Design Case study
Grass Root - Innovation
Story of a Grass Root Innovator
by
Agrotech - Research Center
At a time when most young people are thronging metros and big cities with the dream of earning big bucks, Uddhab Bharali continues to work in his small hometown in North Lakhimpur, Assam, India.
Here he has set up a research centre — UKB Agrotech — for designing machines. Bharali claims that UKB Agrotech is the first-of-its-kind non-governmental machine designing and research centre in the country.
Bharali engages youths having the potential for learning, irrespective of their academic qualifications, to work in his research centre. They are provided free food and lodging and paid a stipend. After some time, when these youths learn the technicalities and become efficient enough, their salaries are increased.
With many successful innovations under his belt, Bharali has now set his eyes on the future. He has a dream to set up a conventional orphanage and an old-age home where he plans to impart technical knowledge to the inmates so that they can earn a living and at the same time stay in a place where they can take care of each other.
It is his love for humanity which inspires him to take up projects with personal interest. He is at present working on a mechanized toilet for the handicapped, which he thinks will be his greatest achievement and contribution to mankind.
He is also planning to design a chair for people who suffer from mental disorders. Bharali thinks it is inhumane to tie people up or lock them. He wants to design a chair for the mentally-challenged which will have provisions so that the patient will not be able to get up from it but at the same time will not be tied or locked.
He is almost 50 but his dreams and aspirations know no bounds. He enthusiastically and tirelessly keeps working on his projects in his research centre every day, which is quite an inspiration in itself. And he says, one day, he dreams to walk on water.
