Arunachalam Muruganantham is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad making machine and has innovated grass-roots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. His mini-machines, which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads, have been installed in 23 of the 29 states of India. He is currently planning to expand the production of these machines to 106 nations. In 2014, TIME magazine placed him in its list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2016, he received the Padma Shri Award. He was born in 1962 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Muruganantham's invention is widely praised as a key step in changing women's lives in India. Muruganantham's machine creates jobs and income for many women, and affordable pads enable many more women to earn their livelihood during menstruation. In addition to his own outreach, Muruganantham's work has also inspired many other entrepreneurs to enter this area, including some that propose to use waste banana fibre or bamboo for the purpose.