With technology and funding from the Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC) of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), a village youth not only solved his own problem of managing power cuts for irrigation of fields, but also established a startup venture which is offering the solution to thousands of farmers across India and also providing employment to hundreds of people.
Sunil Tholia, a BTech graduate from the Kurukshetra University, came up with an idea to control electric pumps installed in fields for irrigation using a mobile phone. The goal was to provide convenience of control to farmers so they can switch the electric pumps on and off without being physically present at their fields. The remote-based control system developed by Tholia is known as ‘mobile starter’.
Though he started working on the concept in 2016, he formally received his major push in 2022-23 after he enrolled himself at the ABIC centre of the university. The centre furnished his venture with Rs 10 lakh and helped him shape his ideas and develop a usable product for his startup ‘Kewintech Private Limited’.
“We have directly or indirectly provided employment to over a 100 individuals. We have reached out to about 10 thousand farmers across India and Nepal and they have started using our mobile starter to operate their power pumps. They don’t need to rush to fields to operate their electric pumps to start or switch off their pumps as they can operate them via their mobile phone from home,” he said, adding that the GSM-based mobile starter technology enabled farmers to operate water pumps remotely using calls, SMS, IVRS and app-based controls.
The innovation has addressed real agricultural challenges while supporting water and energy conservation in India. “It addresses a common problem faced by farmers, who often travel long distances, often at night and odd hours only to switch pumps on or off. This not only requires time and effort but also leads to unnecessary pump operation, water wastage and excess electricity use,” he said.
Kashmir Singh, a farmer from Dhani Bhalara village in Bhiwani district, said, “The system allows me to control pumps from anywhere and gives me access to safety features such as power failure alerts, dry-run protection, overload protection and wire theft alerts. By ensuring pumps operate only when required, the technology helps reduce water and electricity consumption and improves overall farm efficiency,” he added.
Kewintech has received recognition for its innovation-driven approach. The company was selected among the ‘Top 20 IoT startups’ in the Build for Bharat Internet of Things (IoT) Startup Challenge and featured among the top 15 startups at the investor meet of the e-summit at MANIT, Bhopal.
“With a focus on field-level problems and practical technology solutions, Kewintech continues to position itself as a growing Indian agritech company working to make farming smarter and more sustainable,” said Tholia.