A nationwide competition held recently to put together unique solutions that can transform people’s life saw participants come up with a spectrum of innovations that could benefit humanity at large. The range of the products included those that could be used in medical treatment to cultivation to building energy-efficient structures.
Called Samsung Innovation Quotient 2012, the organisers received 300 entries from which, three winners were chosen on the basis of the significance of their products, especially their usefulness to people at the grassroots.
The first winner is Leo S. Mavely from Gujarat-based Axio Biosolutions Company who developed India’s first haemostatic emergency dressing Axiostat that stops profuse traumatic bleeding within minutes of application and thereby stabilises the victim at the accident site. The product is already used in a few major hospitals. According to Mr. Mavley, it is a 100 per cent natural dressing made with bio-degradable materials. It immediately reacts with blood to form a thick layer and easily comes off without causing any pain to the user while the clot remains. The user can keep it for 24 hours on the wound. It is largely beneficial for skull injury and other delicate body parts, places where dressing is not possible. It can prove useful to security personnel. The dressing with three years of shelf life costs Rs.300 to 400 per unit.
The second winner is sexagenarian Tondapi Guraviah, a farmer from Andhra Pradesh represented by an NGO, Palle Srujana. His innovation — a seed drill cum herbi sprayer for zero tillage. The machine works as an attachment to a tractor to quickly sow maize in freshly harvested paddy fields in zero tillage modes. The maize crop can be grown using the residual moisture of freshly harvested paddy fields. The device works for five steps — tilling, seeding, fertilising, weediciding and closing.
Mr. Guraviah explained: “After harvesting paddy, farmers don’t use the field for two to three years. But using this device they can utilise the zero tilling period and double up maize yield. One attachment that costs just Rs. 65,000 requires one tractor and one person for operation. Thus, one person alone can till 20 acres a day.” He is hopeful that the device could help eradicate poverty by growing chilli and cotton crop and tilling as much as 50 acres a day. He has already tilled four lakh acres in four months with this machine and even trained some IIT Kharagpur students about its operation.
The third winner was Mumbai-based Arun Shenoy, who was represented by Green India Building Systems & Services Private Limited. His invention — Green India Building Systems and Services or GIBBS equipments could help build zero-energy buildings when installed underground. Its features include geothermal cooling system, hot water co-generation system, lighting and indoor air quality systems in buildings that together reduce operating costs in buildings by 70-80 per cent.
Mr. Shenoy, an Oklahoma University alumnus, said that air conditioning system under GIBBS saves 100 per cent water and thus saves 80 per cent energy. The equipment’s life is 50 years.
The winners received cash prize worth Rs. 5 lakh, 3 lakh and 2 lakh respectively.
