Reportedly the Indian Institute of technology madras (IITM) in collaboration with Phoenix Medical Systems on tuesday launched India's first indigenous designed 'Standing Wheelchair. Meanwhile the standing wheel chair branded as Arise enables a differently-abled person requiring a wheelchair to shift from sitting to standing position, and vice versa, independently and in a controlled manner.
Furthermore the standing wheelchair was launched at IIT madras Research Park in the presence of Thaawarchand Gehlot, Union minister for Social Justice and Empowerment and others. According to IITM, the wheel chair was designed and developed by the TTK Center for Rehabilitation Research and Device Development at IITM, headed by sujatha Srinivasan in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Perhaps the commercialization of the wheel chair technology was made possible through support from Wellcome, UK, through an 'Affordable Healthcare in India' Award, which brought together the research and manufacturing partners.
When speaking about the importance of this launch, Gehlot said "In the last five years, I have seen a lot of modern technologies in india and abroad but have not seen such a good standing wheel chair anywhere in the world”. Gehlot said in the statement “He said the standing wheelchairs can be provided to the needy through government, constituency development fund of lawmakers and corporate social responsibility fund”.
