SEHORE, INDIA: Indian professor Anil Gupta has spent decades scouring the Indian countryside searching for unsung inventors in rural villages.
He works in the belief that the most powerful ideas for relieving poverty and hardship in the country won't come from corporate research labs but from those struggling to survive. He has documented 25,000 innovations from the bicycle-mounted crop sprayer to the bulletproof vest made of herbs. Here's a look at some other innovations he's found:
COTTON HARVESTER: Nattubhai Vader, a farmer from the state of Gujarat, invented a special cotton harvester that fits over a tractor after watching women and children performing the slow grueling work of harvesting an especially troublesome variety of cotton.
COCONUT PLUCKER: The late farmer M.J. Joseph, also known as Appachan, had only a fourth grade education but was still able to create a device for climbing coconut trees to harvest the fruit.
WATER WALKERS: Dwarka Prasad had heard about a fraudster holy man who claimed he could walk on water. Intrigued, he decided to design special water walking shoes that would allow the wearer to walk or skate across a lake.
