‘JATAYU’ India’s First Contactless Litter Machine by Abhishek Shelar an IIT, Harvard Graduate

This Pune-based start-up has developed the first such machine in the litter picking field which was made in India, by an Indian, for Indian circumstances.

• First such machine made in India for India by an Indian
• The start-up has created a market value of more than 250 million
• Featured in Forbes Asia 30 under 30 (Asia Entrepreneurs) award

Aiming to protect the health, safety, and dignity of the 1.5 million to four million waste pickers in the country and developing a machine that will help cleaning the cities and villages in India. 

Spruce Up Industries, a Pune-based cleantech start-up founded by Abhishek Shelar, specializes in cleantech hardware technology manufacturing that has successfully developed a hassle-free litter picking machine, ‘JATAYU,’ uniquely designed for India.

Contributing to the country’s Swachh Bharat Mission, JATAYU is deployed and working in 3 metros, across the length and breadth of India from Mizoram to Maharashtra and Uttarakhand to Tamil Nadu in nearly ten states, municipal corporations of 20 large cities including national capital- Delhi.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, JATAYU is also being used for safe sanitation using contactless garbage collection to avoid contracting ailments, including COVID-19 for waste pickers.

JATAYU is the first such machine in the litter picking field made in India, by an Indian, for Indian circumstances.

PMO and the Ministry of Urban Development admired Abhishek Shelar’s efforts. He has recently enlisted in the world acclaimed prestigious Forbes Asia 30 under 30 (Asia Entrepreneurs) award for his pioneering work of inventing many new patented technologies to develop, manufacture, and successfully deployed vacuum-operated litter picker machines across the country.

JATAYU is the first such machine that can collect heavy garbage in challenging environments. It was successfully deployed to reduce pollution in Delhi, clean riverbanks, and clean the muck of the Nivar cyclone in Chennai. Till now, the machines have collected thousands of tons of garbage across India.

JATAYU is designed and developed so that it assures zero manual handlings of garbage — right from the spot where the waste is picked up until it’s dumped. 

The machine, which can be installed on a heavy vehicle like a truck or car, works like a vacuum cleaner, where the suction power lifts all kinds of garbage like food waste, glass, medical waste, bottles, leaves, coconuts, clothes, cans, and more.

While developing his dream project, Abhishek gathered money to start the operations of Spruce Up from his father, who generously contributed from his retirement fund.

Also, He took a loan from the bank after mortgaging his house. Now, the start-up has created more than 250 million of market value.

Cancer Survivor

An IIT-Bombay alumnus, Abhishek, pursued a master’s in Education from Harvard University in Massachusetts in 2014.

When he was busy making JATAYU a commercially successful venture, He was detected with the life-threatening disease- cancer.

Even while facing such a devastating, life-threatening disease, he once more proved his mettle by attending his work throughout the treatment period.

Bearing all its side effects, he kept egging on to make the machine more and more efficient and best suited for India. After a long fight, he won that battle. Today he is cancer-free for four years.

Future Plans:

The company plans to launch a fully electric litter picker and Made in India road sweeper for a rapidly expanding vast network of Expressways and Highways in India.

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To fulfill the promise made to himself, after completing his Masters, breaking the shackles of Dream of America, He returned from the USA.

He devoted himself 24X7 to the task of developing the vacuum machine for challenging Indian circumstances.

With these goals, within nine months of homecoming, He successfully invented many new patented technologies and developed a prototype of the first machine.

This machine was robust, many times stronger, and suitable for harsh Indian circumstances, capable of handling wet and dry garbage of varied types. It was developed at less than half the cost of much less inferior quality machines available worldwide.

As a tribute to vultures – scavengers of nature- he named his machine with a brand name of JATAYU after the mythological king of vultures.

JATAYU is the first such machine in the litter picking field, which was made in India, by an Indian, for Indian circumstances.