Young Changemakers: How 18-year-old Uday Bhatia's Outage Bulb is Lighting the Way

Technology was always fascinating to Uday Bhatia, even as a child. He first discovered his passion for tech when he was gifted a drone in the fourth-grade which sparked his curiosity about how machines worked. He soon began learning computer science and created his first video game on Roblox at 14.

But Uday’s head was never just buried in circuits and codes: He was also deeply conscious of the needs of others. During the pandemic, for instance, he developed a successful e-tutoring platform called FindOurTutor to provide learning assistance to students. “I’ve always liked the idea of building something from the ground up and using technology to make things that solve real-world problems,” he says.

Later, while part of a mentorship programme, Uday, then 16, visited Bichpuri village in UP, where he discovered an alarming issue the villagers faced—six- to eight-hour-long power outages. “When I learnt that children were using flashlights and kerosene lamps to study, I wanted to come up with a solution.”

As he investigated the problem, Uday discovered that this was far from an isolated case. While most of India’s villages have been electrified, reliable supply remains a persistent problem. Many states, such as Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, face regular power outages that could last up to 10 to 12 hours a day.

Determined to find a fix, Uday spent the next six months learning from YouTube tutorials, collecting second-hand components and experimenting in his terrace workshop in order to a devise a low-cost, backup-based lightbulb that would offer uninterrupted illumination when regular power supply falters.

Uday Bhatia explains how his Smart OG works to recipients. Photo: Courtesy of Uday Bhatia

After 24 prototypes, he succeeded in making the Smart Outage-Guard (OG), a 110-lumen-per-Watt lightbulb with a lithium-ion battery, in a 9- or 12-Watt variant. The bulb costs Rs 250, about half that of other available options. What’s more, its dynamic-lumen technology and pulse width modulation allows its brightness to be adjusted by the same switch used to turn it on. This dims the bulb by 25 per cent, extending its illumination capacity to up to 10 hours.

Since its launch in May 2022, the Smart OG bulbs have found their way to 10,000 homes across eight states in India. He also formed Uday Electric, a for-profit venture, that collaborates with distributors, retailers, NGOs, company CSR branches and communities to bring light to semi-electrified rural areas in India and beyond. For non-electrified areas, Uday also developed the Glow Grid, a solar-powered lamp, which launched this month. “In the long-term, my goal is to provide energy at a subsidized cost to every home,” says Uday.

The innovation earned Uday many accolades, including the 2023 Diana Legacy Award, awarded to youngsters for outstanding humanitarian work. Off to the US for college next year, he leaves behind trusted personnel to keep Uday Electric going. The entrepreneurial teen, however, is just getting started.