Date: 2008/8/4 courtsey: posted to IIT-Global-DiscussionGroup Indians to be proud of, Environmentalists get a great Tool invented.
*India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph * 2 Aug, 2008, 2045 hrs IST,Moinak Mitra, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: India could soon take pride for reinventing the wheel and leading the global green movement! An innovation by a senior administrator at IIT-Kharagpur is helping him ride the humble bicycle at 40 km an hour and pedalling past motor vehicles on busy roads without much effort. And you could be next — cycle manufacturers are planning to launch these hot wheels commercially, very soon. Manoj Mondal is the inventor of the crank pedal—he successfully tweaked the pedal of a bicycle to an extent that it generates almost double the torque (force multiplied by the distance from the centre) than in normal circumstances . In other words, the speed of the bicycle increases from, say, 20 km/hr to 40 km/hr. His feat has already made him the toast of incubators , the green lobby and a host of companies which are coming forward to adapt Mondal's technology commercially. While the invention ushers in revolutionary intra-city commute, it cocks a snook at the fuel brigade as the inventor apprehends auto majors may just gang up to disembark his plans. "I want to first launch the product in the ladies' and sports bicycle categories since speed is critical here," says Mondal, who has initiated talks with cycle brands like Atlas, TI Cycles and Hero. There's more. "Tweaking the pedal to generate more torque can create 700 watts of electricity per unit," says Mondal. Now that's enough to light up 10 neons. Next, he's working on a prototype where pedalling on a stationary cycle has the potential to dig a bore deep enough to make a drain, and construction major Escorts seems to have shown interest in the new technology, says Mondal. Besides, Mondal's invention is slated to benefit rickshaw-pullers as the Centre for Rural Development has shown keenness to convert 10,000 rickshaws into the crank pedal mode this year. Though power companies haven't lined up yet, bicycle makers seem to have grasped the next wave. "I'm awaiting the final prototype (from Mondal) and then intend to take it to the dealers en route the market," says R K Kapur, chief general manager of technology at Atlas Cycles. Vasant Devaji of TI Cycles claims that a meeting with Mondal is scheduled next month to take the project forward. For the time being , the marketing muscle is being provided by the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme that was launched in March last year jointly by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas. This year, Mondal's crank pedal won the silver at the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme. "We are helping Mondal to tie up with the Hero Group and are also in touch with the Ministry of Rural Development to roll out his invention," says Nirankar Saxena, additional director at Ficci. "As stewardship of the environment takes on an ever-increasing importance for the global community, we have seen great promise for such inventions to increase energy efficiency, save precious resources, and reduce pollution," says Ray O. Johnson , CTO of Lockheed Martin. Mondal is acutely aware of the acceptability of his manual wonder in the metros, and is also perfecting a rickshaw that looks like a car, "so that it is not out of place in a metro" . He calls it a "funky value proposition" . Meanwhile, Dr Pradip K Sarmah, executive director of the Centre for Rural Development is banking on the crank pedal "to reduce the drudgery of the 10 million rickshaw-puller of India" . The centre runs a Rickshaw Bank to cater to the urban poor, and already has an improvised rickshaw by IIT-Guwahati , which costs Rs 12,000 a pop with insurance, licence, uniform and the works thrown in. "Mondal's invention will add speed to the existing force and cost Rs 100 extra," contends Sarmah. As for Mondal, he's onto his 10th prototype and exudes rock-solid confidence about doubling the torque. Though 14 patents exist on claims of increasing the torque, Mondal's pedal cranks up a whole new business proposition for marketers. Up to speed, the soft-spoken professor from IIT now lets the torque do the talking. *Error! Filename not specified.* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -- Dr.V.N.Sharma http://canvas.nowpos.com/vnsharma -- Dr.V.N.Sharma http://canvas.nowpos.com/vnsharma
