Using Ground-Breaking Solutions to Solve Societal Problems, One Innovation At a Time
“I come from a family of humble means. We are from a farming background, but my parents have been primarily working as labourers for a long time now. Growing up, I saw them struggle day in and night to make ends meet. To ensure that I get a basic education they worked harder. Since my childhood, I was interested in building things. It started from playing with mud to make toys, cars, other shapes, etc. All the waste material that I could find would become a way for me to innovate and build something. By the time I was in class 5th, I started using metal to build things.”
Making of Solar Pulse Thresher
“Gradually, there came a point when I had built a couple of models so that I could present them in various competitions. However, in the initial days, my models were not acknowledged as much I wanted them to be. Often I did not win and was left behind in the competitions. Regardless, I never stopped trying and kept working on solving one problem or another that caught my eye. Then I made a Solar Pulse Thresher, a machine run on solar energy for threshing pulses and grains in the farms. In addition to reducing the time and effort, this machine was also made to reduce the cost of the threshing process. I presented this machine in the competitions held at the district and zonal levels and managed to win the first prize.”
“In fact, the Solar Pulse Thresher innovation also made me win the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award – 2015 by the former President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. It was also nominated for the ASEAN – India Grassroots Innovation Competition held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018 where I got an opportunity to represent India and win the second prize. It gave me great satisfaction when these threshers were distributed to the farmers in my district. I also want the farmers of other regions to use this model for their gain and reduce the cost of electricity that otherwise goes in threshing.”
Creating an Impact
“Another one of the interesting innovations that are close to my heart is a low-cost pot carrier that I made for people like my women who carry water on their heads or on their waist. By making a wheeled trolley, I devised a solution that could enable women to carry water easily while not bearing the weight of heavy earthen pots. Other than this, I have also developed an interactive panel for children that helps in learning new letters and words, a paddy dryer, a color-coded thermometer, a machine that collects mahua flowers from the ground, a device that differentiates artificial and naturally ripened fruits, etc. During the time of Corona, I made an automatic hand sanitizer operated with voice commands as well.”
The Road Ahead
“At present, I am pursuing Mechanical Engineering in LJ Polytechnic College, Ahmedabad with the support of the Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation. I also plan to come up with many more innovative methods that can help the Indian farmers do better work in the long run. My mind is always looking to get to the root of societal problems so that I can use my knowledge to solve them. I also give seminars to encourage the student community for concentrating in the field of innovation and sensitizing them on the government-sponsored schemes for innovation at the school level.”
“In the future, I want to come up with even more economical solutions that offer a wide range of benefits to the members of our society. Most importantly, I want to see my parents living a comfortable life with all the facilities that I can offer them because they have done a lot for me.”
Dipankar Das is a young innovator who comes from humble means. Growing up, he made many prominent innovations that got recognized at the national and international levels. His plan for the future is to make machines that solve problems in our society and benefit people at large to make this world a much better place.