R.A. Mashelkar: Breakthrough designs for ultra-low-cost products

http://www.ted.com Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• R.A.
• Mashelkar
• TEDTalks
• TED
• talks
• TEDIndia
• India
• design
• low-cost
• products
• engineer
• engineering

[latestranger]

I can't believe you people can only think about Photoshop when this guy is talking about a $28 prosthetic foot, and cheap, accessible medicine. This is really, really important stuff.

[gkapec]

@subarustiguy that's OK, at least you're trying to understand an accent different from yours - which is kind of like learning another language in some countries, I guess.

[andreeaweed]

I can resist anything but temptation.

[googoo120]

@818doodooroo Canada? Austrailia? wtf amte

[EquinoxIV]

I'm just amazed by that artificial leg! Way to go!

On the Nano: Why try to get even more cars onto this planet's roads? At rush hour, those who still own a scooter will be home for dinner when the rest is still wandering, whether their lane truly is the slowest!

[roidroid]

Yes, distruptive technology is the best technology

[gokor356]

somethings fishy here...

[rajasmasala]

The celebration of the pharma takeover of traditional medicines can be pernicious, particularly if the pharma company involved then patents it and gives nothing back to the community from which it has taken the remedy from. What about the demographic who already had some similar knowledge and were practicing it? They might be robbed of whatever sensible percentage of profit royalties they might be earning on this. Disclaimer: I'm not sure this is happening here, but w/ more remote sources yes.

[rajasmasala]

@LemonLimeLaughter lol, i know lecturers and they tend to run out of time collecting their presentation material. guess that's what happened here. he probably isn't precisely lying about that guy having the tata car.