ADELINE BERTIN on four innovators who have enriched the lives of ordinary people
What is India’s most pressing need? Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Mini
ster Manmohan Singh on information infrastructure and innovations, has a one-word answer: innovation. “We need to work on solving problems rather than just pointing them out. Here it’s like an onion – you peel off one layer, and you get another. But a decade of innovation can transform this country.”
Pitroda believes that technological innovations hold the key to addressing India’s myriad problems: unsafe drinking water, uneven healthcare, environmental degradation, falling educational standards, poor waste management – it’s an unending list. He is fully endorsed by Anil Wali, Managing Director, Foundation for Information and Technology Transfer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. “Innovation is the need of every nation. What’s required is that we all start thinking creatively, innovatively and affordably.”
Both Pitroda and Wali had people like Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar, Paul D’Souza, Devansh Sharma and Sharatchandra Tase in mind. All four innovators recently took part in the Yamaha Shaping the Future contest, which was organised to encourage people from all over the country to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions. The jury comprising academicians, technicians and industrialists had the daunting task of evaluating 400 well-researched presentations and selecting the top four. Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar won the contest, Paul D’Souza came second and Devansh Sharma third. Sharatchandra Tase participated in the national finals.
Mumbai-based Velaskar slogged for a whole year to create the Rapid Thrombocheck Test Kit, which has now been patented. “It was quite a struggle because all the expenses were on me,” says the doctor, whose clinical studies helped establish the link between hyperactive platelets and heart attacks – a major advance in preventive medicine, because the invention helps in anticipating cardiovascular complications. Till his innovative kit is marketed, the test of platelets in expensive laboratories will remain unaffordable for many: Rs 3,000. But Dr Velaskar’s procedure can be carried out in small clinical laboratories that will cost ten times less: at most between Rs 250 and 300.
Bangalore-based inventor Paul D’Souza has created the Multiline Refreshable Braille Display for the visually impaired, who have benefited the least from the digital revolution. Access to it is woefully restricted, because the material must first be embossed before it can be read. “There aren’t many libraries that have embossers, and personal libraries are naturally a dream,” says D’Souza.
Braille is a system that facilitates encoding of the script of a language into “feelable” dots. When the tactile code is felt the visually impaired person is able to comprehend the message. Braille is embossed on paper using a stencil or frame from the reverse side of a sheet of paper. Embossed material requires a huge amount of storage space. The Braille Display is a device that produces the dots by raising or lowering small pins that simulate the bumps of an embossed page. The display refreshes itself with new information as one is reading.
“It is essentially the tactile equivalent of a computer monitor,” says D’Souza, adding: “Some people in the West already use this kind of new technology, but Refreshable Displays cost over $3000 for a single-line display.” A full page of Braille contains between 6,000 and 8,000 dots. Controlling so many of them in such a confined space has always been the main problem. “My device proposes a five line – 20 characters per line – display, with a total of 600 dots,” says D’Souza. “Initially, one Refreshable Display will cost $500 each, but the price will progressively go down making it accessible to all,” he adds.
Devansh Sharma (21), who is studying mechanical engineering at IIT Mumbai, got the idea for developing his Intelligent Music System after he saw a speaker standing in the centre of a room having trouble communicating with his audience. Says Sharma, “From the corner where I was sitting I was completely unable to hear him, because the sound of the microphone kept going to just one side.” His invention detects the position of every listener in a room, making it possible to “calibrate” the speakers, so they can be heard by all.
Mumbai resident Sharatchandra Tase (74) has developed cheap anti-glare glasses for accident-prone night time drivers. Polarised and tinted, the invention makes use of the distracted light process. “The lights temporarily blind both drivers and passengers. It is a very scary experience,” says a concerned Tase.
The Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) run by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Sciences and Technology, awarded cash prizes to the winners. D’Souza repeatedly underlined the contribution of TePP in encouraging innovation, saying: “The creation of TePP has done the most to promote innovations. Before it was set up very little was happening – not because there’s a lack of new ideas and talent, but because there’s a lack of opportunities. And here I am speaking of my own experience.” May TePP’s tribe increase!
What is India’s most pressing need? Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Mini
ster Manmohan Singh on information infrastructure and innovations, has a one-word answer: innovation. “We need to work on solving problems rather than just pointing them out. Here it’s like an onion – you peel off one layer, and you get another. But a decade of innovation can transform this country.” Pitroda believes that technological innovations hold the key to addressing India’s myriad problems: unsafe drinking water, uneven healthcare, environmental degradation, falling educational standards, poor waste management – it’s an unending list. He is fully endorsed by Anil Wali, Managing Director, Foundation for Information and Technology Transfer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. “Innovation is the need of every nation. What’s required is that we all start thinking creatively, innovatively and affordably.”
Both Pitroda and Wali had people like Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar, Paul D’Souza, Devansh Sharma and Sharatchandra Tase in mind. All four innovators recently took part in the Yamaha Shaping the Future contest, which was organised to encourage people from all over the country to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions. The jury comprising academicians, technicians and industrialists had the daunting task of evaluating 400 well-researched presentations and selecting the top four. Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar won the contest, Paul D’Souza came second and Devansh Sharma third. Sharatchandra Tase participated in the national finals.
Mumbai-based Velaskar slogged for a whole year to create the Rapid Thrombocheck Test Kit, which has now been patented. “It was quite a struggle because all the expenses were on me,” says the doctor, whose clinical studies helped establish the link between hyperactive platelets and heart attacks – a major advance in preventive medicine, because the invention helps in anticipating cardiovascular complications. Till his innovative kit is marketed, the test of platelets in expensive laboratories will remain unaffordable for many: Rs 3,000. But Dr Velaskar’s procedure can be carried out in small clinical laboratories that will cost ten times less: at most between Rs 250 and 300.
Bangalore-based inventor Paul D’Souza has created the Multiline Refreshable Braille Display for the visually impaired, who have benefited the least from the digital revolution. Access to it is woefully restricted, because the material must first be embossed before it can be read. “There aren’t many libraries that have embossers, and personal libraries are naturally a dream,” says D’Souza.
Braille is a system that facilitates encoding of the script of a language into “feelable” dots. When the tactile code is felt the visually impaired person is able to comprehend the message. Braille is embossed on paper using a stencil or frame from the reverse side of a sheet of paper. Embossed material requires a huge amount of storage space. The Braille Display is a device that produces the dots by raising or lowering small pins that simulate the bumps of an embossed page. The display refreshes itself with new information as one is reading.
“It is essentially the tactile equivalent of a computer monitor,” says D’Souza, adding: “Some people in the West already use this kind of new technology, but Refreshable Displays cost over $3000 for a single-line display.” A full page of Braille contains between 6,000 and 8,000 dots. Controlling so many of them in such a confined space has always been the main problem. “My device proposes a five line – 20 characters per line – display, with a total of 600 dots,” says D’Souza. “Initially, one Refreshable Display will cost $500 each, but the price will progressively go down making it accessible to all,” he adds.
Devansh Sharma (21), who is studying mechanical engineering at IIT Mumbai, got the idea for developing his Intelligent Music System after he saw a speaker standing in the centre of a room having trouble communicating with his audience. Says Sharma, “From the corner where I was sitting I was completely unable to hear him, because the sound of the microphone kept going to just one side.” His invention detects the position of every listener in a room, making it possible to “calibrate” the speakers, so they can be heard by all.
Mumbai resident Sharatchandra Tase (74) has developed cheap anti-glare glasses for accident-prone night time drivers. Polarised and tinted, the invention makes use of the distracted light process. “The lights temporarily blind both drivers and passengers. It is a very scary experience,” says a concerned Tase.
The Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) run by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Sciences and Technology, awarded cash prizes to the winners. D’Souza repeatedly underlined the contribution of TePP in encouraging innovation, saying: “The creation of TePP has done the most to promote innovations. Before it was set up very little was happening – not because there’s a lack of new ideas and talent, but because there’s a lack of opportunities. And here I am speaking of my own experience.” May TePP’s tribe increase!
