Innovation

Jharkhand’s Gaurav Anand left his 16-year-long corporate career to make unique handloom sarees by extracting fibre from water hyacinths, a type of freshwater weed, while helping 450 women earn a livelihood.

To address the problem of soil testing before every round of sowing, IIT Bombay researcher and scientist Dr Rajul Patkar has recently developed Nutrisens, a portable device that claims to test soil health in a matter of minutes.

Noida-based Rahul and Neha Rastogi founded Agatsa Software and developed a pocket-sized portable ECG machine called SanketLife 2.0. It can detect cardiac symptoms in just one ECG, and the information can be easily shared with doctors or healthcare providers in real-time.

Launched by Sathya Raghu Mokkapati, startup Kheyti is working to ease the burden of climate change on small farmers through its ‘greenhouse-in-a-box’ innovation.

Merwyn Coutinho and Rajiv Rathod visited Gandhigram village in Arunachal Pradesh and found out that the remote villages there had no access to electricity. Watch how they decided to “light up” the village by introducing ‘Batti kits’.

Milind Shah from Kolkata founded ‘Gauraa’ to address the problem of massive wastage in the FMCG sector by selling dented, near-expiry and slightly damaged products at discounted prices.

Pune entrepreneur Satyajit Mittal has innovated children’s shoes that expand as the child grows, and are flexible and comfortable. Last month, he clocked revenue worth Rs 21 lakh.

Assam entrepreneur turned the grief of losing his best friend into My3DSelfie, a startup that uses 3D tech to bring one’s most precious memories to life.

Chennai student Mahek Parvez has innovated SunHarvested CoolRooms, a sustainable alternative to cold storage that “mimics nature” to increase the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by three times.

Researchers under Dr Pallab Sinha Mahapatra at IIT Madras have developed a three-dimensional paper-based portable device that can detect adulteration, such as urea, detergent, soap, salt, H2O2, boric acid, and neutralisers in milk within 30 seconds.