If you have ever tried to convince any educated person about adopting Swadeshi, etc or following the thoughts of BSA you must have faced issues like:

1. Small industries cannot give quality.
2. MNCs have better products
3. No one can match the technology of MNCs
4. SSI’s dont invent/innovate and thats why they cannot survive the competition.
5. Focusing on SSIs, indegenous industries would mean giving extra focus and protection to them which will make them weak to be able to face real world competition.

Now read this example and see for yourself what Bharat can achieve if we place proper focus on Cottage and indegenous industries, SSIs, villages, and agriculture:

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam called him a ‘true scientist’. Mitticool, a clay refrigerator that works without electricity had turned the world’s attention to its creator Mansukhbhai Prajapati, a craftsman based in Gujarat.

Presenting the national award to Mansukhbhai in 2009, President Pratibha Patil appreciated his work and asked him for a Mitticool.

Scientists and journalists from across the world have visited his unit to see how he makes eco-friendly products at a low cost.

A school drop-out, he has achieved a feat that many in the world envy today. The simple and unassuming Mansukhbhai is not keen on money. His ambition is to make more low-cost and eco-friendly products for the masses.

“A good majority of Indians cannot buy a fridge as it is expensive. Besides this, electricity bills and maintenance cost is also high. Mitticool is an eco-friendly product which has no maintenance costs. It also retains the original taste of vegetables, says Mansukhbhai who has sold 1500 units so far.

“I failed in the tenth standard. But I was not disappointed as I knew that I was capable of making something new,” says Mansukhbhai who holds a patent for Mitticool.

People who considered him as incapable, now look up to him. They say, “you are the pride of our community!”

He has been popularising earthen products since 1988. The only drawback for him is the lack of stores to sell them.

The products are mostly available in Gujarat and in some stores in Mumbai and Pune only. Besides, the low-cost fridge, he has developed a water filter, non-stick tava and a pressure cooker all made of clay. And he has many more innovative ideas.

Pottery has been the Prajapati family’s traditional business. Mansukhbhai’s family belonged to Morbi in Rajkot district.

However, his father gave up the profession as it was not getting them any money. It was all hard work without much gain. He being the only son was sent to school on the hope that he would do well in academics and get a good life.

However, he disappointed them when he failed tenth standard. To make matters worse, he refused to take up construction work which his father had started doing. He was however forced to do all sorts of odd jobs. He even injured an eye working in a brick factory.

“I was fed up. I wanted to start my own factory. But there was no way I could do it without resources. I joined a tile factory. I worked there for sometime. This was a turning point for me,” he says.

He found that tiles were manufactured at a fast pace with a machine which was quite expensive.

However, Mansukhbhai knew he needed to think differently and make innovative products. He took a loan of Rs 30,000 and started a small factory.

At the age of 18, he made a machine, which could make 600 tavas a day instead of 100 tavas they used to make manually. This gave him lot of confidence to explore and innovate.

He got the idea to make a machine for about Rs 4,000, which could help him manufacture more tavas than was being done manually. His initiative to restart the pottery business was not taken positively. But he went ahead despite opposition.
“Now all my family members actively take part in the work. They are very happy with what I have achieved so far. I owe a lot to my family. I am happy that my elder son is doing an engineering course in ceramic engineering.

His only regret is that because of poor marketing his products are not reaching out to many people. He, however, makes it a point to parcel products to people who are willing to deposit money in his bank account.

The business

It was a great beginning. “I also made a clay mixing machine. Till then, clay used to be missed with the legs. This machine also reduced the workload and improved the efficiency.”

By 1995, he realised the need to build a water filter. The market had steel filters which were not very efficient. After months of research and hard work, he built a water filter.

Luck favoured him too. “A person who had settled in Nairobi heard about my project and approached me for 500 units. I was excited. I sold it making Rs 100,000 on the first sale. It was a good start. The product I developed was sold in Nairobi even before it sold in India,” he says. The water filters priced at Rs 350 to 400 are quite popular.

Just imagine if a person like this grows and sells his products all over the world, he can alone be a challenge for hi-tech industries like Refrigeration, Watercoolers, food storage and prevention from rottening. You can get more information about the product at http://www.mitticool.in/

But here we see that instead of getting an incentive from the government he is just getting useless medals, where the government is happily inviting more companies to sell refrigerators here. This guy has been working from 1988 which means 22 years and yet he finds problems in achieving his goals of selling his good products everywhere in India. But educated politicians are happily giving licenses to foreign companies to sell products here and take away money.

Also this is an example which shows that though some countries may have technology with them we can be still ahead of them by utilizing our knowledge about the nature. A clay refrigerator could save lacs and crores of rupees if every person used it. So we should realise that technology being a reason to invite MNCs in India is also a lame reason. If we focus on our own resources we can have better innovation, better inventions and better products.

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