Company Name : Source : Surat

SURAT: Mahatma Gandhi turned his humble charkha into a weapon to take on the might of the British empire and give India freedom. And now, it is Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment set to make a contribution in the fight against global warming as well. Even as the world is set to debate carbon emission cuts at Copenhagen, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialisation (MGIRI) at Wardha has developed a unique device — a solar charkha. MGIRI also hopes to increase the popularity of charkha with it. “This latest version of the charkha has been developed to keep khadi eco-friendly. It is non-polluting and does not use any energy that creates pollution,” says Pavan Thakur of MGIRI, who has developed the solar charkha. “It moves a little slowly during the monsoon months as you don’t get as much sunlight, but there is no problem for the rest of the year.” This charkha uses two solar cell panels of 37 watts each which can keep it running throughout the day. The 12-watt battery, attached to the solar panel, stores power that can run it for three hours in the absence of sun. While the traditional charkha can produce about 2,000 running metres of khadi thread every hour, the solar charkha can produce about 3,500 running metres in the same time. The device has been put up on display at Khadi Utsav 2009, jointly organized by Gujarat Khadi Gramudhyog and Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), in Surat. “We are testing the solar charkha by giving it to a few khadi producers. The initial results have been encouraging,” says Sagar SP, a consultant with MGIRI. The innovation has also created an ideological debate among some Gandhians. “The definition of khadi states that it has to be hand-woven, without using electricity. So, it is debatable whether this thread can be considered khadi,” says Devendra Desai, chairman of KVIC (western region). He, however, adds in the same breath, “We believe Mahatma Gandhi would have appreciated innovations in the charkha. For instance, a south Indian farmer had developed the Ambar charkha, a much larger version that produced more khadi and was appreciated by Gandhi. This is a similar experiment.”