Uddhab Bharali

Dr. Uddhab Kumar Bharali
Dr. Uddhab Kumar Bharali
Born (1962-04-07) 7 April 1962
North Lakhimpur, Assam, India
Residence North Lakhimpur, Assam, India
Nationality Indian
Alma mater Jorhat Engineering College
Known for Low Cost, Masses-friendly Innovations (eg.- pomegranate deseeder)s[1]
Awards President’s Grassroots Innovation Award
Shristi Samman Award
NASA Tech Create the Future Design Contest (2012, 2013)
Rashtriya Ekta Samman
Scientific career
Fields Physics

Dr. Uddhab Bharali, (born 7 April 1962) is an Indian inventor from Lakhimpur district, Assam.[2][3] Bharali has about 118 innovations to his credit, starting from the late 1980s.[4]

Student life

Dr. Bharali was born to a businessman father in the Lakhimpur district of Assam. He studied in government higher secondary school, North Lakhimpur. He was always made to stand out of the class for asking difficult questions to the teacher in mathematics. He was double promoted twice, from class I to III, and again class VI to VIII. He states that in class VIII, he was able to solve some of the toughest sums of class XI and XII. He studied Mechanical Engineering in Jorhat Engineering College, Institute of Engineers Madras Chapter in Chennai. However, he was able to complete AMIE sec 1 only, due to fiscal burden on his family.[5]

Career

In 1988, his family was in debt. So he decided to start a polythene covers making business catering to Tea Estates in Assam. Instead of spending about a lakh (hundred thousand) rupees on buying a machine, he designed his own machine[2] for about 67,000 rupees. Dr. Bharali , then determined to continue building machines, rather than buying them.[6]

Bharali's family was under heavy-debts and Uddhab was always under pressure from Banks towards repayment. His brother died in 1995, after which he was the sole earning member in his family, and he started earning money by his innovations,focused to solve issues around Lakhimpur district with Agriculture and small-scale industries being his targets.[4] Focusing on agricultural output, Dr. Bharali went on to build a variety of peeler machines to peel Beteel Nut, Cassava, Garlic, Jatropha and Safed Musli, re-designed Assamese paddy grinder, that could be operated by only turning a wheel Bamboo Processing Machine to cut-polish-surface finish long Bamboo s, Cutters for and Green tea leaves and etc. The best part of all these being, they were indigenous,low-cost and could be operated by single-person. This last facet would go on to be life-saver in coming years for disabled people around Lakhimpur.

Pomegranate De-Seeder

Bharali focused his sight on De-seeding Pomegranate. Using Centrifugal force, Hammer within a spinning cylinder, He built a low cost machine that could de-seed Pomegranates. Through continuous enhancements, Machine would be de-seeding 55 KGs of Pomegranate under an hour.

[7]

Dr. Bharali struggled from 1989-2005, with little support from Banks and Government. He cites this struggle and lack of support having forced him to take entrepreneurship.

Innovations

Dr. Bharali was recognised by National Innovation Foundation in 2005 for his serial inventions. NIF on-boarded him as Grassroots Innovator. [8]

Helping Differently-skilled people

With his machines being used around locality, Bharali was approached by needy, if he could help them. Dr. Bharali started offering support both in form of monthly-monetary support and Calipers and others to better their lot. Machines to feed the disabled, Slippers for Knees, Cleaners and De-weeders for amputees, the list of his inventions kept growing. Dr. Bharali makes it a point to avoid publicity and shuns marketing budget to sell his wares.

Commercial establishment

Under his own firm, U K B AGROTECH at Lakhimpur, Dr. Bharali works on assignments he receives from NIF and other establishments.

Recognition

Since NIF support, Dr. Bharali was offered fiscal support under the Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) scheme at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. Dr. Bharali started getting covered in Assamese Press for his variety of machines. Discovery Channel and other global media. On 5 July 2012, Bharali was entered into an online voting competition for the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for his design of a bench-top pomegranate de-seeder.[9]

He is a recipient of ‘President’s Grassroots Innovation Award’, 2009. In 2007, he got ‘Shristi Samman Award'. He is also the recipient of ‘Rashtriya Ekta Samman, in 2013. He was one of the speakers in TEDxISMDhanbad held in October 2014.

Uddhab Bharali was awarded honorary Doctorate from Assam Agricultural University (AAU) in 2014 and Honorary PhD from Assam Kaziranga University. Few others are,

  1. Meritorious Invention Award 2010, NRDC
  2. Certificate of Merit, NRDC,2010 Govt. Of India
  3. Prayukty Ratna Title -2010, Asom sahitya sava.
  4. Shilpa ratna Title –2012 by Asom Satra Mahasava
  5. Rashtriya Ekta Samman-2013.
  6. NICT Perfect -10 Award, ABP Media Group and The Telegraph
  7. Chief Minister Best Awardee, 2013, Govt. of Assam.
  8. ERDF excellence award-2014
  9. Pratidin Time Media achiever award-2015
  10. Kamala kanta Saikia National award-2016
  11. Asom Gourav award-2016
  12. Romoni Gabhoru award -2016- By ATASU –Assam
  13. Swayamsiddh- Shri Rashtriya Swayamsiddh Samman-2017 by JSPL
  14. Winner Of Engineering Design Contest Organized By NASA Tech Briefs Media Called "Create The Future Design Contest- 2012" for Bench-top Pomegranate De-Seeder. It was placed 2nd in the Top Ten Most Popular Invention.
  15. Winner NASA tech brief "Create the Future Design contest—2013", for invention of -Detention Chair for mentally challenged Person.
  16. Qualified for NASA tech brief "Create the Future Design contest—2014" for invention of feeding device for person without hand.
  17. Qualifier –World Tech Award—2012 –For invention of Mini Tea plant.
  18. Pioneer Award-2017.
  19. Excellence Award2018-Mahatma Gandhi University, Meghalaya.

[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Uddhab Bharali, the man from Assam with 118 incredible inventions".
  2. 1 2 "AMAZING: Meet the Indian engineer with 98 INNOVATIONS!". Rediff India. 2012-07-16.
  3. ↑ "Assam innovator in Nasa prize shortlist". Seven Sister's Post India. 2012-07-05.
  4. 1 2 Chopra, Akshat (1 August 2012). "His experiments with life". The Hindu. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  5. ↑ "Sanki". Sanki. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "This College Dropout from Assam Has over 140 Agricultural Innovations to His Credit". Better India. 2017-01-02.
  7. ↑ "National Third Award, POMEGRANATE DE-SEEDER" (PDF). National Innovation Foundation. 2006-01-02.
  8. ↑ "POMEGRANATE DE-SEEDER". National Innovation Foundation. 2006-01-02.
  9. ↑ "Innovator selected for Nasa award". The Telegraph India. 2012-07-13.
  10. ↑ "AAU honour for innovator". The Telegraph India. 2014-03-16.
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