Indian-origin American billionaire Manoj Bhargava on Friday revealed a bicycle, the Free Electric bicycle, which produces electricity when pedalled. Priced at between Rs 12,000 - 15,000, Bhargava said that the cycles had the power to take the electricity to millions of homes in rural India where there was no electricity.

Bhargava said that the idea came to him while watching NASCAR on the TV, the popular American car racing event, when he saw a man push a pump, which propelled a jack to lift a car. "The car moved so fast that it nearly flipped. I was surprised that such a motion could propel a jack so fast. Then, I asked my innovators to work on it. They tried the pumping function, but it did not work. We worked on the product it for a while, and at first the product turned out too heavy. We then worked to strip it off the unnecessary parts," said Bhargava.

However, Bhargava and his team did not tell us whether they intended to market the product, or work with the government to make it reach the masses, or how much electricity does one cycle produce within a stipulated period of time. They, however, revealed that an hour of pedalling can produce electricity that will run a rural household for 24 hours by a running lights, a small fan, and charging a cell phone. Production in India is slated to start in March, 2016.

Bhargava, son of a publisher from Lucknow, left India with his family in 1967 when he was 14. He grew up in the US and entered Princeton College, where he dropped out to come back to India to be a monk. During his travels, he formed the Hans Foundation. He went back to the US and eventually came up with a drink called Five Hour Energy.

As part of State 2 Innovations, the inventions wing of his ventures, Bhargava has also produced a water purification machine that cleans even seawater to drinking water, and another project which uses graphene cables to harness earth's heat to produce electricity.