The e-charkha is an ingenious update to India’s ubiquitous charkha [spinning wheel] that transforms the simple machine into a potentially significant source of energy for millions of struggling families in India. Designed by RS Hiremath, the e-charkha “not only produces yarn but also generates electricity using a maintenance free lead acid battery fixed at the bottom, which functions as an inverter.”

As we weave our way through our most serious ‘global energy crisis’ to date, it’s easy to forget that everything is energy. We learn it from Einstein in grade school, E = mc2; another way of saying that energy is equal to everything and everything is equal to energy. Seeing a source of energy where no one else did, Hiremath created the e-charkha as an ingenious adaption of a ubiquitous tool.