Name : KP Gopalakrishnan
District & State : Namakkal, Tamil Nadu
Category : Engineering
Award : Consolation
Award Function : 9th National Grassroots Innovation Awards
Award Year : 2017
Innovator Profile
Gopalakrishnan (43) is a serial innovator from Namakkal. He has developed a setup, which aids the elderly and temporarily or permanently bed ridden patients to take bath easily without having the need to go to the bathroom.
Youngest among seven siblings, Gopala had always been fascinated with electronics. His father was a railway employee and his mother a housewife. As a child, Gopala was always looking at electronic items with keenness, trying to understand their construction and mechanism of working. He was a bright student and had started innovating while in school itself. His first innovation was geometry box based torchlight.
He went on to complete his ITI and thereafter worked at a water pumping setup. During this time, he worked on a number of projects related to motors like transforming an ordinary motor to work as a jet motor and a GSM mobile based device for switching on/off a motor. To work on his ideas, Gopala used to save money from his meager Rs 350 per month salary. Some of his other projects include a mixer operated millet husk remover, an inbuilt amplifier in receiver, bike headlight turned an emergency light, which can last for over eight hours, fumigation dhoop, electric buttermilk churner and coconut grater. Currently, he is working on a project to use solar energy efficiently as a source of electricity. He had displayed his innovations in the National Level i3 Expo in Coimbatore a couple of years back. He also has two acre of farmland wherein he cultivates sugarcane and tuber crops.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/shower-for-elderly-and-physically-challenged/955