Celebrating India’s groundbreaking innovations

From USB (yes that’s right!) to talking gloves (again, yes!) India has given some noteworthy innovations to the world. Over the last year alone, IIT Kanpur – a prestigious institute in India, has filed a record-breaking 107 patents. With this, IIT Kanpur has broken the previous record of most number of patents filed by any institute in India. 

I feel incredibly proud to see India fueling the innovation train yet again. From ZERO to Mangalyaan, Indian inventions haven’t gone unnoticed and deserve every recognition. So, on this 75th Indian Independence Day, let us celebrate some of India’s groundbreaking innovations that are or will be making a significant impact on the world.

USB – Ajay Bhatt

I believe an idea is successful when the problem applies to everyday people. And in realizing this ordinary day problem, Ajay Bhatt’s wife played a vital role. But, you may wonder, how?

A difficult situation arose when Mrs. Bhatt could not print their child’s school project. Among other things, the limited ability to connect computers with peripherals was a significant factor. Arising from this day-to-day problem was the solution invented by Bhatt. Bhatt developed a standard, convenient, and universal system. Later, Intel decided to manufacture the concept. And gradually, USB was used by Apple and Microsoft, and today serves as a solution for consumer and industrial electronics. 

“Without USB, it would have been impossible to miniaturize storage devices. We might have been using CDs and DVDs for storage instead of pen drives.

Today we all use one cable for data transfer and charging and had to carry two cables for one phone with two different ports, one for charging and one for data transfer.”

– Manas Puti, Research Analyst at GreyB.

Talking gloves – IIT Jodhpur & AIIMS Jodhpur

IIT Jodhpur & AIIMS Jodhpur’s researchers made headlines with their patented invention of Talking Gloves for those with speech disabilities. Professor Sumit Kalra (Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Jodhpur) led the design and development of this invention while being assisted by innovators:

• Dr. Arpit Khandelwal from IIT Jodhpur.
• Dr. Nithin Prakash Nair (Senior Resident, Otorhinolaryngology or ENT).
• Dr. Amit Goyal (Professor and Head, Department of Otorhinolaryngology) and 
• Dr. Abhinav Dixit (Professor, Department of Physiology), from AIIMS Jodhpur.

The Talking Gloves smartly utilizes the principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automatically generate speech without a language barrier and ease the communication process for speech-impaired people.

Prof Sumit Kalra said, “The language-independent speech generation device will bring the people back to the mainstream in today’s global era without any language barrier. Users of the device only need to learn once and can verbally communicate in any language with their knowledge. Additionally, the device can be customized to produce a voice similar to the patients’ original voice, making it appear more natural while using the device.” 

Further, the invention is a work in progress, considering factors like durability, weight, responsiveness, and ease of use. The protocol will be commercialized through a startup incubated by IIT Jodhpur. Potential users and customers can get their hands on the Talking gloves (pun intended) by the end of 2022. And did I mention, an essential aspect of this invention is the price! The gloves will be sold for INR 5000, which is economical given the impact of the problem it is solving, and therefore, the product can establish a more extensive customer base.

UPI – National Payments Corporation of India

Hold on. My sister just requested me to pay for her books while she is at the retailer! Since I am not physically present, the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) facility comes to the rescue. Entering the security pin… and done! Another one of India’s groundbreaking innovations.

The era of digitalization and banking has touched different skies ever since the National Payments Corporation of India invented the Unified Payment Interface. Am I right, or am I right? 😉

The idea of UPI rose from RBI’s data, where in India, only six non-cash transactions happened every year per individual citizen. However, 10 million (1 crore) retailers prefer card-based payment. And almost 145 million (14.5 crores) families did not have access to any form of online banking. To top it off, there was a need to handle the black money and corruption in the form of cash.

Finally, in 2016 UPI was launched, piloted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and launched by 21 member banks from Raghuram G. Rajan, then RBI governor. 

In 2018, 3 billion transactions happened on the UPI platforms. And given the tremendous growth, it has experienced, by 2023, 60 billion UPI platform transactions are projected, accounting for over 50 percent of India’s digital payments. 

Conclusion

Indian minds have constantly tried to provide efficient solutions to world problems. Though we included only the recent ones, given the innovation happening in India, this article can turn into a series of India’s groundbreaking innovations. I believe in an attempt to foster innovation; the Indian government can invest more in University research so that the world reaps the benefit of exceptional minds. Are you aware of another recent innovation that can take the world by storm? Please share them with us in the comment section below. Let’s celebrate the 75th Indian Independence Day together. Jai Hind!

Authored By: Annie Sharma, Marketing team