Assam: NE youths with extraordinary innovations

Guwahati, Aug 11: The proverb, ''Necessity is the mother of all inventions,'' has been proved by some village youths, in their late twenties or early thirties, who are not even graduates, but have come up with innovations that could stun IIT experts.

Extraordinary inventions have been created by these youths, including Sondhan Saharia of Mangaldai, whose ''paddy huller'' could de-husk more than one kg of rice grains in three minutes.

From the traditional ''pitha guri'' (grinded rice) and ''chira'' to spices, the huller - a small wooden box with two levers and a cone at the top - proved to be an effective grinder, besides being a husker. It also had the potential to replace the electronic mixer, with a fraction of the investment.

The conventional de-huskers utilised electric power or diesel generators, while the prototype innovated by Mr Saharia was manually run. Moreover, it prevented the frequent breakage of grains.

''When I came upon a cotton-seed separator, I though of making a huller that could serve a variety of grinding and de-husking purposes. I worked on it for seven months and finally came up with this,'' Mr Saharia said.

He said just wood, some screws, a roller and tin were used to make the huller, which cost him only around Rs 1,000.

Meanwhile, the Grassroot Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) of IIT, Guwahati was studying Mr Saharia's machine and exploring its viability.

Once the technology institute approved his machine, Mr Saharia expected that companies would come up to manufacture the machine on a large scale.

Besides Mr Saharua, over 24 village youths from across the NE displayed their creative innovations in the ongoing exhibition organised by North East Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFCL) in collaboration with the Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG-NE) and GIAN-NE here.

A resident of Baihata Chariali, Milan Jyoti Das, had already sold eight machines of his Poultry Egg Incubator which resembled a refrigerator.

This machine was much cheaper than the conventional ones available in the market. Besides, by using an alternative kerosene lamp, Mr Das's incubator solved the problems arising during electricity failure.

With a success rate of 86.6 per cent, the IIT had already registered the Poultry Egg Incubator and the patent was awaited. Mr Das said he had sold eight such machines, including one to a Manipur entrepreneur, at Rs 20,000 each. ''Earlier, in our poultry farm, we had to depend on the hens' wish to incubate which resulted in fluctuations in our business.

Therefore, I have come up with this cheap incubator,'' Mr Das said.

Besides these two innovations, there were several others, including the bamboo torch, wood-turning machine, multi-bladed bamboo fan, hand pounding machine, paddy thrasher, which were made by youths, who were not at all highly educated.

The GIAN had studied their projects and was sponsoring and encouraging them to enhance their machines.

Another such machine, the ''dual security system'', made by Md Aminuddin Ahmed, had been installed at more than 20 oil fields of the ONGC in Assam. The device was designed to enable a two-way emergency alarm signal between a main station and a sub-station.

The railways were also conducting technical trials of the infra-red railway signaling machine, developed by Mr Ahmed. Designed to minimise train accidents, this automatic audio-visual alarm system operated on solar power.

Yet another invention, a pomegranate seed separator, developed by Uddhav Bharali, had been exported to Turkey and the US. The deseeder could separate granules of pomegranate from the outer cover and thin inner membrane within minutes.

UNI