Frugal Innovations

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10. Jaipur prosthetics

Today over 20,000 individuals each year receive a free "Jaipur foot". Originally developed using rubber, wood and tyre cord, a temple sculptor, frustrated with the unaffordability of prosthetic limbs designed and manufactured a prosthetic foot with a new design, and for under $45. This had far greater functionality, allowing the amputee to squat, run and sit cross legged. Philanthropically funded, the organisation has expanded internationally and into other forms of physical rehabilitation.

The organisation’s work more recently inspired a $20 prosthetic knee joint designed and developed with Stanford University and D-Rev. Made of an oil-filled nylon polymer and requiring no tools and just under an hour to assemble, it was fêted by Time magazine as one of the best 50 inventions in the world in 2009.