Blogs
BleeTV: Leveraging sign language and digital technology to empower the deaf
How many people can capitalise on a failed initiative? That too in a field neglected by policymakers, entrepreneurs, and the society at large? When a smartwear for the deaf didn’t take off, the 20-something founders of Bleetech Innovations, Janhavi Joshi and Nupura Kirloskar, saw an even smarter way to help...
Continue Reading
Kamal Kisan: Empowering marginal farmers with smart, mechanised tools
Given her background, many would call Devi Murthy’s foray into agriculture, fortuitous. For an engineer with a management degree from IIM, whose family business is automotive parts manufacturing, the challenges and plight of farmers were far removed from her immediate environment. Had it not been for a fun project on...
Continue Reading
Navgurukul coders shine amid jobs nightmare
Twenty kilometres from Pune, a part of a college building is bustling with activity as it prepares to host over 200 girls from different parts of the country. They are coming in batches due to quarantine compulsions induced by the pandemic. It’s Navgurukul’s third residential training centre and the second...
Continue Reading
Trashing the stereotypes: Hasiru Dala is empowering waste pickers to become entrepreneurs
Our portfolio company Hasiru Dala Innovations Private Limited is a Waste Management enterprise that focuses on economic justice to create access to markets and predictable livelihoods for waste pickers while delivering environmental impact. Its not-for-profit arm also works on social justice, including identity rights of waste pickers, education for their...
Continue Reading
Pashu Bajaar: Goats on a click
Munni Devi was resigned to a life of deprivation. As a farm labourer on the outskirts of Lucknow, the earnings were meagre. She also had to take care of two grandchildren. Three years back, she became a pashu sakhi (friend of livestock) after receiving training. Since then she has been earning...
Continue Reading
AiSteth: Smart stethoscope that will let you ‘see’ heart sounds
Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally resulting in the loss of around 17.9 million lives every year. In India, at least 2.8 million people died in 2016 alone due to CVDs. To add to the existing burden, patients with CVD are at a high risk of...
Continue Reading
Mocxa: Unlocking the future of epilepsy diagnosis
Prakash Agarwal’s life is currently balanced on a knife-edge. The 14-year-old from Nagpur has experienced two grand mal seizures over the past six months. Doctors suspect epilepsy and advised him to undergo Video-EEG or electroencephalogram test to chart his brain’s electrical activity. A year has passed since an appointment for...
Continue Reading
Basking in ‘cold comfort’ with Tan90
The fishermen of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were faced with a double whammy in April 2020. As the lockdown shrunk their business, nearly a third of the catch rotted away. Even when they were desperately looking for ice to save the fish, the cold storages remained off-limits for them. This...
Continue Reading
A twist in the tale of stoma care – Crimson Healthcare
Pranav Chopra, a product development engineer, and Neeraj Kumar, an industrial designer, were complete strangers when they met at the Stanford-India Biodesign Innovation fellowship programme held at AIIMs, Delhi, in 2014. Six years later, they are giving finishing touches to a medical device that has the potential to significantly improve...
Continue Reading
New Leaf Dynamic: Billions of dollars worth post-harvest losses annually? Not with GreenCHILL™
Agriculture employs more than half of India’s population and generates the majority of income for most rural families. While India leads the globe in the production of spices, pulses, milk and fruit, the sector contributes merely 18 per cent to the GDP. Most Indian farmers lead a fraught existence with...
Continue Reading