Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Madhumita Agrawal from Odisha’s Rourkela has become the first woman in India to own an electric vehicle manufacturing company.
After IPexcel, a technology and innovation consulting firm, she along with her husband, Dinkar Agrawal, recently founded OBEN EV in Bengaluru.
Madhumita earned her engineering degree in biotechnology from BPUT, Rourkela. She also has a Law degree from Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law of IIT-Kharagpur.
“After completing my engineering, I never wanted to leave the field entirely, but I also wasn’t interested in a PhD. That’s why I pursued this course at IIT-KGP. After graduating from the course there in 2012, I started my own firm called IPexcel, which helps technology companies in developing innovations, improving existing technologies and protecting their intellectual property rights. Our firm has also done a lot of scouting for big MNCs, helping them identify the right kind of technologies,” she said in an interview.
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Before venturing into the EV manufacturing sector, Madhumita spent around four years understanding the need of the Indian market. She is now working to resolve the issues found in her study – the need for an affordable vehicle and charging infrastructure.
According to sources, Madhumita and her team are working on a vehicle that would give a mileage of 130 km per charge. With indigenous body parts, the vehicles will be rolled out under the ‘Made in India’ tag. She also plans to multiply the production of such vehicles to make them affordable.
