How I started a sanitary napkin revolution!
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0:01 - 0:05So I tried to do a small good thing for my wife.
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0:05 - 0:08It makes me to stand here,
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0:08 - 0:10the fame, the money I got out of it.
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0:10 - 0:14So what I did, I'd gone back to my early marriage days.
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0:14 - 0:16What you did in the early marriage days,
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0:16 - 0:19you tried to impress your wife. I did the same.
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0:19 - 0:22On that occasion, I found my wife
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0:22 - 0:24carrying something like this.
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0:24 - 0:26I saw. "What is that?" I asked.
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0:26 - 0:29My wife replied, "None of your business."
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0:29 - 0:31Then, being her husband, I ran behind her
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0:31 - 0:33and saw she had a nasty rag cloth.
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0:33 - 0:36I don't even use that cloth to clean my two-wheeler.
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0:36 - 0:39Then I understood this -- adapting that unhygienic method
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0:39 - 0:41to manage her period days.
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0:41 - 0:43Then I immediately asked her, why are you [using] that unhygienic method?
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0:43 - 0:46She replied, I also know about [sanitary pads],
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0:46 - 0:49but myself and my sisters, if they start using that,
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0:49 - 0:52we have to cut our family milk budget.
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0:52 - 0:53Then I was shocked. What is the connection between
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0:53 - 0:55using a sanitary pad and a milk budget?
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0:55 - 0:57And it's called affordability.
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0:57 - 1:02I tried to impress my new wife by offering her a packet of sanitary pads.
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1:02 - 1:05I went to a local shop, I tried to buy her a sanitary pad packet.
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1:05 - 1:06That fellow looks left and right,
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1:06 - 1:09and spreads a newspaper, rolls it into the newspaper,
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1:09 - 1:12gives it to me like a banned item, something like that.
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1:12 - 1:16I don't know why. I did not ask for a condom.
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1:16 - 1:20Then I took that pad. I want to see that. What is inside it?
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1:20 - 1:24The very first time, at the age of 29,
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1:24 - 1:26that day I am touching the sanitary pad, first ever.
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1:26 - 1:31I must know: How many of the guys here have touched a sanitary pad?
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1:31 - 1:36They are not going to touch that, because it's not your matter.
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1:36 - 1:39Then I thought to myself, white substance, made of cotton --
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1:39 - 1:43oh my God, that guy is just using a penny value of raw material --
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1:43 - 1:45inside they are selling for pounds, dollars.
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1:45 - 1:50Why not make a local sanitary pad for my new wife?
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1:50 - 1:53That's how all this started, but after making a sanitary pad,
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1:53 - 1:54where can I check it?
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1:54 - 1:58It's not like I can just check it in the lab.
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1:58 - 2:01I need a woman volunteer. Where can I get one in India?
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2:01 - 2:04Even in Bangalore you won't get [one], in India.
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2:04 - 2:10So only problem: the only available victim is my wife.
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2:10 - 2:14Then I made a sanitary pad and handed it to Shanti -- my wife's name is Shanti.
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2:14 - 2:16"Close your eyes. Whatever I give,
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2:16 - 2:17it will be not a diamond pendant
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2:17 - 2:19not a diamond ring, even a chocolate,
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2:19 - 2:22I will give you a surprise with a lot of tinsel paper rolled up with it.
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2:22 - 2:24Close your eyes."
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2:24 - 2:27Because I tried to make it intimate.
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2:27 - 2:30Because it's an arranged marriage, not a love marriage.
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2:30 - 2:33(Laughter)
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2:33 - 2:37So one day she said, openly, I'm not going to support this research.
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2:37 - 2:40Then other victims, they got into my sisters.
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2:40 - 2:43But even sisters, wives, they're not ready to support in the research.
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2:43 - 2:46That's why I am always jealous with the saints in India.
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2:46 - 2:50They are having a lot of women volunteers around them.
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2:50 - 2:51Why I am not getting [any]?
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2:51 - 2:59You know, without them even calling, they'll get a lot of women volunteers.
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2:59 - 3:03Then I used, tried to use the medical college girls.
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3:03 - 3:05They also refused. Finally, I decide,
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3:05 - 3:08use sanitary pad myself.
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3:08 - 3:10Now I am having a title like
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3:10 - 3:14the first man to set foot on the moon.
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3:14 - 3:17Armstrong. Then Tenzing [and] Hillary, in Everest,
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3:17 - 3:19like that Muruganantham is the first man
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3:19 - 3:23wore a sanitary pad across the globe.
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3:23 - 3:27I wore a sanitary pad. I filled animal blood in a football bottle,
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3:27 - 3:29I tied it up here, there is a tube going into my panties,
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3:29 - 3:32while I'm walking, while I'm cycling, I made a press,
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3:32 - 3:34doses of blood will go there.
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3:34 - 3:38That makes me bow down to any woman in front of me
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3:38 - 3:41to give full respect. That five days I'll never forget --
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3:41 - 3:44the messy days, the lousy days, that wetness.
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3:44 - 3:49My God, it's unbelievable.
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3:49 - 3:54But here the problem is, one company is making napkin
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3:54 - 3:57out of cotton. It is working well.
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3:57 - 4:00But I am also trying to make sanitary pad with the good cotton. It's not working.
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4:00 - 4:03That makes me to want to refuse to continue this research and research and research.
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4:03 - 4:05You need first funds.
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4:05 - 4:08Not only financial crises, but because of the sanitary pad research,
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4:08 - 4:12I come through all sorts of problems, including
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4:12 - 4:14a divorce notice from my wife.
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4:14 - 4:17Why is this? I used medical college girls.
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4:17 - 4:20She suspects I am using as a trump card
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4:20 - 4:23to run behind medical college girls.
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4:23 - 4:26Finally, I came to know it is a special cellulose
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4:26 - 4:28derived from a pinewood, but even after that,
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4:28 - 4:30you need a multimillion-dollar plant like this
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4:30 - 4:34to process that material. Again, a stop-up.
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4:34 - 4:38Then I spend another four years to create my own
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4:38 - 4:40machine tools, a simple machine tool like this.
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4:40 - 4:43In this machine, any rural woman can apply the same
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4:43 - 4:46raw materials that they are processing in the multinational plant,
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4:46 - 4:50anyone can make a world-class napkin at your dining hall.
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4:50 - 4:53That is my invention.
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4:53 - 4:56So after that, what I did,
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4:56 - 4:59usually if anyone got a patent or an invention,
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4:59 - 5:03immediately you want to make, convert into this.
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5:03 - 5:06I never did this. I dropped it just like this,
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5:06 - 5:10because you do this, if anyone runs after money,
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5:10 - 5:13their life will not [have] any beauty. It is boredom.
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5:13 - 5:15A lot of people making a lot of money, billion,
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5:15 - 5:17billions of dollars accumulating.
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5:17 - 5:20Why are they coming for, finally, for philanthropy?
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5:20 - 5:23Why the need for accumulating money, then doing philanthropy?
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5:23 - 5:27What if one decided to start philanthropy from the day one?
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5:27 - 5:30That's why I am giving this machine
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5:30 - 5:34only in rural India, for rural women, because in India,
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5:34 - 5:36[you'll be] surprised, only two percent of women
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5:36 - 5:40are using sanitary pads. The rest, they're using a rag cloth,
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5:40 - 5:44a leaf, husk, [saw] dust, everything except sanitary pads.
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5:44 - 5:46It is the same in the 21st century. That's why I am going
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5:46 - 5:50to decide to give this machine only for poor women across India.
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5:50 - 5:53So far, 630 installations happened in 23 states
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5:53 - 5:56in six other countries.
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5:56 - 6:00Now I'm on my seventh year sustaining against
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6:00 - 6:05multinational, transnational giants -- makes all MBA students a question mark.
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6:05 - 6:08A school dropout from Coimbatore, how he is able to sustaining?
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6:08 - 6:15That makes me a visiting professor and guest lecturer in all IIMs.
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6:15 - 6:20(Applause)
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6:20 - 6:23Play video one.
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6:23 - 6:28(Video) Arunachalam Muruganantham: The thing I saw in my wife's hand, "Why are you using that nasty cloth?"
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6:28 - 6:32She replied immediately, "I know about napkins, but if I start
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6:32 - 6:36using napkins, then we have to cut our family milk budget."
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6:36 - 6:40Why not make myself a low-cost napkin?
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6:40 - 6:43So I decided I'm going to sell this new machine
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6:43 - 6:45only for Women Self Help Groups.
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6:50 - 6:53That is my idea.
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6:54 - 6:59AM: And previously, you need a multimillion investment
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6:59 - 7:03for machine and all. Now, any rural woman can.
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7:03 - 7:05They are performing puja.
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7:05 - 7:22(Video): (Singing)
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7:22 - 7:26You just think, competing giants,
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7:26 - 7:28even from Harvard, Oxford, is difficult.
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7:28 - 7:31I make a rural woman to compete with multinationals.
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7:31 - 7:32I'm sustaining on seventh year.
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7:32 - 7:35Already 600 installations. What is my mission?
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7:35 - 7:37I'm going to make India
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7:37 - 7:41[into] a 100-percent-sanitary-napkin-using country in my lifetime.
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7:41 - 7:43In this way I'm going to provide not less than a million
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7:43 - 7:45rural employment that I'm going to create.
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7:45 - 7:48That's why I'm not running after this bloody money.
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7:48 - 7:50I'm doing something serious.
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7:50 - 7:54If you chase a girl, the girl won't like you.
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7:54 - 7:56Do your job simply, the girl will chase you.
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7:56 - 7:59Like that, I never chased Mahalakshmi.
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7:59 - 8:04Mahalakshmi is chasing me, I am keeping in the back pocket.
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8:04 - 8:08Not in front pocket. I'm a back pocket man.
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8:08 - 8:12That's all. A school dropout saw your problem in the society
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8:12 - 8:14of not using sanitary pad.
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8:14 - 8:16I am becoming a solution provider. I'm very happy.
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8:16 - 8:19I don't want to make this as a corporate entity.
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8:19 - 8:23I want to make this as a local sanitary pad movement
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8:23 - 8:26across the globe. That's why I put all the details
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8:26 - 8:29on public domain like an open software.
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8:29 - 8:34Now 110 countries are accessing it. Okay?
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8:34 - 8:38So I classify the people into three:
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8:38 - 8:45uneducated, little educated, surplus educated.
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8:45 - 8:48Little educated, done this. Surplus educated,
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8:48 - 8:50what are you going to do for the society?
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8:50 - 8:54Thank you very much. Bye!
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8:54 - 9:05(Applause)
- Title:
- How I started a sanitary napkin revolution!
- Speaker:
- Arunachalam Muruganantham
- Description:
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When he realized his wife had to choose between buying family meals and buying her monthly "supplies," Arunachalam Muruganantham vowed to help her solve the problem of the sanitary pad. His research got very very personal -- and led him to a powerful business model. (Filmed in Bangalore as part of the TED Global Talent Search.)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:21
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Thu-Huong Ha accepted English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How I started a sanitary napkin revolution! |