India trip 2004
www.infrasys.biz
FEBRUARY 17, 2004 - CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU
Meet L.KANNAN
In a land of theories and theoreticians it is refreshing to meet a
doer, a builder of things- an engineer. L.Kannan is one.
I first heard of him in Rajni Bakshi's book "Bapu Kuti" � a book I
highly recommend. There was also an article about him and micro
spinning in the Hindu also by Rajni. Kannan has designed a micro-
spinner (MS).
To understand the significance of the MS, one needs to understand how the textile industry is presently structured. Kannan educated me.
At present cotton (user of the largest amount of pesticides of all
plants grown) is produced by individual farmers who sell the crop to
buyers. These buyers gin the cotton (remove seeds) and then sell
cotton to the mills which sliver and then spin cotton into yarn. Yarn
is then sold to weavers- power loom or handloom -who produce the
fabrics.
Kannan studied the history, economics and the patterns of this
important industry before he designed the MS. The MS does two very
important things different from the existing system.
In one machine/process the MS takes raw cotton and gins it, slivers
it and spins it into yarn. Keeping all such operations in one place
close to the source of the grower allows value addition to stay with
or nearer the grower. Transportation costs are also reduced.
The second aspect is scale. This MS allows even a small grower (1-2
acres) to benefit from this process, something the present scale and
structure of the industry does not allow.
One such unit is operating near Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, where
Kannan is tweaking and fine-tuning the unit. Kannan is very
optimistic.
What is my interest in this? This is part of rural development. It
will revolutionize the nature of the textile industry giving the
grower (the rural farmer) a substantial stake in the value addition.
infraSys would be interested in participating in the propagation of
this idea.
By the way this is not the only innovation that Kannan and his
associates are involved in. His company is called VORTEX Engineering. [email protected]
A SURPRISE BONUS!!!
I woke up early at about 4:00 am. Bothered and looking for a good
excuse to produce as to why I had not contacted him. I knew he had
been reading my reports and had even said some encouraging words. But I had not called him or even emailed. I decided to let the day take
its course.
I finished my meeting with Kannan at about 11:00 am. My next
appointment was at 1:30 pm and after that I was to meet with
Balakrishnan and Renuka (Center for Women's Research & Development � see earlier report February 01, 2004). Since I had two hours available I called them and rescheduled my visit to 11:30 am.
I reached their offices and was being escorted to a room when I was
sure I was looking at a ghost. The surprise melted quickly. I was
greeted by a warm smile. We embraced. There he was in the flesh, the
last person I expected to see�.Ilango Ramasamy. [email protected] [email protected]
This was an uncanny coincidence. I had rescheduled my meeting with
Bala and Renuka and he had decided to make an unannounced visit to
Bala and R at the same time. WOW!
I spent 4 hours with Ilango. We talked about many things but one
thing came loud and clear from him. "ACTION� IT IS TIME FOR ACTION IN INDIA" What a way to end my trip!!!
If the philosophy, mission and purpose of the company appeals to you please get involved.. .
infraSys is seeking both human and financial capital.
Thank you.
Murthy Sudhakar
I flew out of Chennai that night. I had stayed with my dear friend Krishnamurthy in Chennai. I had the good fortune of seeing him on 3 different occasions on this trip. I had a full day in Singapore which I spent with Ramya and Ananth Nageswaran.
Ramya and Ananth are very involved in India. They support many organizations and causes doing good work in India and they are also involved in a venture capital fund set up to fund and support innovations relevant to India. www.aavishkaar.org
I arrived back in Los Angeles on FEBRUARY 18, 2004 TOP