Background
Bharali was born to a business man in Lakhimpur district of Assam, India.
Bharali was born to a business man in Lakhimpur district of Assam, India.
He studied in government higher secondary school, North Lakhimpur. He studied engineering in Jorhat Engineering College, Institute of Engineers Madras Chapter in Chennai.
Bharali has about 118 innovations to his cr, starting from the late 1980s
He was always made to stand out of the class for asking difficult questions to the teacher in Mathematics. He was double promoted twice, from class I to III, and again class VI to VIII. He states that in class VIII, he was able to solve some of the toughest sums of class XI and XII. However, he was able to complete Associate Member of The Institution of Engineers India sec 1 only, due to various problems. In 1988, his family was in debt.
So he decided to start a polyethene making business.
However, instead of spending about a lakh (hundred thousand) rupees on buying a machine, he designed his own for about 67,000 rupees. This was the start, after that the list of his innovations increased.
His talent and innovations had been brought to the public knowledge for the very first time in 1995, when famous story-writer, novelist, river engineer and eco-technocrat Arnab January Deka wrote an extensive article about him and his innovations with illustrative photographs in the oldest and most prestigious Assamese daily newspaper in Assam, India, Dainik Assam in its Sunday issue dated 7 May 1995. Within a few months, Arnab January Deka wrote the first ever English article on Uddhab Bharali in another English daily The Assam Express.
Both these articles by the famous author-technocrat made Bharali a household name in Assam, and paved the way for wider appreciation and recognition of his talent in the next two decades, even drawing the attention of Discovery Channel and other global media.
He is a recipient of ‘President's Grassroots Innovation Award’, 2009. In 2007, he got ‘Shristi Samman Award’. He is also the recipient of ‘Rashtriya Ekta Samman, in 2013.
He was one of the speakers in TEDxISMDhanbad held in October 2014.
On July 5, 2012, Bharali was entered into an online voting competition for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for his design of a benchtop pomegranate de-seeder. He is the winner of engineering design contest organized by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Technical ‘Create the Future Design Contest’ for the year 2012 and 2013.
