BENGALURU: The world’s first robotic artificial well recharge technology, an innovative learning app and an AI-powered water quality analyzer were announced by Infosys Foundation on Friday as winners of the 4th Aarohan Social Innovation Awards.These awards recognize individuals and teams who have developed innovative solutions for social good, improving lives and uplifting communities across the country in three categories: education, health care, and environmental sustainability. The winners, chosen from among 2,000 entries, received a cash prize of Rs 5 million each, and the foundation also awarded Rs 10 million to five social innovators who were winners of the Special Jury Award.A Bengaluru team comprising Rajesh A. Rao, Ravindra S. Rao and Deepa LB Rajeev won the award in the education category for developing an interactive learning program called ‘Connecting the Dots’ that teaches STEM subjects and English conversation to government school students of classes VI to X through daily live lab kits, scholarships and teacher training. In the environmental sustainability category, Rahul Suresh Bakare and Vinit Moreshwar Phadnis from Pune won the award for their bore charger, which is said to be the world’s first robotic artificial well recharge technology. This innovation allows the injection of 4-8 million liters of rainwater per year into existing wells, improving irrigation, agricultural production and farmers’ incomes, as well as the quality and quantity of drinking water. The third and highest award in the healthcare category went to Chitranjan Singh and Robin Singh of New Delhi for developing an AI and IoT-enabled portable water quality analyzer. The analyzer tests 14 key parameters and generates a real-time GPS-tagged report within 30 minutes to identify waterborne diseases. —————————————Our priority is to close the education and employment gap: Director, Infosys FoundationSumit Virmani, Director, Infosys Foundation, believes that at the heart of the Aarohan Social Innovation Award is the belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Excerpts from an interview with TOI: What inspired Infosys Foundation to establish these awards? About seven years ago, Sudha Murthy and I talked about how we should also focus on a concept she envisioned: an ecosystem of changemakers who can solve social problems at scale. This ultimately led to the creation of Aarohan. When we launched the first edition of this award in 2018, the field of social innovation in India was fragmented, so at that time it was a completely new field. Seven years and four editions later, it has attracted participants from all over India, with representatives from all 28 states. How does the Foundation select the winning works?This year, we have chosen education, healthcare and environmental sustainability as categories because these are continuing priorities in areas where the Foundation is already active. We were guided by several key aspects in our shortlist entries, starting with size. In other words, innovation should have the potential to impact the lives of as many people as possible. The second factor was the passion and engagement of innovators, and finally, we looked at the use of technology to turn these innovative ideas into scalable solutions. What success stories come to mind?Prashant Gade was recognized in the first edition of Aarohan for his research focused on developing affordable prosthetic limbs for Indians. His Inari Foundation has fitted over 15,000 prosthetic legs. Another outstanding innovator is Ajinkya. His project addressed the issue of menstrual waste. He developed a technology to convert menstrual waste into a material that can be recycled into products such as cardboard. Ajinkya’s idea not only garnered widespread attention, including an appearance on Shark Tank and an investment offer, but he also managed to expand his business to more than 20 cities. What are the Foundation’s future priorities?As far as the Foundation is concerned, one of our big priorities is closing the gap between education and employment.
