Foreword

A story that inspires

In conversation withMr Jayant Sahashrabuddhe

Amazing innovation

Events

Founding members

About i4C

What’s inside

Issue : 4, 22 Oct 2015

INDIA ka IDEA

Currently, the city of Pune faces problems in various sectors of daily life. The Government of India is committed to build 100 smart cities. Pune City, termed by many as the ‘Oxford of the East’ and ‘Silicon Valley of Maharashtra’, has huge potential to emerge as an ideal ‘Smart City’. To be in sync with hon’ble PM’s vision for smart city and digital India, i4c in collaboration with Persistent Systems, and Sakal Media Group is organizing a unique innovation competition followed by a 24-hour non-stop Hackathon to identify new, disruptive and sustainable digital innovations for solving current challenges of Pune city.In this issue, we have come up with an article on Subhashini Mistry, who despite being an illiterate, poor woman built a hospital, so that no poor person dies due to lack of money for treatment as her own husband.

In this issue, we also feature an interview with Shri Jayant Sahasrabuddhe - National Organizing Secretary of Vijanana Bharati, in which he says how innovative thinking can be encouraged right from school level. He also speaks about our upcoming event ‘MahaIdea’, which is going to be a pan Maharashtra idea and innovation competition. Also, this issue features an interview with the team that created an innovative medical device called FLIP.I hope you find this edition of ‘India Ka Idea’ even more interesting. We welcome any constructive feedback from you.

Thanks, Abhay

ForewordDr. Abhay JereConvenor, i4cEditor, India ka Idea

Digital Pune Hackathon 2015Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi envisages 100 smart cities in India. With this goal in mind he launched the ‘Digital India’ initiative. In order to help materialize the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision, i4c is organizing an innovation competition followed by a 24-hour hackathon among under-graduate and post-graduate students of computer science/ENTC of Pune, to identify new, disruptive, and sustainable digital solutions to the problems the city of Pune is facing in various walks of life.i4c along with Persistent Systems and Sakal Media Group is organizing Digital Pune Hackathon 2015, in quest to scout for latent ideas in students that can be further nurtured into a digital solution to overcome problems of Pune city. Power, water and sanitation, education, public health, transportation, and citizen security – are the sectors that have been facing operational challenges. The governing bodies of each of these sectors have been approached to find out their respective challenges.The following governing bodies have provided the problems they are facing to accomplish their goals:• The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)• Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd. (PMPL)• Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA)• Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL)• Police Depti4c will put forward these problems to computer science students of all colleges in Pune. The students are supposed to engage themselves to any of the problems in any of the sectors—based on their interest—and find out a viable idea that can be coded to form a digital solution. The evaluation committee will screen the submitted ideas, and shortlist the best among them. The corresponding students whose ideas have been shortlisted will then be called upon for a 24-hour non-stop hackathon, where they will code to form a working-prototype. The process of idea submission will start from September 1, 2015 and will be till September 15, 2015. The Digital Pune Hackathon will culminate with a 24-hour hackathon at Persistent Systems premises on October 11, 2015.

A story that inspiresSubhashini Mistry: An illiterate, poor woman builds a hospital for the poorest of poor

A story that inspiresIn 1971 – one day Subhashini Mistry’s husband was writhing with pain, and was taken to a district hospital in Kolkata. Treatment was refused as they had no money to pay. Though government hospitals are mandated to treat the poor for free, the reality is that all patients cannot be accommodated due to lack of adequate facilities. Patients with either money or connections are preferred over others for treatment. Her husband died in front of her eyes for lack of basic medical treatment. He suffered from a minor ailment called gastro enteritis.

That fateful day, wailing over her husband’s dead body, Subhashini Mistry might have had taken an oath inwardly. That no one else should ever suffer her fate of having to lose loved ones due to lack of money for treatment. For that day onwards she lived in one single-minded pursuit of building a hospital that would offer free treatment to the poorest of poor.

After her husband’s death, she was stranded with four children. Her husband was the sole breadwinner of the family. Being an illiterate, she wondered what job to take up for sustenance. She took up work involving physical labor. She worked as a house maid, worked in tea stalls, even cleaned ponds, worked in paddy fields, also collected coal from dumps, and polished shoes for sustenance.

Eventually, after toiling for years, she headed for Kolkata. She had set up a vegetable stall by the roadside at bridge number Four in Park Circus, in central Kolkata. Her earning grew to 500 rupees a month. She opened a savings account in a post office, in which she used to deposit her little savings from time to time—sometimes 50 rupees, at times even 200 rupees. For around 30 years, she scrimped and saved from day to day. In 1992, when she heard that a landlord was selling off his land in her husband’s village, Hanspukur, she went and fell at his feet, and pleaded with him to sell off the land to her at a little lesser price. The landlord relented, and a part of her dream was realized – she bought one acre of land for ten thousand rupees.

.Contd...

Along with the help of villagers of Hanspukur, who got together and contributed in kind - providing bamboos, palm leaves, truckloads of earth, wooden planks; while the poorest of them offered their labor, a 20-foot by 20-foot shed was built on the one acre of land – and the Humanity hospital was cre-ated. Villagers also went from door to door requesting residents to donate their surplus medicines.

To raise more money, Subhashini and her son Ajoy reached out to the local Member of Parliament, Ma-lini Bhattacharya. In 1996, a permanent building was built. At present, the hospital stands over 9,000 square feet of land, spreading over two floors. It has 45 beds, with ICU, modern OT, and a small pathol-ogy department. Various tests like EEG, TMT, HOLTER, Spirometry, and USG are conducted here. With the help and support of a group of trustees that includes doctors, eminent local citizens, and serving IPS officers, the hospital has now expanded to include cardiology, oncology, ENT, gynecology, urology, diabetology, and surgery.

Patients who live above the poverty line are charged a nominal fee of 20 rupees. Those who are poor are treated free of charge. Another hospital at Sunderban has also been constructed. There are a total of 25 beds in this hospital. Treatment offered at this hospital is completely free. A total of 24 doctors are presently serving at the two hospitals.

A story that inspires

Contd...

In conversation with

Mr Jayant Sahashrabuddhe The National Organizing Secretaryof Vigyan Bharati

“Students should be brought more close to nature to get them well acquainted with the fundaments of nature. This will help in opening up and emancipating the minds of our young boys and girls, and then - out-of-box thinking will be an automatic outcome.”

In conversation with Mr Jayant Sahashrabuddhe

Mr Jayant Sahasrabuddhe, the National Organizing Secretary of Vigyan Bharati—a not-for-profitorganization, dedicated to promote science and technology in India, shared with us his observationsand experiences in the field of science and technology that he gathered while travelling acrosshinterlands and remote places in India, for professional reasons. Mr Sahasrabuddhe also shared with us his views on the upcoming event -MahaIdea, which is an idea and innovation competition for students from schools, colleges, research institutes, and universities in the state of Maharashtra, in which innovative ideas and working-prototypes will be assessed by expert judges. He did hisgraduation in Physics, and upon graduation completed B.Sc Tech in Power electronics. He has been afull-time social worker with Vigyan Bharati since 1989.How did the idea of MahaIdea come to your mind?We (Vigyan Bharati) along with i4c, and Persistent Systems approached the honorable minister of Maharashtra State Education for permission to conduct an idea and innovation completion in the state of Maharashtra after being encouraged by the success of the fourth Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelal in Goa that included a competition on idea and innovations. The Maharashtra government gave its nod to the idea, and MahaIdea: 2015 was conceptualized. How will MahaIdea benefit the nation?Students often have innovative ideas, but wonder where to find a platform to take it to the next level. The objective of MahaIdea: 2015 is to provide a platform to all such students with innovative ideas or working prototypes, so that their idea or working prototype can be transformed into a commercial product that can solve several standing problems of the country and serve humankind. Thus the punch line: “Nation building through innovations”.Do you think MahaIdea can be next transformed into a national level competition?We have got in touch with various people for MahaIdea. I see a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in them to hold such an event. In fact, they are expecting to take this initiative to the national level next. There is lot of zeal and eagerness surrounding this event. This event can even be turned into a reality show in television. A reality show can help the idea of innovative thinking to reach the masses, thereby sensitizing them about thinking out-of-the-box.

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How do you think the present education system in our country needs to be changed in order to encourage students to think out-of-box? There is lack of laboratories in schools in rural areas. Teachers should be trained to carry out experiments outside labs. Teachers must ensure that students understand scientific processes and do not just by-heart them for writing exams. There is a tendency among students to mug up scientific observations and clear the practical tests. Such practice should be curbed, and teachers must make certain that students go to the bottom of a subject matter. There are so many scattered instances of people creating innovative solutions; for example, in a district called Mandala near Jabalpur MP, a tribe called Agarya – produces pure steel without electricity, a man called Dr Sudhakar Shastri - makes nano particles by making use of Rasosastra that is a part of Ayurveda, a tribe used to generate mercury from human hair. If we notice, we will observe a pattern. Out-of-box thinking is more prevalent in people working closely with nature. Students in urban areas don’t have the necessity to go to the root of a matter, because things are made readily available to them through mechanical means. Students should be brought more close to nature to get them well acquainted with the fundaments of nature. This will help in opening up and emancipating the minds of our young boys and girls, and then - out-of-box thinking will be an automatic outcome.How is Vigyan Bharti promoting science and technology in India?As a social organization responsible to promote science and technology in India, Vigyan Bharati organizes programs, seminars, and conferences in the field of science and technology. Our purpose is to sensitize people about science and technology for the benefit of humankind. In the various programs we organize, eminent and distinguished people come and share their ideas. Few days back we had organized an event in Mumbai on how to deliver good quality civic services. In January 2015, we had organized the 4th Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan, in Goa.

“We have got in touch with various people for Maha-Idea. I see a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in them to hold such an event. In fact, they are expecting to take this initiative to the national level next.”

Contd...

Mr Jayant Sahashrabuddhe The National Organizing Secretaryof Vigyan Bharati

In conversation with

Amazing innovation

FLIP

1. How did you come up with the idea FLIP?This idea came up essentially to motivate people into a healthier lifestyle most accurately. It was seen, more often people did purchase existing fitness gadgets such as Fitbit, jawbone, myBasis etc, but grew out of using them in the first 3 months. Accuracy and lack of motivation were the main issues for such behaviors. We hence picked the ear is by far the most precise location to tap heart rate, steps, calories and back posture. Our unique mobile app provides personalized goals which actually allows a person to them changing to healthiness. 2. Can you please elaborate on your innovation FLIP and its functioning?Flip is an ear-worn heart rate monitor which also counts steps, measures calories burnt and watches back posture. Except the motion sensor, every other sensor, design and development of the entire product was done by us in Hyderabad. 3. With technology evolving at an alarming rate, how is FLIP unique from the existing products in the market?It’s small size, sleek design and accurate recordings make it the most unique health tracker ever built. In fact, heart rate recorded from flip was seen to show gold standard accuracy i.e. the recordings actually agreed with ECG heart rate recordings. Steps and calories showed 95% when compared to their gold standards of measurement.4. What challenges were faced while developing ‘FLIP’?Outrageous as a product, the biggest challenge faced was to actually decide on flip being an ear-worn design. Being a young company, I reckon, we could be so bold and audacious. That apart, miniaturizing the device and making it the smallest health tracker ever built (10mm X 8mm X 2mm) along with making it weight incredibly light (8gms) was by far challenging too. 5. What is the current status of ‘FLIP’? What is the next step?We now have a fully ready device which is beckoning to be marketed. We are at the moment in talks with companies such as Micromax, TCS and Amazon (USA) who like our innovation. Either, we license flip off to them or start our own manufacturing. Already we have had 500 sample orders from across the world. This was at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) ’15, held in Las Vegas early this year where we officially unveiled the product. However, we are looking for capital investors who would be happy to fund us if we were to go for manufacturing it ourselves. 6. Are you working on any other innovation/ idea?We are at the moment being involved with 2 other projects. A smart electronic stethoscope for baby care and a health ATM device for rural India. Also, we are looking to add-on respiration rate and blood pressure features on to flip, which will be released as flip 2.0 early 2016.

Innovator: Anirban Dasgupta and team

Events Upcoming eventsInclusive InnovationsNational level Expo for pioneering Innovations.

MahaIdea(A pioneering idea and innovation competition for students of Maharashtra)

Goa Idea & Innovation Competition (Gi2C) 2015In our endeavor to provide platform to individuals with innovative ideas—to facilitate transfor-mation of their ideas into working products—we had organized the ‘Goa Idea & Innovation Com-petition (Gi2C) 2015’, in Goa. The event was organized in collaboration with Goa State Innovation Council, the Education Department Govt. of Goa, Vidnyan Parishad Goa, and Persistent Systems Ltd.

This was the first of its kind science and technology innovation competition among students and scholars in the state of Goa. This event was organized as a part of the fourth Bharatiya Vigyan Sam-melan (BVS) 2015.The total number of ideas submitted for this competition was 245. These ideas were categorized in three groups:• Group A (Std. Vth - VII) - 97 ideas• Group B (Std. IXth - XII) - 105 ideas• Group C (UG/PG/PHD) - 43 ideas and innovationsTotal number of ideas selected for Gi2c expo: Group A-= 5, Group B - 6, Group C -7.On February 8, 2015, the selected individuals presented their ideas and innovations to a panel of judges, from which the winners were declared. The award ceremony happened on the same day at the valedictory session of BVS. The awards were given away by Dr. S.W.A. Naqvi, Chairman, Goa State Innovation Council.

Past eventsDigital Pune Hackathon 2015A unique innovation competition and hackathon to identify new, disruptive and sustainable tech-nology innovations for solving current challenges of Pune city.

Photo galleryGlimpses of Gi2C 2015

i4c house of expertsThe founding members team of i4c boasts of pack of experts with an exceptional experience.

Dr. Anand DeshpandeCEO & Managing Director,Persistent Systems Limited

Dr. Ganesh Natrajan Vice President andCEO, Zensar Technologies

Mr. Sharad Kalmegh Founder President, SwargiyaDadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Pratishthan Dental College & Hospital

Mr. Bharat AgarwalExecutive Director,Vishwakarma Institute of Technology

Dr. Arun JamkarVice Chancellor, MaharashtraUniversity of Health Sciences (MUHS)

Mr. Ashok KatariaChairman, Ashoka Buildcom Ltd.

Mr. Shrikrishna ChitalePartner, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale

Mr.. K. R. NatuManaging Director, Deccan Mechanicaland Chemical Industries Private Limited(DEMECH)

Mr. Ravi Pandit Co-founder, Chairman andGroup CEO of KPIT Technologies

Dr. Rajendra Jagdale Director General, Sciene andTechnology Park, UoP

Mr. Gireendra Kasmalkar MD and CEO, SQS India

Mr. Abhay Gadgil Partner, PN Gadgil and Sons

Mr. Pramod ChaudhariExecutive Chairman, Praj Industries

Mr. Ajay BhagwatFounder, Renu Electronics

Mr. C. ManivannanPresident, Suma Soft Pvt Ltd

About i4c Acknowledgement

Persistent Systems Ltd.Aryabhatta-Pingala 9A/12,Erandwane, Pune-411004,Maharashtra, India.020-67036702

www.i4c.co.inidea@i4c.co.inwww.facebook.com/InclusiveInnovations@indiaKaIdeahttps: //www.linkedin.com/company/inter-institutio0nal-inclusive-innovation-center---i4c

We would like to acknowledge and thank the design and editorial team for their contribution in the first issue of the i4c e-newsletter ‘India ka Idea’

Editorial Team Design Team• Abhay Jere • Charuta Puranik • Disha Singh • Ayananta Chowdhury

What is i4c?• i4c is an independent, non-profit entity. • i4c acts as a platform to proactively scout, showcase and handhold technology innovations,

especially aimed at the base of the pyramid.• Through i4C, we wish to systematically support innovations and innovators and make

themmarket ready. • i4c will also aggressively work to promote the culture of Innovation through crowdsourcing of

new ideas, Grand challenges and Innovation competitions. • Our mentors include esteemed personalities like Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, Mr. Kiran Karnik &

Dr. Anil Kakodkar.

Our achievements within a year of inception• Partner with CII, DST and AICTE in India’s biggest Innovation Challenge - India Innovation

Initiative (i3), 2014.• Knowledge partner in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by Govt. of India, 2014.• Knowledge & technical partner at National Level Summit on Srijan Bharati 2014 - Safe drinking water

and sanitation organized by Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Govt. of India.• Inclusive Innovation 2013 was the most successful innovation initiative in India till date :

- 150+ innovations showcased - 1,50,000+ people witnessed these innovations - 50+ industrialists involved in determining the commercial sustainability of innovations

• Knowledge Partner for Deloitte reports – Inclusive Indian Innovations – Perspectives & Case Studies (2013) and the Innovation Ecosystem in India (2014).

Contact :Dr. Abhay Jere Convenor i4C,Editor, India ka Idea