UP Farmer’s Son Changing The World One Award-Winning Innovation At A Time

Anand Pandey is an engineer from Sultanpur, but instead of being another cog in the machine, the 31-year-old is an innovator whose creations have won him many awards and quite a bit of money. Being the son of a farmer, Anand knew what struggle meant from a very early age and would often have to go to bed hungry. But he did not let this get in the way of his education and having a natural interest in academics, Anand managed to top his class in the government school he attended.

Anand wished to study in IIT but failed to get admission, so he went to Amethi in Uttar Pradesh to pursue electronic and communication engineering at the Rajarshi Rananjay Sinh Institute Of Management and Technology. Since he wanted to be an innovator, Anand started to attend training sessions to hone his skills, soon building a manual robot as well as a model of a driverless metro train. He not only got first place in his engineering final but also the Innovation Award for the driverless metro train which was covered extensively on Door Darshan.

Anand is deeply inspired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He shares that although he came from a poor family and his parents wanted him to have a stable job, his interest was only in inventions and innovating and he was determined to make it big through this.

He gets teary-eyed as he recalls, “I had to pay Rs 30,000 in college fees, and my mother borrowed the money to be able to pay the fees. She walked 8 kilometers to pay my fees. My parents have supported me a lot.”

Anand now trains students in creating innovations like him. He started a training center in Lucknow with 8 students and now trains around 85 from all over India. The training program spans over three months, and Anand makes upto Rs 2.5 lakh every training season. He has also created several inventions like the bag he has created that can be turned into a chair, or using speed breakers to generate electricity as well, and also a machine that helps regulate blood circulation. He shares that now he gets invited as a speaker and to give guest lectures at IITs around India, smiling at the irony of it.

He says, “I could not get admission in IIT but now I give guest lectures there thanks to my innovations.”

When the coronavirus pandemic happened in early 2020, Anand’s training center shut down like the rest of India. So the innovator began to come up with ideas on how to make good in the situation and decided to make a low-cost ladoo making machine to make them in a hygienic and organized manner. Such machines were available already but were extremely expensive and cost more than Rs. 8 lakh. Anand managed to develop a similar machine at Rs 3 lakh, making a quintal of ladoos in an hour. The government gave Anand Rs. 10 lakh under a scheme to develop the machine for them, and now he has orders for 20 such machines from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur, Haryana, and other states. Anand is improving the machine so that it can make roti and puri as well to increase its output.

Anand has won several awards for his many innovations, including another Innovation Award for inventing green energy generation from speed breakers, the Guest of Honour award from BrainFeed magazine in the field of innovation, and the Innovator Promotion award from the Uttar Pradesh government’s department of science and technology.

Anand shares some pearls of wisdom with future engineers advising them to innovate and create more. He says, “The country that fails to innovate either gets destroyed or becomes a slave to others. I have failed many times in my innovations but I did not give up or lose hope. It is important to be stubborn and stick to what you’re doing and try to create something unique. I will soon set up a huge lab where engineers and innovators can create whatever their imagination allows.

This story is submitted by Bilal Khan and edited by Alfea Shaikh. If you like this story, share it and spread positivity. Tell us your views by writing in the comment box below. We read each one of them.