Arakkonam weaver who developed warping machine among innovation award recipients

CHENNAI: P A Sekar was a Class VII drop out, but his passion to learn new techniques has helped improve the lives of thousands of families in the country. The weaver from Arakkonam near Chennai has developed a warping machine for the betterment of weaving community. He infused new techniques and process to maximize the productivity and minimize the workload.
“Usually warping, a process done before weaving, requires at least three people and a weaving family can earn not more than Rs 300 a day. But my machine requires only one person, and a weaver can earn Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 a day,” he said.
Sekar was one of the three innovators who were awarded CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards at the fourth edition of award ceremony here on Wednesday.
M Manivannan of IIT-Madras, who developed a mannequin for cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, and V Ramachandran, an IIT alumnus who developed a sanitary napkin destroyer machine, were the other awardees.
President of Madras Management Association Shivaraman said that the winners would be offered support to take their innovation to the next level.
The winners were chosen from more than 100 applications from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry who were scrutinized by a team of experts from various fields. The jury members selected the winners from the nominee videos presented based on the process guidelines set forth by Ernst and Young.
CavinKare and MMA will mentor the winners in all their business requirements as required by these entrepreneurs.
“Time and again, it’s a wonderful feeling to witness many small and tiny entrepreneurs with exceptional talent conceptualizing innovative ideas for the benefit of the society,” said chairman and managing director of CavinKare Pvt Ltd CK Ranganathan.
MM Murugappan, vice-chairman, Murugappa Group, who was the chief guest at the event, requested the organisers to take the award beyond Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and recognize innovators across the country.
Ravi Gururaj, chairman and founder, Frictionless Ventures Pvt Ltd, was also present at the event.