Keshav G : IIT Ghandhinagar Student

To reduce the drudgery from the lives of workers who roll 3,000 incense sticks a day with bare hands to earn as little as Rs. 20 per 1,000 sticks, an IIT Gandhinagar graduate is developing a low cost machine.Keshav G, a student from the maiden batch of IITGN who graduated this year, started developing the machine as a classroom project a year ago.

When Keshav came face to face with slum dwellers in Bangalore making bundles of sticks for a pittance, he took up a project to design a low cost machine that would produce incense sticks at a faster rate to generate more income.

Low-cost Incense Stick Making Machine:

Innovators: Keshav G.

College: IIT-Gandhinagar.

Cost: 500 (Prototype cost: 5,000) It is a low-cost semi-automatic machine operated by hand. According to the innovator, it doubles production. The machine is ergonomically designed to mitigate back pain and other spinal problems. A woman can roll out 6,000 sticks a day. Keshav said, The idea struck me when I was interning at a village in Bangalore last year. I had witnessed the village women preparing the incense sticks. I saw their hardship and decided to use my knowledge to ease their problems.

Read Full Article : The Hindu