The workshop was held to promote Grassroots Innovation Design and Sustainability (GRIDS) in Maharashtra by developing a design consortium and network building.

Another invention that attracted attention was a brushless DC motor attached to a bicycle.

Its inventor Chandrakant Pathak of the Modern Technical Centre says that pedallng for a minute can generate five watts. “This is enough to ignite a CFL for 20-25 minutes. Being lead-free, the device is eco-friendly. It needs no maintenance for at least 20 years,” he says.

Pathak started working on the device three months ago. “I will market it in a couple of months, mainly in rural areas where there is power shortage,” he adds.

However, it was the jacket that perhaps generated the maximum curiosity. Sangli-based Makarand Kale has developed it and he uses pulses to stop bullets. “I call it the ayurvedic bulletproof jacket. I made it to prove the strength of ayurveda,” says Kale, a sportsman who has his own sports academy in Sangli.

He created the jacket in 2003, and says the Indian Army has tested it for carbine bullets and AK-47. “We are trying to improve it so that the jacket can obstruct a bullet fired from 1.5 km,” he says.

Kale is planning to file a patent for the jacket that weighs 2.1 kg and costs Rs 22,000 apiece . “The jackets used by our soldiers on the border weigh 9 to 11 kg and costs about Rs 40,000,” he says.

Innovators like Pathak and Kale deliberated on how to turn their innovations into commercially viable products at the workshop, which was organised by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), the Gujarat Innovations Augmentation Network (GIAN) and the Honey Bee Network.

This is the first such workshop in Maharashtra. “We chose Pune as it is not just an educational hub, but also a design capital that has a large number of auto and consumer durables design companies,” says Anil Gupta, who heads the NIF.