Intel technology and Department of Science and Technology conducted the second edition of the Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0 (Challenge 2.0) with T-Hub, which came to a close on Tuesday.
Sustainable waste management startup, Banyan Sustainable Waste Management, which runs Banyan Nation, incubated at T-Hub won the challenge. The startup developed a zero-waste platform based on an Intel Edison board for Arduino, Intel IoT analytics platform and the Intel-powered Jan Unnati tablet.
The company used these platforms to streamline and automate urban recycling operations at every stage. Combining informatics and hardware engineering, Banyan Nation’s management system aims to root out bottlenecks in India’s recycling value chain.
Challenge 2.0 is the second edition of the Innovate for Digital India Challenge, which is a platform for end-to-end hardware product innovation that identifies and incubates homegrown entrepreneurial solutions that address India’s indigenous issues.
This year, Intel India and DST collaborated with T-Hub to identify ideas that could solve complex issues at the country’s grassroots level through technology and automation, accelerating the transition to a Digital India. Each solution is designed for scale, and to improve the quality of people’s lives in the remotest corners of India.
Addressing these parameters, Banyan Nation has developed a modular system, customizable to the requirements of different municipalities and third-party system integrators to manage the 62 million tonnes of municipal waste generated annually in India.
In its first pilot project, currently in its beta stage in Warangal, Telangana, it has deployed on-field bin sensors, GPS truck routers, landfill management toolkits and back-end visualization and analytic engines to monitor and synchronize waste management.
With the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) recent proposal to integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) in waste management under the Smart City program, there is immense potential for sensor-enabled devices to transform waste disposal.
“Today’s winners epitomize the philosophy of the Intel & DST - Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0, which is to build a fairer, more equitable India, by improving access to technology. This year, we expanded the scope of Challenge 2.0 by including the categories of smart city and sustainability, under which some of the most innovative solutions such as Banyan Nation have emerged. We look forward to the new heights our top teams will reach as they become role models and inspire other citizens to be the change in their communities”, said Prakash Mallya, Managing Director – Sales and Marketing Group, Intel Technology India.
During the Challenge 2.0 accelerator, Banyan Nation also developed ‘Better Plastic’, a high-grade plastic made from recycled material.
"We are honoured to anchor Challenge 2.0 in collaboration with Intel, DST, MyGov and MeitY. In our experience, startups are keen to offer solutions that not only have business potential, but also those that disengage socio-economic orders that are at odds with inclusive development. This intensive programme, which has spanned over six months, has equipped the chosen start-ups with a global perspective to ensure that their game changing ideas translate to reality,” said Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub.
The challenge has helped all participating teams develop a Minimal Viable Product, collect customer learnings and helped them with their to go-to-market strategy.
The other two startups to make it to the top three were geriatric healthcare start-up AllizHealth and infant mortality incubator iNICU.
AllizHealth is an assistive device based on the Intel® Curie module in the preventive healthcare technology space. It connects the user with a health management platform that assesses and anticipates health risks particularly related to geriatrics support.
iNICU and iCHR is helping reduce the neonatal infant mortality rate with a system that integrates real-time clinical data from connected devices within the laboratory with bedside observational data. Based on the Intel® Cybertan Gateway and Intel® Edison, the solution presents the information in medically comprehensive formats to reduce mortality in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
In the image: (L-R)Rama Iyer (Sr VP-Head Innovation & Strategic Alliance, T-Hub, Prakash Mallya (MD- South Asia-Sales&Marketing-Intel), Harkesh Mittal (Adviser, Member Secretary, NSETEDB), Mani Vajipey (CEO, Banyan Nation), Raj Madangopal (COO, Banyan Nation), Jayesh Ranjan (IT secy, Telangana govt), Jay Krishnan (CEO, T-Hub), Srinivas Kollipara(COO, T-Hub)
This article has been produced with inputs from T-Hub as a part of a partner program.