New Delhi, Mar 13: An alert switch in public vehicles for safety of women, a groundnut digger and a natural water cooler are some of the highlights of an exhibition of grassroots innovations, which opened at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday.
The seven-day Festival of Innovation was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee and features 65 grassroots innovations in the exhibition.
The fest is being organised by Rashtrapati Bhawan in collaboration with the National Innovation Foundation.
The event will witness a number of exhibitions, round-table discussions on different topics related to innovations with national and international participation, a talk by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi; Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Awards and Visitor’s Awards to central universities, including in the field of innovation.
Tezpur University has won the annual Visitors Award for the Best University and Professor Rakesh Bhatnagar as well as the Molecular Parasitology Group of JNU have won the Visitors Awards for Research and Innovation respectively.
The Best University will receive a citation and trophy while winners of Visitors Award for Innovation and Research will receive a citation and cash award of Rs one lakh.
The alert switch, aimed to aid safety for women in auto-rickshaws and buses, has been made by 19-year-old Satiya, a BA student from Surendranagar in Gujarat.
“Women’s safety is a big concern nowadays so I wanted to make a switch which will send signals to the nearby police station. Then the vehicle number and the location will get available to the police,” said Satiya, who was present at the exhibition along with her brother Mehul.
This was the first time the switch has been put on display and they are happy it has generated a good response.
“The governor of Gujarat praised the innovation and said it should be implemented in the state. We are hoping to find buyers soon,” Mehul said.
Satiya added she is glad to have completed this project as she always had interest in Science but because of her dream to become a deputy collector, she could not take up the subject in her graduation.
Sanjay Patel, also from Gujarat, completed his degree in Commerce and got himself a job, when his interest towards farming grew, which finally led him to develop the groundnut digger.
