Marico Foundation awards 7 innovators

Founded in 2012, Dhruva Space is India’s first private technology start-up aimed at developing indigenous capacities in satellite technology that are used in various government projects.

Mumbai: Growing up in a family with a military background, Sanjay Nekkanti would be fascinated looking at fighter jets taking off. As an engineering student, Nekkanti was involved in building a nanosatellite with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which propelled him to build a career in the private space sector.

“Agriculture is facing an existential crisis in terms of good production, farmer’s livelihoods, soil nutrient integrity, biodiversity losses, global warming,” said Vijay Kumar, executive vice-chairperson, RySS. “We should accept that we are in a climate emergency, and the way we produce food is a major cause of this situation. We, therefore, need to transition from disruptive to regenerative farming.” (HT PHOTO)

“My friends made fun of me. I decided to speak to 1,000 investors. It’s the 163rd investor who believed in my vision of building a spacecraft, carrying it into orbit and tracking it while travelling into the cosmos,” said Nekkanti at the 9th Innovation for India Awards by the Marico Innovation Foundation on Wednesday.

Founded in 2012, Dhruva Space is India’s first private technology start-up aimed at developing indigenous capacities in satellite technology that are used in various government projects.

Nekkanti’s team were among the four innovations recognised in the business category by MIF.

The other three include Ishitva Robotic Systems – AI-powered sorting machinery to manage large volumes of waste faster – Dozee – a healthcare company focussing on contactless service – and Qure.AI – an AI-driven startup which detects various abnormalities in the lung and brain via X-ray and CT scan.

Awards to three innovations in the social category included India Development Review, which is the country’s first independent platform for the development of the community by making Indians literate in terms of social knowledge. While Khushi Baby is a digitally integrated community health platform that has helped many pregnant women and their infants get access to healthcare, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) is a farmer’s empowerment organisation that has got six lakh farmers in Andhra Pradesh to adopt natural farming practices.

“Agriculture is facing an existential crisis in terms of good production, farmer’s livelihoods, soil nutrient integrity, biodiversity losses, global warming,” said Vijay Kumar, executive vice-chairperson, RySS. “We should accept that we are in a climate emergency, and the way we produce food is a major cause of this situation. We, therefore, need to transition from disruptive to regenerative farming.”

Through the recognition, MIF will provide these innovators access to the relevant ecosystem stakeholders (such as investors, industry and business leaders) to help accelerate their growth journey.

“The range of sectors in the start-up space has evolved over the years with matured innovations. Four to five years ago, the thrust was on areas such as edtech and fintech. Now, innovations are across the board, focusing on finding solutions to problems of everyday lives, which wasn’t the case a few years ago,” said Amit Chandra, honorary chairperson, governing council, MIF, and chairperson, Bain Capital India Office. “There’s an emergence of entrepreneurs in tier II and III cities because the imagination of youth is fired up.”

Chandra added, “These innovators are not second or third-generation entrepreneurs, but are people who come with an idea, are bootstrapped, and raise money through venture capitalists and angel investors.

The Global Gamechanger Innovation Award was conferred to CoWin – Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network – which is a web portal for Covid-19 vaccination registration and supply chain management that is owned and operated by the union ministry of Health and Family Welfare.