If you have an electricity-operated roti-maker, why not a solar-powered litti-maker?

Technology can't perfect the already perfect healthy snack called litti, but it can definitely help people prepare it more conveniently.

Palamau boy and IIT alumnus Ajay Kumar Singh has come out with a smokeless, solar-powered litti-maker, which promises tasty littis minus the mess of lighting up cow dung cake and cooking in the thick smoke.

Now based in Gurgaon, Ajay, when contacted, said using science for social engineering always fascinated him. "I wanted to link renewable energy with everyday chores like cooking and helping people to earn a living," said Ajay, who has done his PhD from IIT Kanpur in renewable energy and worked as visiting scientist in Israel.

"I thought, why not associate solar energy with employment and income via fast food. So, I designed a solar-powered machine for litti, which is both healthy and tasty and has the potential to become a global favourite like the pizza or burger. With the help of my machine, one can make normal litti with sattu flour as well as variations using minced meat, paneer, chocolate and khoya," Singh, who readily admitted to being a foodie, said.

Ranchi-based entrepreneur Deepak Kumar Singh, who has financed the innovator's idea, said so far he had set up five units, complete with a pushcart fitted with solar plate and wires connecting it to the battery-operated litti-maker, each at a cost of Rs 87,000.

Sitting at his office on the first floor of Panchwati Plaza, he said: "We started litti production on two units at Morabadi grounds from Sunday after MP Ram Tahal Choudhary inaugurated the machine in a simple event. After Diwali, three more will start functioning at other parts of the city."

Each solar-powered litti machine is installed on a specially designed handheld pushcart. The user puts the raw litti dumpling on a hole at one end of the machine to get a properly baked cake from the incline at another end. In a minute, two littis are baked. Once the machine is fully charged, it can be used for two-three days. "There's nothing to worry if the sun doesn't shine during monsoon for a couple of days. Power consumption is very low, akin to an LED bulb of 3-4 watts," said Ajay's cousin Murari Singh, who is also involved in this project in Ranchi.

A day after inauguration, the littis, served with aloo chokha and chutney, priced at Rs 15 and Rs 10 for a plate of two, with and without ghee, were selling like hot cakes in Morabadi grounds.

"It is well baked," endorsed Sajjad Ali Rizwi, a resident of Chapra in Bihar, tasting the litti with his wife and son at Morabadi on Monday afternoon. "As tasty as the original." Another customer B.K. Pandey, an engineer of the state road construction department, agreed. "It is tasty and there is no smoke, which is produced by cow dung cakes when litti is cooked traditionally," he said.

But, Ranchi student Raman Kumar, who sampled the timeless snack with a tech twist at Morabadi, had the last word. "Who could have thought litti would go hi-tech?"

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