17-06-2005, Ahmedabad:
In a momentous agreement that added a landmark dimension to India-Pakistan grassroots partnership, Mr. M. Nagarajan of Madurai, Tamilnadu successfully signed a deal with Perfect Food Industries of Lahore, Pakistan for his grassroots innovation - Garlic Peeling Machine. The final payment was received today and the machine has been despatched, according to Mr. Manish Saxena, National Coordinator-Business Development, National Innovation Foundation. The deal was closed after 6 months of pitching and negotiation.
Prof Anil K Gupta, Exec. Vice-Chairperson and Ms Riya Sinha, Acting CIO –NIF congratulated Mr. Nagarajan- the innovator and SEVA-who scouted this innovation.
Mr. M. Nagarajan of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, one of the thousands of grassroots innovators scouted by NIF, was awarded at the hands of The Honourable President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on 5th January, 2005 on the occasion of the 3rd National Grassroots Technological Innovations and Traditional Knowledge Practices Award function of the National Innovation Foundation held at IIM, Ahmedabad for his innovative Garlic Peeling machine and lemon cutting machine.
The garlic-peeling machine developed by Mr. Nagarajan has a number of advantages over its contemporaries. It is extremely cost effective with low initial investment, low operating cost and low maintenance cost. It is also particularly suited for the Indian variety of garlic, which has 3-4 times more cloves in each fruit than the one grown in Europe. Hence, peeling this garlic with smaller cloves would need higher levels of effectiveness, which has been achieved through this innovative technology. The cost of peeling garlic using this machine is one fifth that of peeling garlic manually and on an average half the cost of peeling using other Chinese or Taiwanese machines available in the market.
Genesis
Mr. Nagarajan owned a small lathe workshop for manufacturing rice hulling units, grinders, etc. In the last few years continuous drought affected not only the farmers but also all dependent industries. These circumstances forced him to seek some other avenues for survival. Mr. Nagarajan’s close interaction with some of the local pickle manufacturers exposed him to the problems prevailing in the industry and they requested him to design and develop a system to peel garlic cloves for making pickles. He successfully designed and developed a garlic-peeling machine in 2002 after two years of hard work. Many Indian companies such as Cavin Care, Pandiyan Pickles, Priyam Foods, Eye Pickles, Patak Foods, Tasty Foods and others are the satisfied users of Mr. Nagarajan’s machine and Cavin Care has even placed a repeat order giving a testimony of its performance. Pursuing his innovative spirit, Nagarajan later developed a lemon-cutting machine as well.
Mr. Muhammad Riaz Chaudhry, Chief Executive and Mr. Asif Muhammad Ali Shah, Director Technical of Perfect Food Industries, Lahore, Pakistan contacted NIF after seeing Nagarajan’s machine on its website and later followed this by a visit to Madurai, Tamil Nadu to see the machine and meet the innovator - Nagarajan and other users of this novel product. A deal was struck and the machine has been despatched by road. Another feather in Nagarajan’s cap- an order from USA is under process and will be delivered soon.
What are Grassroots technological innovations?
By definition these are need-based, simple, cost-effective and sustainable technologies. The possibility of these technological solutions addressing local constraints/ unmet needs in an effective way is reasonably high, simply because these solutions originate from someone who has first-hand experience of the issues involved. Innovations like this garlic-peeler address the key needs of grassroots consumers, which have not been met or satisfied by the existing Trickle-Down products and services. Hence, there is an ample scope for wealth creation by linking grassroots need-based technologies with the technical and commercial knowledge in the formal sector, to make them scalable and commercially attractive. NIF is committed to this goal of wealth creation for grassroots innovators like Nagarajan and is also helping other innovators in locating licensors/ franchisors in India and abroad. The technologies available with NIF from the grassroots innovators are detailed at www.nifindia.org/bd
About National Innovation Foundation (NIF):
Making India an innovative and creative society and a global leader in sustainable technologies is a very big challenge. To meet this challenge, the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Ahmedabad, an autonomous body was set up in March 2000, by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to provide a nurturing platform for augmenting unaided green grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge practices developed by local communities and individuals to solve their problems (www.nifindia.org). NIF is committed to making India innovative by documenting, adding value and protecting intellectual property rights of the contemporary unaided technological innovators as well as outstanding traditional knowledge holders on a commercial as well as non-commercial basis. Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, an eminent scientist and Secretary, DSIR and Director General, Council of Science & Industrial Research, India, is the Chairperson of NIF.
Under the guiding vision of Executive Vice Chairperson, Prof. Anil K. Gupta of IIM-A and the efforts of a dedicated team, in a short span of four years, NIF has been able to scout more than 51,000 innovations and traditional knowledge practices from over 360 districts of India. Out of which, 14 technologies have been successfully commercialized.
Contact for additional information:
Mr. L.Chinzah,
National Coordinator-Business Development
National Innovation Foundation (NIF)
