Coimbatore Wet Grinder refers to

wet grinder A wet grinder can refer either to a tool for abrasive cutting of hard materials or to a food preparation appliance used especially in Indian cuisine for grinding food grains to produce a paste or batter. A wet grinder for abrasive cutting uses ...

s manufactured in Coimbatore,

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It has been recognized as a

Geographical indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 2005-06. , Coimbatore has more than 700

manufacturers with a monthly output 75,000 units per every 100,000 produced in India.

Wet Grinder

A wet grinder is a

food preparation Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...

appliance used for grinding

food grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...

s to produce batter. Batter is used extensively in

South Indian cuisine South Indian cuisine includes the cuisines of the five southern states of India—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana—and the union territories of Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Th ...

for preparation of popular dishes such as

dosa Dosa may refer to: People * Bogoljub Mitić Đoša, Serbian actor * Csaba Dosa (born 1951), Romanian athlete * Dosa ben Harkinas * Dosa ben Saadia (935 - 1018), Talmudic scholar and philosopher * Dosa or Dossa Júnior * Edward Dosa-Wea Neufville ...

idly Idli or idly () is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from the South India,popular as breakfast foods in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice ...

, vada,

appam Appam is a type of thin pancake originating from South India. It is made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk, traditionally cooked in an ''appachatti'', a deep pan similar in shape to a wok. It is common in the cusine of Kerala and Tam ...

and

paniyaram Paniyaram ( ml, പനിയാരം) is an Indian dish made by steaming batter using a mould. It is named variously paddu, guliyappa, yeriyappa, gundponglu ( kn, ಪಡ್ಡು, ಗುಳಿಯಪ್ಪ, ಎರಿಯಪ್ಪ), kuzhi paniya ...

. It consists of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

stones which rotate inside a metal drum with the help of an

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

and the food grains get crushed between the stone and drum.

History

P. Sabapathy developed the wet grinder in Coimbatore in 1955. Sabapathy introduced the grinders to other cities such as

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

. In 1963, P. B. Krishnamurthy started Lakshmi Grinders which led to the commercial popularity of wet grinders. In 1975, R. Doraiswamy invented the tilting wet grinders. L. G. Varadaraj introduced the table top wet grinders which replaced grinders which had to be placed on the ground.

Industry

As the product was invented in the city, Coimbatore naturally emerged as a center for the manufacture of wet grinders. The availability of raw material in the form of granite stones, electric motor manufacturing units and the necessary heavy equipment such as lathes, drilling and

milling machine Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of d ...

s used in manufacturing aided the development of the industry. The city contributes to about 75% of the 1 lakh total monthly output of wet grinders in India. The industry employs 20,000 people directly and provides indirect employment to 50,000. In 2011, the cluster had a yearly turnover of which grew to in 2015.

Recent developments

In 2007, the

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, l ...

opened a center for manufacturing raw materials for wet grinders and a research center built at a cost of . The industry grew over ten times in the last few years due to procurement of nearly 22.5 million wet grinders by the

for free distribution to green family card holders. In 2015, the

Government of Puducherry Government of Puducherry is the union territorial government for the union territory of Puducherry, India. It is headed by the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Its capital is located at Pondicherry. Government and administration Lieuten ...

announced distribution of free wet grinders to 3.37 lakh families for which it plans to procure wet grinders at a cost of . Wet grinders are mainly sold through retail channels with the manufacturer distributing it through intermediaries. Since 2014, the sales through

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...

channel has grown considerably helping in bulk sales and brand building.

Geographical Indication

In 2005, the

applied for

Geographical Indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

for Coimbatore wet grinder. The

recognized it as a

officially since the year 2005-06.

References

{{Coimbatore Indian inventions Coimbatore district Economy of Tamil Nadu Geographical indications in Tamil Nadu