Mangalore: Inventor and managing director of Mangalore Robautonics Pvt Ltd, Prajwal V Kumar, did the city proud by becoming the first citizen to be presented with the National Award for Commercialisable Patents 2013-14 for designing and developing a remote-controlled system for a power tiller.

Prajwal’s prototype was one among eight innovations and the second from Karnataka with a ‘patent grant’ to be shortlisted for the award instituted by the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council and the Department of Science and Technology.

A beaming Prajwal told reporters that International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis director general Pavel Kabat and honorary distinguished professor from ISRO Y S Rajan had presented the award to him in New Delhi recently. The remote-controlled system uses radio frequency for transmission of signals from the hand-held unit to the controller unit and it can be operated from a distance of 100 metres.

Mangalore, National Award, Controlled Power Tiller, Prajwal V Kumar

The prototype received a patent grant in 2010. Prajwal, who obtained his degree in Electronics and Communications from NMAMIT, said the remote-controlled power tiller can be operated even by women.  Tilling that may normally take up to three hours can be completed in less than two, he said.

The innovation has been tested for over 200 hours in different soil conditions at Chidambaram and Ranjavur in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Mandya.  Already, 50 systems have been sold in Mandya, Shimoga, Udupi and Sambalpur districts, he said. In addition to the national award, this innovation has received three other awards such as Best Electronics Project – 2010 (under the agricultural category) by the Indian Semiconductor Association, Young Innovator Award – 2010 by the Cyber Media Technology Review and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and DST-Lockheed Martin Gold Medal Award in March 2012.

Prajwal said with the backing of his father Vijay Kumar Bangera and a loan of Rs 60 lakh, he kept improvising the prototype.

Using grants from various government funding agencies such as NABARD and the Department of Science and Industrial Research, STEP-NITK, he is now in the process of developing and testing innovations like tree-climbing and harvesting robots for arecanut and palm trees, weeding machines, paddy transplanters among others.

No Subsidy for the tiller

Power tillers are usually subsidised by the government but Prajwal’s efforts to get subsidy for his system has yielded no results so far.  He had demonstrated his machine before State Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.  Yet, his application that was submitted to a training institute at Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh, was rejected on the grounds that no norms have been framed for remote-controlled systems.