Tenacious journey: Child labourer to startup entrepreneur, this Odisha youth's story is an inspiration for all

The young boy of Kotamal village seized the opportunity to learn science, a subject that he was always fascinated with.
Laxman working on his ‘Intelligent Bike’
Laxman working on his ‘Intelligent Bike’

BHAWANIPATNA: Over a decade back, 21-year-old Laxman Dundi was rescued by an NGO Lokdrusti while working along with his parents at a brick kiln in Andhra Pradesh and rehabilitated at a government-run seasonal hostel in Nuapada district. 

The young boy of Kotamal village seized the opportunity to learn science, a subject that he was always fascinated with. He went ahead to study in Ranimunda High School and scored well to get admission to Khariar Government College where he pursued science. Today, Laxman has been quietly making his mark by innovating products that can help the government and people at large.

The 21-year-old rural innovator has recently created an oxygen concentrator that he claims is cheaper but can be as good as the ones available in the market. A BSC final year student in Lokdrusti College of Advanced Technology here, Laxman’s concentrator uses a compressor that moves air into sieve bed filters to remove nitrogen gas and then distributes purified oxygen through hoses to a person.

The nitrogen is released back to the air. The device, he said, is fitted with a regulator to control flow of oxygen. “It requires less power and costs one third of the devices now available in the market”, said Laxman who spends most of his time in his lab to come up with various innovations that could help society at large.

Last year, he had developed a device to sanitise currency notes. The device, he said, will be helpful for use at railways ticket booking counters, petrol stations, bus stands and shopping malls. And prior to that, he designed a safety gadget which is like a belt connected to a wireless remote control to protect women from sexual assault. The device delivers electric shock when a man tries to  touch a woman inappropriately.

With a NIDHI-EIR fellowship in hand, he is currently working on an ‘intelligent bike’ that can run on water power. “I received the NIDHI Entrepreneur-in-Residence fellowship under KIIT- Technology Business Incubator programme. I am developing a motorcycle that can run on the kinetic energy of a water source. It uses a dynamo and a step down transformer which converts the DC current to AC helping the bike run”, said Laxman.

He has also set up ‘Dundi Electronics and Electricals Pvt Ltd’ at Khariar which has been recognised as a startup under the Odisha Startup Policy.   
 

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