres of betel-vine in 1985. By irrigating it for an hour every day, he successfully maintained the orchard for seven years. But poor prices for betel leaf & labour problems made him switch to cultivating tobacco. When even this venture was unsuccessful he switched to sugarcane cultivation. This time he again thought about a new sprinkler irrigation system. He discovered that the new sprinkler system also helped to solve the problem of aphids and white flies due to high-pressure water spray. Although he had dug another well for irrigating the sugarcane crop, the problem of salinity and the difficulty of irrigating the dense crop made him search for an alternative. He happened to go to Japan to repair a Buddhist statue when he saw the rotor sprinkler. On return, he designed a new one to suit the sugarcane crop. He worked with wood at home and later fabricated it at a foundry. After installing it in his field, he further improved its design. To achieve a balanced shaft movement, he added about 400 gm additional weight. At the outlet, he provided a groove for fixing nozzles of different sizes to throw water at different lengths. Further, he introduced a locking system to prevent the sprinkler head from throwing water into neighboring fields. With these refinements, he now had an almost perfect sprinkler head, which he named after goddess Chandraprabha. The advantages of the Chandraprabha raingun are manifold. With a per head cost of just Rs. 3,500 and per acre installation cost of Rs. 15,000, inclusive of the installation of three inch PVC main pipeline and riser pipe, it can irrigate one acre in about one and half hour. It has a three-inch pipe and a wide nozzle, even composts such as biogas slurry can be applied to the crop through it.
CATEGORY: OTHER IMPLEMENTS
(No first prize was declared in this category)
Second prize - Mr. Amrutbhai B Agrawat Water Pulley that Lets Women Take Rest
Millions of women draw water from well with or without the help of pulley every day. Some times when old or sick women have to pull water, they get tired while pulling the bucket of water halfway. They have to keep holding the rope with bucket full of water while gasping for the breath. Some times grip gets loosened and the bucket falls down. Our culture over last 2000 years found ways of taking the fallen bucket out of well with the help of bundle of hooks. But we did not devise a solution to this problem such that bucket did not fall. Amrutbhai, an innovator has found a solution to this problem. He attached a stopper in one of the model of pulley so that the rope stopped in the position where one left it. One could resume pulling when needed. He called his pulleys the Ganga and the Saraswati pulleys. The Saraswati is a detachable pulley which can be used at various locations. These pulleys are also economical to use as they cost only between Rs. 150 to 250. Mr. Agrawat is keen to spread the use of this innovation and he refuses to charge a single penny for it. Interested entrepreneurs can visit Mr. Agrawat’s home for a demonstration of this simple innovation.
Third prize - Mr. Vinayak Kamble and Mr. Gamanbhai Patel Pipeline Catcher for Hand Pump
Desperation seizes a village if its water supply is affected and this is exactly what happens when handpumps malfunction. Invariably the handpump’s raiser pipeline and connecting rod are broken and would have fallen down to the bottom of the well Until recently most repair kits were inadequate. Two industrious innovators, Mr. Vinayak Kamble and Mr. Gamanbhai Patel, both self made handpump technicians took it upon themselves to develop ‘fishing tools’ that would fish out the drowned parts and bring back to life defunct handpumps. Not satisfied with repairing hundreds of handpumps they also trained youth in some talukas of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajastan in using these tools to repair handpumps.
(This innovation was developed by Gamanbhai Patel and taken up further by Vinayak Kamble. Hence, it is listed separately but the award was jointly given to both, as without one, the other could not have further developed it.)
Third prize - Mr. Anand Gogte Keeping Rats Away in Underground Cables
With the country moving fast towards being a knowledge economy, telecommunications is being given top priority. The DOT is currently laying hundreds of kms of optical fibre cables in all the Indian states. However, a problem has surfaced. The dreaded menace of rats. Rats eat away the cables and cause losses of lakhs of rupees to the nation. The DOT’s solution has been to use small diameter concrete pipes as protective outer conduits. However, these conduits require external collar joints to join the pipes together but, due to lack of skilled labour and time, a crude method is used by pouring concrete on the joint from above the ground. This has neither enabled successful joining of pipes nor stopped the rat menace. This was infact experienced in the Pune DOT division. Mr. Gogte who is a consultant to the RCC pipe industry has innovated a collapsible collar made from mild steel plate which can join two RCC pipes within two to three minutes and can make the joint completely rat proof! To prevent rusting or corrosion a suitable coating is added to the collar.
CATEGORY: ENERGY CONSERVATION
First prize - Mr. Usha Shankar Bhattacharya Energy Saving Kerosene Stove
Mr. Bhattacharya gave up his employment with the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre to concentrate on being a scientist entrepreneur in 1987. For someone who had staked his career for the success of his project, by 1991 it was even more difficult for him to continue researching his project due to lack of funds. His research on pressure type kerosene stove had to be shelved. However in 1993 he was able to resume his efforts in innovating a superior stove which had oil savings of 40-60 per cent over the regular stove, better combustion, enhanced safety and reduced operating noise. According to Mr. Bhattacharya, his innovation has the potential of saving five million tonnes of oil a year which is surely quite impressive aim in a country which carries the reputation of being one of the world’s least efficient energy user. Mr. Bhattacharya has applied for patent registration of his project.
Second prize - Kalpesh Gajjar Swastik Oil Expeller
This high school dropout turned machine tool developer from Visnagar in Mehsana, was the first man in his town to own a computer. What is even more amazing is that Mr. Kalpesh Gajjar, a self taught person used CAD to innovate an oil seed crusher-the Swastik Expeller. His innovation is half the size of the conventional expeller, three times as fast, consumes just half the power and is automatic. The machine is mounted on gears instead of using V-belts to drive the crushing shafts. Seeds are taken in automatically instead of being fed in manually. Only three labourers are needed to operate it as opposed to six in a regular expeller and it is portable. It is Mr. Gajjar’s dream that one day, even the small farmers, instead of selling out cheap oil seeds to the oil barons, will be able to extract oil from their produce efficiently with the help of his innovative expeller.
Third prize - A R Shivkumar Rethinking Waste Geysers
A high efficiency low voltage electrical water heater has been developed. It is believed to lessen the load on the electricity grid that occurs due to use of electric geysers for hot water for bathing during morning hours. With Shivkumar's innovative water heater cold water is made to enter from the bottom of the container in reverse direction and hot water is drawn from the top at the farthest end from the cold water entry to avoid mixing. This results in 80 per cent yield with rated temperature. Hot water is drawn from the container by allowing the cold water to displace. During the initial operation, a convection shield allows higher convection inside the shield creating hot water layers at the top. With passage of time conduction from the convection shield will heat the rest of the water in the container. This process results in hot water accumulating at the top of the container in layers. Thus, hot water is always available at the top of the container for usage. Heater switching is controlled by a thermostat, which senses temperature in the thermowell. Glass wool insulation around the container helps in retaining hot water for a long duration and preventing heat loss. Cladding on the insulation will protect insulation. Open ended hot water outlets add safety by making the system non-pressurised.
Third prize - S J Joe Multi Utility Stove
S J Joe from Kerela has developed a Multi-utility stove. It is fuel-efficient as cooking can be done for 14 hours in one litre kerosene. It has an inbuilt water jacket to generate steam, which can used for cooking specific items. The stove comes with single, double and multi-burner units and has soft blue flame when in use. It is also smoke-free.
CATEGORY: OTHERS
(No first prize was declared in this category)
Second prize - Bharat Thumar A Solvent that Cleans Without Corroding
Whether it be the engines of automobiles or in heavy equipment movers or chemical industries the problem of scaling - the layer that forms on the surface of the cooling-heating system causing insulation and thus decrease in the rate of heat transfer- is a major one. The descalents used at present are either weak not being able to completely remove hard scaling or too strong, causing corrosion of the metal. Coolants are not commonly used. Mr. Bharat Thumar has created a unique innovation, a solex cleaner that according to him can remove the most stubborn scaling in the world while not causing any damage to the cooling system metal. This product if used could save millions of rupees and thousands of man-hours and increase the life of the cooling system 20 times. Also it is highly environment friendly.
Third prize - Mr. Dodhi Pathak Bamboo Tooth, Handpump, Bicycle & Vision
This innovator was discovered at a Mela, a festive gathering that is held in villages all over India. Mr Dodhi Pathak is 48 years old and resides in Sandheli village in the Nalbari district of Assam. Having suffered poverty in his childhood he grew up with the belief that necessity is the mother of invention. It is this belief that led to his many novel innovations from the Bamboo plant, an integral part of Assam’s flora and fauna. A unique bicycle made from bamboo except for its tyres and tubes was designed and constructed by him because he didn’t have the finances to purchase a regular one. He has also innovated a bamboo hand pump that can be used to pull water from wells or ponds. Every part of the pump including the piston, valve, barrel and the handle is made from bamboo. This illustrious innovator has even made artificial bamboo teeth which he proudly uses himself and says these are strong enough to chew on chicken and fish. He has created beautiful replicas of the famous Saraighat bridge and a toy train that gets activated by the notes of a flute. He once made a replica of that eternal ode to love- The Taj Mahal and refused to sell it for a lakh of rupees because he thought it was priceless. He regrets that the tradition of bamboo carving will soon die off because the younger generation does not find it a lucrative career.
CATEGORY: IDEA
First prize - Sudarshana A Maverick Idea Man
This is a man who’s head is swarming with ideas and who’s creativity knows no bounds. Mr. Sudarshana has many unique ideas to his credit and we could not write about all of them but we’ve singled out one that displays his fertile imagination. Haven’t we all experienced the irritating problem of having pressed two keys instead of one on a keyboard resulting in a writing error, despite the fact that each key has been thoughtfully designed for the width of our finger tip. Now, can you imagine a keyboard half the size of the current one! Unimaginable but true as Mr. Sudarshana has proved it. In his keyboard the number of keys are double than that of the older version but the width of each key is half . Now, each key is nothing but a switch which closes an electronic circuit When key A is pressed it closes a circuit which feeds the computer chip a signal corresponding to letter A. In the new design instead of pressing a single key two keys are pressed together say key 1 and 2. when pressed togethet they close a circuit that feeds the computerchip a signal A. When keys 2 and 3 are pressed together it closes a circuit which feeds the computer chip a signal corresponding to B and so on. This is achieved by using a simple electronic circuit or by providing two switches in a single key. Thus in the new keyboard by using ‘n’ number of keys ‘2n’ number of different signals can be fed into the computer chip that is by doubling the number of keys and reducing the width of a key to half the total length of the keyboard is reduced to half. Some of his other ideas are, making sea water drinkable, a new design for a bullock cart, an automatic gear for a bicycle, a cheaper alternative to the present gobar gas plant, using steam as a weedicide and an amazing idea for the cleaning of polluted air in our cities.
Second prize - Prakash Shende Idea of Solar Spectacle
You’ve got a long journey ahead of you and you bought your favourite magazine to pass time but then you realise the reading light near your berth doesn’t work and you wouldn't want to disturb your co-passengers by switching on the main light. How often have you had to switch off the lights and give up on your favourite mystery novel, not before being called an uncooperative brute by a family member who wanted the lights off so that they could get a wink? If you’ve undergone any of those agonies Mr. Prakash Shende’s idea could be the perfect solution- a pair of solar powered spectacles. Mr. Shende’s idea is a spectacle frame consisting of solar batteries. There are two bulbs (covered with heat shields) at the bottom of the frame on both sides which can be switched on with the help of a switch. These would be focused to aim light on the reading material and enable the person to read without disturbing his neighbour. Mr. Shende’s idea is not only a boon for every traveler or reading addict but also
importantly, conserves energy by using non-conventional solar energy.
Third prize - A D Nagendrappa Idea of Generating Power by Moving Trasport
With the energy crisis looming large over the world it is becoming increasingly necessary to find newer and newer sources of energy. Mr. A D Nagendrappa who hails from Bangalore and is an advocate by profession has come up with an excellent idea. He proposes to harness energy from moving trucks on highways and railway trains. An inclined metal plate is hinged and fixed to a metal frame, and a connecting rod which is connected to the bottom surface of the metal plate. The other end of the connecting rod is connected to a crank shaft and this in turn is connected to a flywheel through a freewheel as one which is used in a bicycle. When a moving load passes over the inclined plate it will be pressed down. Due to this the connecting rod will move to the downward direction and actuate the crankshaft to rotate the flywheel. The process will continue to rotate the generator to produce electricity, till the moving loads continue to pass on the inclined plate. The electricity produced thus can be stored for further utilisation. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 12(2):11-16, 2001 |
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