Technological innovations in various sectors in India are changing lives: Report
A multipurpose and low-cost biological air purifier, a
smartphone-based system for detection of cardiac biomarkers, a window solar
cooker, a rolling water carrier-cum-purifier, buzzing bands for speech and
hearing impaired, an augmented rehabilitation system for stroke patients, an
eco-friendly water retention natural polymer, a rapid cervix cancer detection
system and a social search engine.
These are among the
winners of the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Awards for 2018.
The innovations and
prototypes are on display at the Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
inaugurated by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 19 March.
GYTI
awards recognise technological excellence imbued with social relevance among
students from all over the country. Out of over 2,900 entries in 54 technology
domains received from over 300 universities and institutions, 51 have been
awarded this year. And 15 of them have got a research grant of Rs 15 lakh each
to pursue their projects. The award winners come from IITs, Indian Institute of
Science, central and state universities and research institutions.
The
innovations span a large number of sectors – water and sanitation, early
detection of communicable and non-communicable diseases, air pollution,
technologies for differently abled, engineering and digital technologies. For
instance, a team led by Divya Beri at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has
developed a new strategy to block the transmission of malaria, while Brince
Paul and the team from IIT Hyderabad has come up with a low-cost, disposable
microfluidic chip diagnosis of malaria.
Debasmita Mondal and Sourabh Agarwal from IIT Bombay have
developed a smartphone-based system for detection of two common cardiac
biomarkers – myoglobin and myeloperoxidase. Technological innovations in
agriculture sector include a novel technique to replenish micronutrients in
soil using iron-capped nanomaterials. It has been developed by Pallabi Das and
Kasturib Sarmah of Tezpur University. Ravi Prakash of National Dairy Research
Institute, Karnal, has designed a low-cost milking and cooling plant based on
Phase Change Material.
A
few years back, a grassroots innovation of hippo roller – a rolling drum to
transport water in rural areas – had caught wide attention. Now Ramesh Kumar
and Swathy Ravindran of IIT Madras have gone a step further – they have made
the roller into a water purification system also. This means as water is
transported in the roller, it will also get purified. The rolling water
purifier designed by this team has an outer body to deal with mechanical forces
and a polybag to store filled water which makes sure that even if the barrel
body is broken or cracked, there are no water leakages. It purifies water as it
is transported, using novel nanomaterials without any power requirement.
Neeta
Ganesh Waghle and Priti Prabhakar Yewale from D Y Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, have
designed a biological air purifier which has a compact carriage assembly containing
replaceable adsorbent packed in biodegradable pouches or wrappers. The natural
biomaterials used as solid porous material act like an adsorbent. Since the
material is recyclable, it reduces the cost. The purifier, according to the
students, can be installed at the mouth of automobile exhausts. In tests done
by them, it has been found that it considerably reduces levels of carbon
monoxide, nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide.
The
window solar cooker designed by Avinash Prabhune of IIT Bombay looks pretty
much like a microwave oven and it can be fitted into a window like an air
conditioner. Unlike old fashioned, box-type solar cooker, this one has a
cylindrical chamber that makes sure that it absorbs sunlight all through the
day. It has a higher efficiency compared to box-type cookers and cooks faster.
Prabhune says it can be idea for those living in multistoried buildings and
those with a taste of ‘slow food’.
The team of Narayan Lal
Gurjar, Shashi Pratap Shekhawat and Ankit Jain of Maharana Pratap University of
Agriculture Technology, Udaipur, has identified a natural polymer for water
retention. While superabsorbent polymers that can absorb and carry water about
300 times their weight are commercially available, they are very costly and are
not biodegradable. The team has developed a super absorbing material using
orange and avocado peels. The material can retain large amounts of water and
keep soil moisture high for crop.
The GYTI awards are given by National
Innovation Foundation (NIF), Society for Research and Initiatives for
Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) and Biotechnology Industry
Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
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