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At Auro Innovation Centre (AIC), innovation is not just about technology — it’s about creating simple, sustainable solutions that directly improve lives and protect our environment. This month marked two important developments in that direction: the installation of rain gauges across seven locations and the progress in fabricating the smokeless chulha — both essential steps in our mission to build resilient and sustainable communities.
The Auro Innovation Centre successfully installed seven custom-designed rain gauges across different parts of Puducherry. These installations are part of our ongoing effort to strengthen localized climate monitoring and promote a data-driven approach to water management.
A rain gauge is a fundamental instrument used in meteorology and hydrology to measure rainfall over a specific time period. The device consists of a wide funnel that collects rainwater and channels it into a graduated measuring cylinder, allowing for accurate readings of precipitation in millimeters. Some advanced models also include overflow mechanisms and digital sensors that improve precision in heavy rainfall conditions.
The local rainfall data collected through these devices will support multiple community and environmental goals:
Groundwater management: The data helps estimate recharge rates and monitor seasonal rainfall variations, which is crucial for water conservation planning.
Agricultural resilience: Farmers and school eco-clubs can use real-time rainfall data to plan sowing, irrigation, and harvesting more effectively.
Education and awareness: The installations at select schools also serve as learning tools, helping students engage directly with scientific observation and understand climate patterns.
Policy and research: Long-term data will contribute to mapping micro-climatic variations across Puducherry, aiding both local governance and academic studies.
By promoting citizen science through simple, accessible tools like rain gauges, Auro Innovation Centre is bridging the gap between research and real-world application, turning everyday observation into community-led climate action.
The AIC team also reached an important milestone this month — the receipt of the mould for the smokeless chulha, paving the way for the fabrication phase of this transformative technology.
A smokeless chulha is an improved version of the traditional biomass stove, designed to address the health and environmental challenges posed by conventional cooking practices. In many rural and semi-urban households, cooking is still done using open fires or basic stoves that emit harmful smoke, leading to indoor air pollution, respiratory diseases, and inefficient fuel use.
The smokeless chulha developed by AIC uses a dual-chamber combustion system — one chamber for burning fuel and another for mixing and re-burning the smoke — ensuring complete combustion and significantly reducing smoke emission. The design incorporates optimized airflow dynamics that enhance heat retention and cooking efficiency, while a chimney system safely channels any residual smoke outside the living space.
Two models are currently in progress:
Residential Version (Matrikunj Campus): Compact and ergonomically designed for daily household cooking, ensuring comfort and safety for users.
Commercial Version (Marakkanam Site): Larger and more robust, suitable for community kitchens, schools, and small enterprises that require efficient bulk cooking solutions.
Beyond technological innovation, the smokeless chulha holds social and ecological significance. By improving combustion efficiency, it reduces firewood consumption, alleviating pressure on forest resources. At the same time, it helps improve women’s health, particularly for those who spend long hours in enclosed cooking spaces.
Once fabrication is complete, both models will undergo testing and performance evaluation at the Matrikunj campus to assess real-world usability, thermal efficiency, and emission reduction rates. The long-term goal is to replicate and distribute these stoves in villages across Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, empowering communities with clean energy alternatives.
Both the rain gauge initiative and smokeless chulha development exemplify Auro Innovation Centre’s vision — blending scientific inquiry with grassroots innovation. These projects highlight how locally designed, low-cost technologies can generate high-impact outcomes for climate resilience, public health, and community empowerment.
As these prototypes transition into working models and field installations, AIC continues to bridge the gap between design and real-world implementation — turning ideas into actionable change, one sustainable innovation at a time.
If you have an innovative idea for bringing a positive change in Puducherry, please join hands by sharing it with us in driving Puducherry to become a model Union Territory.
As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen climate monitoring and water management, the Auroinnovation Centrehas successfully installed rain ..