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Gandhian Engineering

General Purpose: Informing the audience

Specific purpose: What can Gandhian Engineering do to a common man?

In an era of ever increasing prices, ever depreciating value for money, the one who suffers the most& constituting more than 80% of worlds population is none other than the common man .Is there alight at the end of the tunnel for the sufferings of common man? Yes there is !!

Good Afternoon Toastmasters! General Evaluator, fellow Toastmasters and Dear guests.. There isindeed a solution to plight of common man. It could be none other than what is called GandhianEngineering. Gandhi & Engineering both seem to be unrelated at first sight.

What did Gandhi do? He took on the might of British Empire for the sake of 350 million Indians with

his innovative ideas of Ahimsa and Swadeshi. Gandhi had even once said I would prize everyinvention of science made for the benefit of all Benefit of all encompassing affordability wasGandhian solution

Coming to the next word Engineering. What is a challenge in engineering all about? Getting morefrom less. Guess now I could relate both Gandhi and Engineering together. Gandhian Engineering isnothing but getting more from less for more people .

Let me explain what Gandhian Engineering is all about. Let me give you 3 examples

There are 4 billion people on this planet whose income levels are less than 100 a day. AVaccine to prevent Hepatitis B, deadly liver disease which kills more than 1 million per yearcosts more than Rs.900 .An Indian company has invented a cheaper Hepatitis B vaccine at arate of Rs25 but at that same time met the stringent UNICEFs quality requirement as aresult more than 50% of global immunization program uses it

The second example

Once Dhirubhai Ambani had said I want the phone call to cost the same a s post card for thebenefit of common man in the country everyone initially laughed. But he made his visioncome true. He made the dream of affordable phone call true to the common man. Many

companies followed the same suite and as a result we have lowest call rates in the world

The third example

We have all seen a family of four or five travelling on a two wheeler, but we didnt see anythingmore beyond that but when Ratan Tata saw it, he saw something no one else saw. He said How canI help these people travel under all weather conditions with comfort, dignity and safety thats howthe one lakh rupee car was born. Nano is the most inexpensive car in the world with an exceptionalfuel efficiency and emission standards and with an amazing comfort. This means more from less

but its affordable price also means for more and more people.

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Similarly a lot other examples like Jaipur foot, an artificial foot at a cost of Rs. 1500 and at the sametime capable of withstanding 10 times more stress than a $12,000 foot, Aravind Eye hospitalscataract surgery at a cost of Rs.1500 exceeding global quality standards and treating more than300000 people annually could be said

If Gandhi was the gift from India to the world in 20 th Century, Gandhian Engineering is the gift for

21 st century. It emphasises not only on Technological innovation but also on the sociologicaltransformation.