Over 140 students belonging to 26 teams from 17 polytechnic colleges across Chennai participated in a first-of-its-kind contest called for by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras - contributing to solving rural problems.
Over 140 students belonging to 26 teams from 17 polytechnic colleges across Chennai participated in a first-of-its-kind contest called for by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras - contributing to solving rural problems.
The final 11 teams of 42 students from seven colleges were called to demonstrate their models on January 24 at the first edition of the ‘Rural Innovative TechnologZ’ (RITZ), organised by the IIT Madras’ Rural Technology Action Group - Tamil Nadu (RuTAG-TN).
The teams were given three problem statements - developing a solar drier for agricultural produce, a mechanised palm tree climber, and a mechanised vegetable slicer for large-scale rural applications. The top team in each category was provided funding of up to Rs. 50,000 each to develop a prototype of their winning model.
What is RuTAG ?
One of the areas of focus of the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India is related to the development and dissemination of technologies for rural development. According to its website www.psa.gov.in, there is practically no technology needed for rural development that is not available among, or which cannot be developed by Indian scientists or by Indian industry. The problem often is in transferring it or in downsizing it, if necessary.
Some government agencies, NGOs and Science and Technology institutions, a few initiatives from industry have been successful in disseminating rural development technologies up to a point. The challenge is to establish synergy among all these efforts, which are often fragmented and needlessly duplicated in order to nucleate new initiatives and to strengthen existing ones.
RuTAGs (Rural Technology Action Groups) that could provide the mechanism and support needed for this synergy have accordingly been conceptualised. This has been done with the help of scientific consultants in the Office of the PSA, who are experts in various aspects of rural development. Till date seven RuTAG Centres have been established at various IITs - Madras, Guwahati, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Delhi, Mumbai and Ropar.
RuTAG activity is helping towards
- Addressing defused rural economy through Science and Technology platforms
- Dissemination of refined technologies reaching to rural areas
- Technology delivery for non-farm/agriculture sectors
- Benefitting rural groups through network of NGOs
- Adding value to the produce and enhancing quality of rural life
RuTAG-TN has interacted with engineering colleges and R&D institutions in order to develop technical solutions for issues raised from rural areas in sectors of livelihoods, assistive technologies, textiles, health and sanitation, and energy. Potential benefits of the interventions include inter alia improving quality of life, drudgery reduction, efficiency improvement and optimisation of resource usage.
The top place for solar drier went to the team comprising students Sai Prasanna K, Poornesh V, Charan Chandran S and mentor C. Mohanarangan from Panimalar Polytechnic College. It consists of an absorber plate, drying chamber, air blower, ventilation and electronics control unit. Absorber plate absorbs as much radiation as possible to generate hot air, which is passed to the drying chamber using an air blower. This removes moisture from the produce. The drier uses easily available material and costs Rs. 27,000.
The top place for mechanised palm tree climber went to the team comprising students Zubair Ahmed N, Kishore Kumar V, John Kristien, and Gopi E, and mentors Nijanthan P and Chandra Karthik A from Little Flower Polytechnic College. The climber consists of two pieces - the top segment to sit comfortably, and the bottom segment for a foot grip. It can rotate 360 degrees to facilitate easy collection of produce. Extra features include provision for leaning backwards comfortably and sun protection slider cap. The product costs Rs. 5,000.
The top place for the mechanised vegetable slicer for large scale rural applications went to the team of students Tharun Kumar R. Abhishek KS, Subash P, Aravind R, Abaysingh JWN, and mentor Sathish G from Sri Balaji Polytechnic College. The slicer consists of a two-step conveyor. Two blades rotate to chop the vegetables into bigger pieces. A piston presses down the chopped vegetables through the blades to cut them into smaller pieces. The piston pressure changes as per vegetable type, while the blades can be changed as per needed size and shape. The cost is estimated to be Rs. 35,000.
Abhijit Deshpande, Professor-in-charge of RuTAG-TN, says: “RuTAG-TN aims to deliver science and technology interventions for rural context. Engineering skill sets from different institutions are required for successful development and dissemination of technology.” Talking about the contest, he adds: “We believe that the skills available in polytechnic colleges will be valuable to develop quick and feasible technical solutions. We hope to continue building our network of technical institutions interested to deliver quality interventions, with initiatives such as these.”