It used to be that terracotta clay was used for pots and roof tiles, but Indian inventor Mansukhbhai Prajapati recognised its potential for keeping food cool.
Indians are known across the world for their ingenuity. Bangalore is already pinned as the next Silicon Valley thanks to the tech-geniuses that work there. Many Indian firms are known not only for their incredible inventions but also for the good intentions that brought them into being. In a country where many people still live below the poverty line, one of the most important facets of Indian ingenuity is the intent to lift others up to a more comfortable lifestyle with the technology that you create. Here are some of the incredible technological advances that Indian people have been making.
Mitti Cool Clay Fridge
One of the problems that rural communities face, not just in India but across the world, is how to keep food fresh. In areas where electricity supply is unreliable or even non-existent, running a refrigerator is an impossibility for families. This is one of the factors that contributes towards the incredible 1.4 billion tons of food waste that the developing world produces each year. However, using incredibly low-tech materials, a company called Mitti Cool has been able to go some of the way to solving this problem. Invented by Mansukhbhai Prajapati, the Mitti Cool flagship product is a clay refrigerator. The fridge is made from a porous clay, featuring a chamber on top which the user fills with water. The water soaks into the porous material and keeps the fridge cool without the need for electricity. As well as being incredibly effective, particularly in hot, dry climates, the fridge is sleek and modern in design and is incredibly sustainable. All of the components can either be recycled or simply returned to the Earth.
Making Global Markets Local
This high-tech solution to a high-tech problem is at the other end of the scale to the Mitti Cool but has still improved the quality of life for many Indians, specifically the quality of their free time. AsiaBet is a website that recommends online casino and sports betting websites to those living on the Asian continent. The Indian section of the website has invited hundreds of expert reviewers to dive into the facts behind popular casino websites in order to find out which ones really are well suited to Indian customers. Often sites will say that they cater to Indian people, but won’t have customer support available in the correct language, or won’t accept deposits made in rupees. Country-specific review sites such as these are incredibly important to make sure that our money gets spent at sites that have spent time understanding our needs, rather than those just hoping to make a quick buck.
Truly Rubbish Wifi
One bright spark from Mumbai has come up with an idea that could revolutionize our streets. The company known as ThinkScream is an India-based startup that wants to clean up the streets of India. In order to do so, they have invented a smart garbage can. This can provides an incentive for those who use it, that is fifteen minutes of free wifi. In order to get your hands on the wifi, all you must do is pick up a piece of litter and put it in the bin. Once the litter is in, the bin will transmit free wifi to a distance of 50 yards. Whilst the bins are not yet widespread they have been used successfully at music festivals. People enjoyed using the bin not only for the wifi but also for the novelty value. Overall, the festival clear-up team had to remove far less litter than before the bins were in use. The team at ThinkScream is targeting the streets of Mumbai as the perfect location for these bins. As well as cleaning up the streets, the smart LED screens can also be hired out to local businesses to advertise, meaning that not only do the bins clear up the streets and bring wifi to those who need it, they also make money.
Low Cost Sanitary Pads
For those women living in less economically developed countries, Arunachalam Muruganantham became famous for two things. Firstly for being one of the only men in the world to frequently wear sanitary pads, and secondly for being a man to create a machine that could make safe sanitary pads incredibly cheaply. This invention has meant that many women who would otherwise be unable to use sanitary pads are able to experience their period in safety. The machines have been distributed around the country and are serving communities that were in need. They use cheap materials, wood pulp and polyethylene film, to create the pads. One machine is capable of making some 16,000 pads each day which can be distributed to those in need.
