THIS INNOVATOR IS AGED 30, HAS 34 PATENTS.

Ajinkya says, -Inside the classrooms,  myself along with the rest of the classmates had to get immersed in the textbooks and master the hard work of learning by heart or in the local slang, ‘Rattaa Maaro’. However, all the interesting things were outside the classroom. Ajinkya recalls how he had spent hours watching the guy at the village bicycle repair shop and consequently, his ‘practicals’ at home had ruined his brother’s bicycle.

By the time he had passed out of  the junior college and entered the engineering college, Ajinkya was more than convinced that real life with ‘hands-on Science’  was actually out of the Science lab walls. Or even outside the workshops in the engineering college premises that exhibited the alluring foundry, lathe machines etc.  They were made to remain seated in the classrooms attending lectures for most of the learning time while he kept thinking about the workshops and the computer labs that attracted him most.

Ajinkya remarks, -I was fearful of the possibility that we all were going to pass out without the sufficient amount of practical knowledge.

That fear led him to double his efforts and by the end of his final year in engineering, Ajinkya and team had their first patent on a multi CC engine with a range of 100 to 240 CC.

Recalls Ajinkya,- We kept working on ideas. Shortly thereafter, we had patented our works on Diesel and Petrol multi fuel engines, soon followed by the Diesel and CNG variant. This means, the present day diesel vehicles can also switch over to CNG. But all this while, I needed an expert who could understand me and could mentor.

Thanks to a chance meeting with an enterprising Professor  Dr. Nishikant Deshpande at VNIT, Nagpur that saw him connected to IIT Kharagpur, IISC Bengaluru and NIT Silchar. As an integrated PhD associate at NIT Silchar, he began working on a number of ideas that had enormous potential to change lives.

Ajinkya says,- By now, my life’s motto became ‘find a problem? Go digging for a solution.’ Visits to the tea estates nearby revealed that only fresh tea leaves were plucked and most of the remaining part of the plant was considered waste. That set me into thinking deeper.  During childhood in the Maharashtra village, every evening we were made to sit near the earthen lamp at home and say shloka and verses like  ‘Shubham karoti kalyanam’. I used to follow the session with my usual experiments on the flame and had found out that tea leaves, when dropped on the flame, produced tiny sparks. I lucked a few tea leaves that were considered unuseful and took them to the laboratory to find the chemical composition. The reports proved that, the tea leaves were high on Hydrocarbons. This could be a great choice for a biofuel. In 2013-14, I successfully blended it with diesel and ran vehicles on it.

There was another problem. The 13 hostels produced a lot of waste or stale food

daily.  Getting rid of all that in time was a regular challenge. Ajinkya thought of biogas plants seen in rural Maharashtra and with Dr Deshpande’s guidance, set out to establish one. He recounts, -The result was estimated 60 kg Methane gas per month from the new waste food management system at a cost of Rs 147 only. This was helpful fuel for preparing tea, twice every day for the hostels.

When asked about his views on the ills of the present education system, Ajinkya states, -The Science project models prepared by the students last just one day. Once the examiner has signed the papers, the models are shifted to dark storerooms or even worse, are treated as garbage by the schools. Which student would feel motivated to make a better project model the next year? Aren’t many of our universities no different? Aren’t many of them nipping talents in the bud? I had submitted my complete research thesis for PhD in about eight months. But the authorities cited rules that mandated me to stay there for extra four and a half years for the acceptance of my submission. Why such rules that kill your precious time just for the sake of the rules? I hate to say this, but deserving students do not need such a rule and such a PhD. I forgot my thesis work, bid adieu to Silchar and resumed the work I loved most, utilising that time to gain a total 34 patents including 4 international ones. These are in areas as diverse as automobiles, energy, bricks manufacturing, medicines, electrical engineering, water conservation and agriculture etc.  The same time, the University rules wanted me to sit idle were utilised in a meaningful way. Its okay that it cost me my PhD.

The best part after graduation was,  his parents didn’t force Ajinkya to join any company but was given freedom to pursue his innovations. In 2018 he founded the Dnyan Foundation mainly for promoting activity based learning in schools.  He and his team have shortlisted 636 fields for possible careers after the matriculation exam that is the exam for tenth standard. Based on the related studies, 4,500 research project activities have been devised for students in the standard fourth   to standard ninth to find out their areas of interest. Under his guidance the Zee Mount Litera School kids in Pusad, Maharashtra bagged a patent for designing and executing an automatic 20 day plants watering project. He is also in touch with Ladakh based innovator Sonam Wanghchuk for further development in the area of activity based learning. The celebrity innovator is a prominent advisor for the Dnyan Foundation.

The Dnyan foundation team under Ajinkya Kottawar’s guidance has worked on a number of important issues. A unique prototype design for harnessing the wind energy is fitted in Dehu near Pune. It generates 2 units of electricity per day that is enough supply for 2 electric bulbs and one electric fan to last ten hours.

The rain water harvesting project by Gyan foundation is in use at hundreds of houses and residential colonies. It has been found effective in collecting estimated 3 lac liter water from a one thousand square feet slab through direct discharge system post filtration.

During Covid pandemic, Ajinkya worked on a theme called Disinfecting using the ionising process. The system involves high voltage charging the air molecules to nullify the virus. It is registered and being processed for a patent.

Vice President of Dnyan foundation and a known Cyber security expert Vishal Lichde sums Ajinkya’s journey so far in these words, – Only those lives with challenges and problems can trigger the innovating minds. The extra protected covered lives do not yield innovations. Hence our motto is ‘See a problem? Go digging for solutions.’