Krishiraja....An innovative farmer's story

Necessity is the mother of invention. 

Creativity could emerge out of desperation and the need to survive. 

I came across this inspiring innovation story and felt like sharing. Its about a poor farmer in rural Maharashtra village who became an innovator to overcome problems in farming his small land and built a portable device using bicycle parts. He was awarded the "National innovation award' and has helped many poor farmers like him overcome obstacles in farming practices. 

With ‘Krishiraja’, a portable device made from bicycle parts, Gopal Bhise has made ploughing feasible for poor farmers

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/where-bicycle-helps-reap-a-harvest/article4469720.ece?homepage=true

A more detailed version with picture of the device is here. 

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/bicycle-inspired-plougher-and-weeder-gains-popularity/article414019.ece

For details readers can contact Mr. Gopal Bhise, Shendurni,Taluka: Jamner, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, phone: 9970521044 and Dr. Nitin Maurya at email: nitinnif@gmail.com and info@nifindia.org, phone: 079-26732456 and 26732095.

Hole in the wall ...

Schools of the future .....

How should schools of the future look like? Are schools the right way to impart education? Do they serve the purpose in the world of Information age and the Internet? Can self learning be achieved?

I remember reading about "The hole in the wall" experiment long time back. In this experiment a computer was stuck in a wall in a slum to observe what would be the reaction of the children in the area. It was observed that children not only managed to successfully self learn how to browse the computer but advanced to more skills in using the computer, even though they had not seen one before at all.

I happened to come across the creator of that experiment who won a TED prize for his idea about building a school in the cloud. Here is the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

Children no matter where they are born, to rich parents or in slums, are creative and curious by nature. It is the responsibility of the society to understand how to nurture this creativity to foster talents.

The cost of missing an opportunity of the type the presenter speaks could be heavy for the societies if it does not understand these kind of basic questions about how to kindle the learning process in kids.

I wish we have more action oriented scientists who want to bring change in the societies perception by bringing fundamental changes, than the scientists who are happy in publishing mindless publications without any impact on society. I wish more scientists shared this urge.