After completing his bachelor’s in 2000, Sivakumar Modha was set to pursue his MCA at a private college in Hyderabad. The direction of his life changed when he visited a village named Moda near his hometown Hindupur, where many people are employed in the weaving industry. Here the weavers’ committee designs the silk sarees using punch card-based Jacquard machines, where the weaver manually creates and controls every single card. Not only is this punch card process time-consuming, but the efforts of the weavers are quite short-lived, as the cards last only up to 3 years. Every design easily takes a minimum of 15 days to complete on a punch card. Looking at this, Sivakumar Modha decided to help the weavers’ committee, which had suffered losses due to this manual system. “If I cannot catalyze a change in people’s lives, what is the use of higher education and modern technology? I will alter this industry fully,” Sivakumar remarked.
After 14 years of struggle, research, and hard work, Sivakumar developed an electronic Jacquard machine. This machine was prototyped to replace the traditional punch card machines with an image-based system integrated into the loom through a pen drive. This technology not only downsizes the time and effort but can also design sarees using distinct patterns or portraits.
After the innovation was successful, Sivakumar received an offer of 20 crores rupees from a Kolkata-based firm to sell his innovation and machine to them. Sivakumar refused the offer as he believed this innovation was not for his profit but for the betterment of handloom weavers. GIAN recognized and awarded him the Honey Bee Network Creativity & Inclusive Innovation Awards (HBNCRIIA) 2020