3M India Awards the Winners of '3M-CII Young Innovators Challenge Awards 2019'

BANGALORE, Aug. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Recognises ideas that focuses on Disruptive Innovations to create Social Impact

• Sixth edition of challenge received over 800+ disruptive innovations from across India
• Witnessed 100+ entries from rural India, offering a promising future for rural innovation

3M India, today, announced the winners of the sixth edition of 3M-CII Young Innovators Challenge Awards at the 15^th CII Innovation Summit 2019 in Bangalore. The challenge focussed on the theme 'Disruptive Innovations to Create Social Impact' and recognised and rewarded innovations across the categories of product, service and rural innovation. This year's challenge looked for innovations that can either displace an existing situation to replace it with positive change or alter the status quo with variables that can create wider social impact. Over 800+ entries were received from urban and rural India.

3M has long been synonymous with Innovation. To encourage this culture of innovation, in 2014, 3M India collaborated with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), to create an inclusive platform for innovators from across India -  urban, rural, semi-urban, enterprise, individuals etc. The Challenge encourages the submission of ideas and projects, in the areas of health, education, livelihood, environment, governance and/or inclusive development. As a testimony to its success, the challenge over the years has seen a significant upward trend in the number of applications increasing from 300+ entries in 2016 to over 800+ entries in 2019.  Even more encouragingly, the 'Rural Innovations' category introduced in 2018, also witnessed remarkable participation with 100+ eligible nominations received this year.

Congratulating the winners and emphasizing the need for innovation, Mr. Ramesh Ramadurai, Managing Director, 3M India, commented, "3M has been a leader in innovation for the past 100+ years. We believe that innovation can and should create inclusive, cost-effective and sustainable solutions especially in a diverse country like ours. Building a skilled-talent pool by promoting STEM education along with public-private partnerships, will foster a climate for innovation and encourage talent. Keeping this in mind, we instituted this award together with CII, which recognises and motivates pathbreaking ideas from young innovators across the country." He added, "To make this award a truly inclusive one, last year, we introduced a category to encourage participation from innovators in rural India, which has received resounding response."

Of the 800 entries received this year, the top 59 entries were selected by experts from development and technical sector. The 18 best ideas were shortlisted to pitch their innovation to the grand jury, based on which six winners were selected. This year, the challenge has introduced two prizes for each category. 'Idea Prize' for strong proof of concept prototyped with concrete plans for execution, and 'Impact Prize' to acknowledge innovations at work, (either already institutionalized or underway) with the ability to create a positive and socially responsible impact.

In addition to getting an opportunity to present their winning ideas at the banquet session of the CII India Innovation Summit in Bangalore, the group are also given grants by 3M and encouraged to seek mentorship should they need it. 3M is also a global strategic partner of Nobel Media and offers the winners an opportunity to attend the Nobel Prize Series and meet the laureates, whenever the event comes to India.

Winning Projects Under Product-innovation Category

Impact Prize

Project Title: The Nirnal Water Filter (Reusable Water Bottle with Integrated Disposal Filter)

Participant (s): Niranjan Karagi and Pradumn Karagi, Angadi Institute of Technology and Management, Chennai

Idea Summary: Nirnal is an innovative and cost-effective portable water filter that provides safe drinking water anytime, anywhere, contributing to social initiatives working for creating access to safe drinking water for all. Alongside it also aims to reduce global environmental pollution challenges by posed by re-use of PET bottles

Idea Prize

Project Title: White Coal from Jute Sticks

Participant (s): Katha Sur and Karan Ghorai, Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata

Idea Summary: As the project title suggests, the innovation lies in utilising jute sticks to make white coal (biomass briquettes). Commercialising this innovation has high importance as it can uplift the socio-economic status of jute farm families as they can improve their incomes by selling jute sticks with good profit margins.

Winning Projects Under Service-innovation Category:

Impact Prize

Project Title: PeriFerri - Equal Opportunities for the Transgender Community

Participant (s): Neelam Jain and Nishant Agarwal, PerryFerri, Chennai

Idea Summary: PeriFerri is a one-of-a-kind Indian social enterprise working towards empowering the transgender community. It creates sustainable and dignified livelihoods for the transgender individuals of the country through Training & Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Idea Prize

Project Title: Auto Rescue System

Participant (s): Vivek Justus, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai

Idea Summary: This is an innovative device that is triggered automatically when an accident occurs. If the victim is not seriously injured, the device can be stopped by pressing the stop button. But if there is no response from the victim, the device communicates with the satellite through GPS to get the longitude and latitude values and generate an SMS with these values and makes a call to 108 with the location details. Once 108 has the necessary information, it can respond immediately to the situation with the rescue. The device also enables 108 to communicate directly with the victim.

Winning Projects Under Rural-innovation Category:

Impact Prize

Project Title: Menstrual Hygiene Management (Mhm) in Simdega District, Jharkhand

Participant (s): Komal Ramdey and Satwik Mishra, SBI Foundation, Ranchi

Idea Summary: This project advocate for safe and hygienic menstrual practices by improving the status of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Simdega district, Jharkhand. Three aspects that are covered in the project scope are -breaking the silence, menstrual hygiene management (practices and access to absorbents) and safe disposal of menstrual waste. The project was initiated under the name of "Garima Abhiyan" in September 2018.

Idea Prize

Project Title: Eco-friendly Water Retention Natural Polymer

Participant (s): Narayan Lal Gurjar and Ankit Jain, EF Polymer Private Limited, Updaipur

Idea Summary: It is a low-cost device to retain water with high efficiency. This natural polymer has been designed using organic wastes such as orange peels, banana peels and peepal barks with gel. It is a biodegradable product that completely pollution-free and easily mixes with soil and does not pose any threats to the future environmentally. Also, being non-chemical based, it is harmless to crops, soil, and farmers and help in longer retention of water for the crop.

About 3M

At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $33 billion in sales, our 93,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M's creative solutions to the world's problems at www.3M.com or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.

3M in India

3M was established in India in 1988 and has completed 30 years of operations. 3M's headquarters in India is based in Bengaluru with branch offices at Mumbai, Gurgaon, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. 3M leverages its global innovation expertise to develop homegrown solutions that address the unique needs of diverse customers in Indian markets. 3M's Innovation Centers at Bengaluru and Gurgaon help boost innovation in India for India and its manufacturing footprint is spread across Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad. Today 3M science is improving the lives of millions of Indians - from products that improve manufacturing efficiency and healthcare delivery to safety solutions that enhance road visibility and worker safety and everyday home cleaning solutions. 3M Design Center at the Innovation Center in Bengaluru is one of five 3M Design Centers in the world where 3M takes a proactive route in developing meaningful brand experiences through design.

About CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes. CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process. Founded in 1895, India's premier business association has over 8000 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 200,000 enterprises from around 240 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.

The India Innovation Summit is an annual flagship event being organized by CII in Bangalore. Since its inception in 2005, the India Innovation Summit has brought together over 5000 experts in Innovation from diverse background including major R&D Companies, Government, Academia and Start-ups to discuss and deliberate on 'Innovation'.

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