Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/292

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written by Dr.Kalbag. The forum was developed by Development Informatics Lab at IIT-Powai. It was deployed in rural internet kiosks setup by VA. AAQUA project has grown up over the years and with the initiative IIT, Mumbai, a company called M/S Agrocom Pvt Ltd. was formed. Vigyan ashram is one of the co-founders of the company. 2] LED lighting solutions for rural areas A LED light consumes less power compared to other alternatives. They can be charged by various methods. Under DST funded project, Vigyan Ashram developed kits for small scale LED lamp production. Vigyan Ashram with the help of M/S Thrive Energy Pvt Ltd. developed training manuals and kits for LED lighting. The manual is available on Vigyan Ashram website. VA also trained IBT school instructors to manufacture LED lights as part of community service. Many schools take up LED manufacturing activity. 3] Fab Lab Project Fab Lab at Pabal is setup with the help of Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, (MIT), USA. It started in 2002 with setting up of a few machines to work on electronic projects given to Dr.Neil Greshenfeld by Dr.Kalbag. VA received full Fab Lab in 2005. Instead of giving readymade solutions, Dr.Kalbag wanted to give tools in the hands of the people to find solutions to their own problems. Fab Lab is a collection of set of computer operated fabrication tools, which empowers one to make almost anything! One can give shape to one's idea using tools in the Fab lab. It is a prototyping lab for innovators. Pabal fab lab is first Fab Lab in the Fab network and currently there are more than 60 labs across the world. Rural Development Through Education System 279