Dirty, dangerous and dull. These three words have guided Pulkit Gaur's life's work ever since he set up Gridbots, one of India's first robotics companies, in 2007. “We are in places where humans cannot go,” says Gaur, on phone from the company’s head office in Ahmedabad. His robots go into foundries where metal scrap is melted in blast furnaces, with temperatures going up over 1,500 degrees Celsius. In 2011, he created submersible robots—SaUsR (smart automation underwater service robot)—for cleaning tanks at a nuclear facility, where humans are kept out because of the high radiation. This earned him a deal with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. “I help them solve very difficult, dangerous problems,” says Gaur.
He was declared Innovator of the Year by the MIT Technology Review in 2011 and has also received a TED Fellowship in the US. A mechanical engineering graduate from Jodhpur, he has an enviable portfolio, with clients like the Union home ministry, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Indian Navy, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, ISRO, and the Gujarat Police. But the pandemic has seen him speed up work on the robo-labourer concept. And they do not deal with dirty, difficult and dangerous work like furnace tapping or radioactive waste.
Esta historia es de la edición June 27, 2021 de THE WEEK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición June 27, 2021 de THE WEEK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
