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Early 1999

In early 1999, Indica Research, an independent market research organisation, conducted a survey of households across three centers:

• Chennai (a metropolitan area),
• Kolhapur (a medium-sized town) and
• Gangaghat (a town in Uttar Pradesh with a population of less than 50,000).

The survey, commissioned by Land Research Institute, was to determine the acceptability among housewives of the four basic concepts on which the EcoCooker design could be based. Each respondent was exposed to two concepts and the concepts were rotated across respondents to remove any bias.

It was found that the smaller centers showed a higher degree of interest than the metropolitan area. The simmer concept had a higher degree of acceptability than the others, of stacking and insulation. Overall, it was felt that interest in fuel saving seemed to matter, because of the steadily rising costs of fuel, and the difficulty of finding alternative substitutes.

It was felt that marketing should begin in the smaller cities and towns, before moving to the larger cities and metros.

October 1999

Early prototypes, all-aluminium, with the cooking vessels in a frame lowered into a deep, bucket-like cylindrical cooking pot, were tried out among slum families in Bombay. The startling response was that even more than the fuel saving, housewives appreciated not having to attend to the cooker once it had been put on the flame.

December 1999

Prototypes of the 6-litre EcoCooker had been distributed to various households. These prototypes had handles only on the base, or cooking pot. When lifted off the stove, with a full load inside, the assembly tended to be tippy, and one had to be careful that the cooker did not topple. Of the households that had the cooker, two complained that they were not using the cooker at all, because they felt it was too unstable during handling. Accordingly, handles were added on the outer cover above. This seems to have solved the problem.