Uddhab Bharali, born on 7 April 1962) is an Indian

inventor from the Lakhimpur district of Assam Bharali is

credited with about 118 innovations, starting from the
late 1980s.
He studied in the Government Higher Secondary
School of North Lakhimpur. He then went on to
study Mechanical Engineering in Jorhat Engineering
College Institute of Engineers in Chennai. However, he
was only able to complete AMIE sec 1, due to the
prevalent financial burden on his family.
In 1988, when his family was in debt, he decided to start
a Polythene cover making business catering to Tea
Estates in Assam. Instead of spending about 1 lakh on
buying a machine, he designed his own machine for
about 67,000. Bharali was then determined to continue
building machines, rather than buying them.
Bharali's family was under heavy-debts and Uddhab
was always under pressure from Banks for repayment.
His brother died in 1995, after which he was the sole
earning member in his family, and he started earning
money by his innovations, focused to solve issues
around Lakhimpur district with Agriculture and small-
scale industries being his targets Focusing on
agricultural output, Bharali went on to build a variety of
peeler machines to peel Betel
Nut, Cassava, Garlic, Jatropha and Safed Musli, and
also re-designed Assamese paddy grinder, that could be
operated by only turning a wheel. He also invented
Bamboo Processing Machine to cut-polish-surface finish
long Bamboos, cutters for and green tea leaves, etc.
The best part of all these are being they were
indigenous, low-cost and could be operated by single-
person. His last facet is expected to be life-saver in
coming years for disabled people around Lakhimpur.
With his machines being used around locality, Bharali
was approached by needy, if he could help them.
Bharali started offering support both in form of monthly-
monetary support and Callipers and others to better their
lot. Machines to feed the disabled, Slippers for Knees,
the list of his inventions kept growing. Bharali works on
assignments he receives from NIF and other
establishments.
Recognition
Since NIF support, Bharali was offered fiscal support
under the Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP)
Scheme at the Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research, Government of India. Bharali started getting
covered in Assamese Press for his variety of
machines. Discovery Channel and other global media.
On 5 July 2012, Bharali was entered into an online
voting competition for the NASA Exceptional Technology
Achievement Medal for his design of a bench-
top pomegranate de-seeder
He is also the recipient of ‘Rashtriya Ekta Samman, in
2013. He was one of the speakers in TEDx at ISM
Dhanbad held in October 2014. In 2019, Government of
India conferred on him Padmashree, the 4th highest
civilian award of the country.
Awards
Uddhab Bharali was awarded honorary Doctorate from
Assam Agricultural University (AAU) in 2014 and
Honorary PhD from Assam Kaziranga University. Few
others are-
1. Meritorious Invention Award 2010, NRDC
2. Certificate of Merit, NRDC,2010 Govt. Of India
3. Prayukty Ratna Title -2010, Asom Sahitya Seva.
4. Shilpa Ratna Title –2012 by Asom Satra Mahasava
5. Rashtriya Ekta Samman-2013.
6. NICT Perfect -10 Award, ABP Media Group and
The Telegraph
7. Chief Minister Best Awardee, 2013, Govt. of Assam.
8. ERDF excellence award-2014
9. Pratidin Time Media achiever award-2015
10. Kamala Kanta Saikia National award-2016
11. Asom Gourav award-2016
12. Romoni Gabhoru award -2016- By ATASU –
Assam
13. Swayamsiddh- Shri Rashtriya Swayamsiddh
Samman-2017 by JSPL
14. Winner Of Engineering Design Contest
Organized By NASA Tech Briefs Media Called
"Create The Future Design Contest- 2012" for
Bench-top Pomegranate De-Seeder. It was placed
2nd in the Top Ten Most Popular Invention.
15. Winner NASA tech brief "Create the Future
Design contest—2013", for invention of -Detention
Chair for mentally challenged Person.
16. Qualified for NASA tech brief "Create the
Future Design contest—2014" for invention of
feeding device for person without hand.
17. Qualifier –World Tech Award—2012 –For
invention of Mini Tea plant.
18. Pioneer Award-2017.
19. Excellence Award2018-Mahatma Gandhi
University, Meghalaya.
20. Padma Shri Award - 2019