Uddhab Bharali (born 7 April 1962) is an Indian inventor from the

Lakhimpur district Lakhimpur district ( ) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarter is located at North Lakhimpur. The district is bounded on the North by Siang and Papumpare districts of Arunachal Pradesh and on the Eas ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. Bharali is credited with more than 160

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

s, starting from the late 1980s. In 2019, he was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

Early life and education

Bharali was born on 7 April 1962 in the Lakhimpur district of Assam. His father was a businessman. He studied in the Government Higher Secondary School of

North Lakhimpur North Lakhimpur ( ) is a city and a municipal board in Lakhimpur district in the Indian state of Assam, about northeast of Guwahati. It is the district headquarters of Lakhimpur district. North Lakhimpur is also the name of the subdivision of L ...

. He then went on to study

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

Jorhat Engineering College Jorhat Engineering College founded in 1960 by the Government of Assam, is a government engineering college in Assam, northeast India. The college, affiliated with Assam Science and Technology University, is accredited by the All India Council f ...

, Institute of Engineers Madras Chapter in

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 ...

. He left engineering school in 1988 because his family was unable to support his education due to their debt.

Career

In 1988, while his family was in debt, he decided to start a

polythene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...

cover making business catering to Tea Estates in Assam. Instead of spending about on buying a machine, he designed his own machine for about . Bharali was then determined to continue building innovations. Bharali is known for his invention of a pomegranate de-seeder. On 3 July 2012, Bharali qualified for an online voting competition for the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for his design of a bench-top pomegranate de-seeder. Bharali has also invented low-cost peeler machines for

betel nut The betel (''Piper betle'') is a vine of the family Piperaceae, which includes pepper and kava. The betel plant is native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plan ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

jatropha ''Jatropha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός (''iatros''), meaning "physician", and τροφή (''trophe''), meaning "nutrition", hence the common name ...

, coconut and safed musli, and re-designed the Assamese paddy grinder. He also invented a low-cost bamboo processing machine. These agricultural inventions only require one person to operate. Bharali has also focused on inventions that assist people with disabilities, including devices that help with activities of daily living, such as eating and writing. In 2019, he began working on an invention he describes as a "moving lifter", which helps a person move from a wheelchair to a bed or toilet. In 2020, he presented a moving lifter attached to a portable wheelchair to a 15-year-old boy and announced he was making additional lifters for students in the Mangaldoi and Jorhat district of Assam, and that he had released the schematics on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

so anyone could build the device. Bharali runs the machine design and research centre U.K.B Agrotech at Lakhimpur. He was a speaker in

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

ISM Dhanbad Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad (abbreviated IIT (ISM), Dhanbad) is a prestigious public technical university located in Dhanbad, India. It has main campus of 218 acres in Sardar Patel Nagar area of Dhanbad and ...

held in October 2014.

Honors and awards

Uddhab Bharali was awarded an honorary Doctorate from

Assam Agricultural University Assam Agricultural University (AAU) is an agricultural education state university which was established on 1 April 1969 in Jorhat in the state of Assam, India. The jurisdiction of the university extends to the entire State of Assam with regard ...

(AAU) in 2014 and an honorary

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from

Kaziranga University Kaziranga University (KU), officially established as The Assam Kaziranga University, is a private university located at Koraikhowa, on the outskirts of city Jorhat in Assam, India. It was established in 2012 through ''The Assam Kaziranga Univer ...

. He has also received: * SRISTI Samman, 2006 * National Grassroots Innovation Award from the National Innovation Foundation, 2009 * Meritorious Invention Award 2010, NRDC, * Certificate of Merit, NRDC, 2010, from the government of India, * Prayukty Ratna Title in 2010 from Asom Sahitya Seva, * Shilpa Ratna Title in 2012 by Asom Satra Mahasava, * Rashtriya Ekta Samman, in 2013, * NICT Perfect 10 Award, ABP Media Group, and The Telegraph, *

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Best Awardee award in 2013, from the

Government of Assam The Government of Assam is the subnational government of Assam, a state of India. It consists of the Governor appointed by the President of India as the head of the state, currently Jagdish Mukhi. The head of government is the Chief Minister, ...

, * ERDF excellence award in 2014, * Pratidin Time Media achiever award in 2015, * Kamala Kanta Saikia National award in 2016, * Asom Gourav award in 2016, * Romoni Gabhoru award in 2016, from Atasu Assam, * Swayamsiddh Shri Rashtriya Swayamsiddh Samman in 2017, by JSPL, * Winner Of Engineering Design, in a contest organised by NASA, Tech Briefs Media called "Create The Future Design Contest 2012" for a bench-top pomegranate de-seeder - which was placed 2nd in the Top Ten Most Popular Inventions category * Winner

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

tech brief "Create the Future Design contest 2013", for the invention of a detention chair for a mentally challenged person, * Qualified for NASA tech brief "Create the Future Design contest 2014" for the invention of a feeding device for people without hands, * Qualifier – World Tech Award in 2012, for the invention of a mini tea plant, * Pioneer Award, in 2017, * Excellence Award in 2018 from the Mahatma Gandhi University in

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...

, *

Award in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharali, Uddhab 20th-century Indian inventors Scientists from Assam People from Lakhimpur district 1962 births Living people 21st-century Indian inventors 21st-century Indian businesspeople 20th-century Indian businesspeople Businesspeople from Assam 20th-century Indian engineers 21st-century Indian engineers Engineers from Assam Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering