Dayananda Sagar Social Tech Innovation Challenge is a program that intends to inspire and promote student innovators in various fields. The program was organised by DERBI Foundation in association with Dayananda Sagar Institutions, as a CSR initiative of Sagar Hospitals, Bangalore.
DERBI Foundation aims at empowering young entrepreneurs by providing them a startup ecosystem to learn, network, and grow. Also, DERBI envisages creating a lasting impact on society by facilitating technological transformations to reach the grassroots.
The Tech Innovation Challenge was powered by social tech challenge partners IP Excel, Wadhwani Foundation, HDFC SmartUp, Sagar Hospitals, MathWorks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BCIC, and TiE Bangalore.
The program was open for graduate/postgraduate students of all the universities in India. The aspiring innovators were invited to apply under five main themes: Health Tech, Edu Tech, Agri Tech, Clean Tech, and Women Empowerment.
Dayananda Sagar Social Tech Innovation Challenge is intended to help the young entrepreneurs with seed funding opportunities, incubation support, the idea to validation support by industry experts, real time product development support, one-to-one mentoring sessions by seasoned entrepreneurs, and by providing access to licenses, credits and workshops by partners.
In the 2-week long program, the participants were asked to present a pitch about their innovative ideas. The program consisted of valuable knowledge sessions held on the 3rd, 4th, and 10th of March.
The event began on 3rd March 2021 with the inaugural speech of Dr Lakshmi Jagannathan, CEO of DERBI Foundation. It was followed by a session by Mr Praveen HJ, Founder and CEO, Arcis Business Solutions on the startup essentials, “Business Idea Generation and Drafting Business Plan.”
An insightful session on “The Basics of Intellectual Property” was conducted by Mr. Vidya Bhaskar of IP Excel on 4th March. On 10th March, Mr Siddharth Nair from Xfinito Design spoke about “Idea to Funding,” and Sharath & Team from You and Me Theatre enlightened the participants on “Idea Articulation”.
The DS Social Tech Innovation program concluded with the announcement of winners on 18th of March, 2021.
The jury panel announced the three best pitches on the last day of the program. The panel comprised eminent personalities, Mr. Avinash N Bhat, Supplier & Marketing Specialist, Mouser Electronics, Mr. Praveen HJ, Founder & CEO, Arcis Business Solutions, Mr. Vishnu MS, Co-founder, Evalabs, and Mr. Karan Vorafrom Campus Fund’s Investment Team.
The students of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, won the first prize for their “Germs Safe Water Technology”. The runners-up were: Eco Warriors from Christ University, Bangalore, for creating single use organic cutlery from agriculture waste; and Backyard Creators from Sethu Institute of Technology, Madurai, who have made Adhesive Non-Surgical hearing aids.
Winner – The innovative GermSafe Water Disinfecting Device is a modified form of the traditional hand pump, which can disinfect water up to 95% while pumping. This device, therefore, is set to bring about a revolution in India’s rural world, which hardly has access to safe drinking water. So far, there has been no affordable technique available to purify this water.
The students built their pitch on the fact that over 100 million people live in areas of poor water quality and suffer from water-borne diseases. Besides being economically feasible and eco-friendly, this technology has a competitive edge over others as this does not require electricity to operate and hardly needs maintenance.
Runners
Eco Warriors – Eco Warriors have made biodegradable, 100% organic, and compostable palm-leaf drinking straws, coffee cup lids, and tetra-packs. The focus was to eliminate single-use plastics, convert agri-waste to wealth, and provide rural women with employment opportunities. These products have several competitive advantages including lower cost, higher shelf life, customizability. The innovation holds significance as this has been the first ever replacement for the existing coffee cup lids.
Eco Warriors are prepared to supply these items online as well as through sellers and distributors. It has a global market of $2 billion.
Backyard Creators – Innovative Adhesive Non-Surgical hearing aid is a highly cost-effective solution. As the innovators claim, it costs only 3% of the existing surgical solution. Besides, it also helps avoid implantation surgery and is best suited for all ages, unlike the existing hearing aid solutions. .
The Backyard Creators’ Innovative Adhesive Non-surgical hearing aid has already impacted over 50 lives in India and they are looking forward to impacting millions of lives at zero cost.
The market for hearing aids is of $1.4billion in India alone (Globally $8 billion)
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