Manipur inventor wins place in record book

IMPHAL, March 28: The pedal operated rice mill, the brainchild of T Surendranath Singh, senior scientific officer in the Manipur Science and Technology Council, MASTEC, apart from winning a national invention award in 1999, has found a place in the Limca Book of Records. The innovative pedal operated rice mill is included in the agriculture section of the 2001 edition of the Limca Book Of Records. Speaking to IFP today at his office chambers, he said the pedal operated rice mill has been developed under the guidance and sponsorship of the science and society division of the Union ministry of science and technology. He said the development of the contraption cost Rs 3.99 lakh and it took two years to complete. He said the machine, which is ergonomically designed to make exercising an enjoyable experience while milling rice had been built mainly using cycle parts. He said it had a capacity to produce 10 kg of rice per hour by a man. He said the machine could cost around Rs 6000 when put on the market, though he stated that it was up to the science and society division of the Union ministry of science and technology to decide when to market the machine and what price to fix. Some of its advantages are small size and portability, easy reparability, low maintenance cost, no operational cost, except for muscle power, and its pollution free nature, as it needs neither fuel nor electricity. T Surendranath is being felicitated by MASTEC tomorrow in a function to be held at the conference hall of hotel Mass, Assembly Road, Imphal. Kashim Ruivah, minister, science and technology, and Ram Muivah, commissioner, science and technology will attend the function as chief guest and president.