Abstract
The Rural Technology Action Group has completed over 55 projects since its establishment in IIT Madras in 2004. This paper reviews six of the most impactful activities in the sectors of livelihood generation and productivity improvement by drudgery reduction. A new process was developed to produce glazed microwaveable pottery using common red burning clays. A manual climber was designed to improve ease and safety of climbing palm trees for untrained people, while a household oil expeller was developed to enable production of cold pressed oil. An automatic potter’s wheel and a coir ratt were developed, both with varying speeds to mechanize operations of wheel rotation and rope-making respectively. A dual drive charkha was developed to enable the operator to switch hand and foot drives at will and thus improve productivity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Rural-Urban Distribution of Population, Census of India, Government of India (2011)
Reddy AKN (2004) Science and technology for rural India. Curr Sci 87(7):890–898
Deo MG (2009) Promoting S&T in rural India-challenges and plausible solutions. Curr Sci 97(12):1720–1725
Dutta R (2009) Science and technology for rural development: a synergy approach. India, Science and Technology 2008, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, CSIR
Gangopadhyay D, Mukhopadhyay AK, Singh P (2009) Rural development: a strategy for poverty alleviation in India. India, Science and Technology 2008, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, CSIR
Solanki SS (2009) One segment of unorganized sector workers: rural artisans. India, Science and Technology 2008, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, CSIR
Mukhopadhyay TK (2014) Development of a technology package for manufacturing microwave oven compatible red clay products. Project report submitted to RuTAG, IITM, CSIR—Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata
Wroniak M, Krygier K, Kaczmarczyk M (2008) Comparison of the quality of cold pressed and virgin rapeseed oils with industrially obtained oils. Pol J Food Nutr Sci 58(1):85–89
Mirzaee S, Garcia-Llatas G, Marangoni A (2014) Micronutrient content of cold-pressed, hot-pressed, solvent extracted and RBD canola oil: implications for nutrition and quality. Eur J Lipid Sci Technol 116(4):380–387
Akash SK (2016) Design of household mini oil expeller. B. Tech thesis submitted to Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Pighinelli ALMT, Gambetta R (2012) In: Akpan UG (eds) Agricultural and biological sciences. ISBN 978-953-51-0665-4
Kalyanaraman V (2016) Design and development of manual palm tree climber. Technical project report submitted to RuTAG, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Rajalakshmi D, Nirmala M (2011) Automatic control of potter’s wheel. Technical project report submitted to RuTAG, IITM, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore
Status of Coir Industries in India, Coir Board, Cochin (2016)
Anand RKC, Shankar K (2006) Modernisation of coir spinning ratt. B. Tech thesis submitted to Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Shankar K, Ashok Kumar S (2008) Design and manufacture of prototype of modernized coir ratt. Technical project report submitted to RuTAG, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Ganesan S (2017) Development of switch-at-will dual drive charkha. Interim report submitted to RuTAG, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Acknowledgements
RuTAG, IIT Madras is thankful to the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India for its continued support of initiatives. RuTAG, IITM is grateful to the project investigators of the projects reviewed in this paper—Dr. T. K. Mukhopadhyay from CSIR, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, Prof. Shankar Krishnapillai and Prof. V. Kalyanaraman from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Dr. D. Rajalakshmi from Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore and Dr. S. Ganesan, RuTAG, IITM—for their dedicated technical expertise. The efforts of all the project associates, assistants and students involved in the projects are acknowledged gratefully. The author is thankful to Prof. Abhijit P Deshpande, Professor-in-Charge, RuTAG, IITM for his guidance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Seetharaman, S. (2019). Review of Science and Technology Interventions Developed by Rural Technology Action Group, IIT Madras. In: Saha, S., Ravi, M. (eds) Rural Technology Development and Delivery. Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6435-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6435-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6434-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6435-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)