What’s inside

Foreword

A story that inspires

In conversation with Dr. Arun Jamkar

Amazing innovation

Events

INDIA’s IDEA Founding members

Issue : 5, 17 Feb, 2016 About i4C Foreword

With pleasure, I bring to you another edition of i4c’s monthly newsletter. We have slightly modified the name of the newsletter from ‘ ka Idea’ to ‘India’s Idea’. In this issue, we have an article on Jadav Molai Payeng—the Forest Man of India, who had achieved sensational success in the initiative towards afforestation. Incredibly, Jaday Molai Payeng single-handedly built a sprawling, lush-green, and dense forest spread over an expanse of 1,360 acres or 550 hectares in 34 years, which is now habitat to Bengal tigers, elephants, deer, rhinoceros, birds and many other animals.

This issue also features an interview with Dr Arun Jamkar – one of the founder members of i4c, who was till recently the Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS). In the interview, he tells us about how the idea of founding i4c was conceived, i4c’s mission, i4c’s modes of identifying innovative ideas, the way i4c assists the identified innovators and i4c’s major Dr. Abhay Jere achievements thus far. You can also read an interview with innovator Mahesh Rathi – who has built Convenor, i4c solar-powered ice-cream cart, as well as solar-power driven cold storages. Editor, India’s Idea Hope you find this edition of India’s Idea interesting. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Thanks, Abhay A story that inspires A story that inspires...

Can you imagine the amount of satisfaction that one would derive by planting a forest single- handedly and then having various forms of life sprouting and thriving in it? Isn’t it that incredible Godly feeling to create a mini-world and infuse life into it? Nestled in in northeast India, some 350 kms from Guwahati by road, in the middle of - is Island—a long, narrow sandbank that happens to be the largest river island on Earth, home to some 150,000 people. In this island – sits Molai Kathoni (Molai’s woods) named after Jaday Molai Payeng—its creator.

This is an incredible and amazing story of will-power and perseverance, in which Jaday Molai Payeng single-handedly built a forest over a period of 34 years. He was born in 1963, and hails from Assam belonging to the Mishing tribal community in district. He started planting trees in the year 1979 – the year in which Assam was ravaged by flood. He was deeply moved by the sight of lifeless snakes that were previously washed ashore by river Brahmaputra, but later died Jadav Payeng due to heat and starvation. In 1979, the social forestry division of launched a scheme of tree plantation on over 200 hectares of land at Aruna Chapori, situated close to Jorhat. Jadav was one of the laborers in this project. However, after completion of the project, when the rest of the laborers packed and went away, Jadav stayed on – and this is how it all started.

As a result, a sprawling, lush-green, and dense forest spread over an expanse of 1,360 acres or 550 hectares - which is even bigger than NewYork’s Central Park, exists today. On April 22, 2012, Jadav Payeng was honored at a public function organized by the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, for his outstanding achievement. JNU vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory conferred him the title of “Forest Man of India”. In 2015, he was honored by former

Contd... A story that inspires Contd... president of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, with Padma Shri - the fourth highest civilian award in India.

Molai Kathoni now has various forms of life inhabiting in it. Bengal tigers, elephants, deer, rhinoceros, and birds among many other animals have made the forest their habitat. A herd of 150 elephants come every year to this forest. Rabbits, apes, and several varieties of birds including vultures form a part of the fauna of this forest. The bamboo tree zone covers majority of the forest-area, spreading over an estimated 300 hectares. Jadav Payeng had his share of hardships too. It was quite a difficult task to water the plants as he could not himself draw water from the river and water all the plants single-handedly. The area is too vast for one man. So, he came up with an innovative idea of building a bamboo platform on the top of each sapling and placing earthen pots with small holes in them. The water used to gradually drip onto the plants underneath, until the pots were completely drained. To improve the quality of the soil, Payeng released several ants, termites, earthworms, and other insects, which work-up the soil by digging burrows, thereby rendering them porous leading to better water circulation. This in turn makes the soil arable or fertile. Termites improve the soil condition chemically by secreting certain enzymes.

Jadav Payeng is married to Binita and has three children – two sons and a daughter. He lives in a small hut in the forest. He has cattle and buffalo, and sells the milk to villagers living in nearby villages for a livelihood.

What an incredible sense of accomplishment it must be to plant a forest all by one’s own-self that is luring enough to attract wild animals to come for shelter and living! In conversation with In conversation with Dr. Arun Jamkar Dr. Arun Jamkar is one of the founding members of Inter-Institutional Inclusive Innovations Centre (i4c). He was the vice-chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) until recently, before he retired. In this interview, he tells us about how the idea of founding i4c was conceived, i4c’s mission, the ways i4c identifies innovators from across India, how i4c assists innovators, and i4c’s major achievements.

How did the idea of founding i4c conceive? It all started with organizing Inclusive Innovations 2013 competition in Pune in collaboration with Persistent Systems, Sakal Media, and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS). I was Arun Jamkar then the vice-chancellor of MUHS. A phenomenal number of 35,000 innovators participated in Former Vice-chancellor of Maharashtra this competition, and an even more phenomenal 1 lac 50,000 people came to watch this event. University of Health Sciences (MUHS) The competition was such a grand success that the then governor of Maharashtra Mr Kateekal Sankaranarayanan, said that such an event should not be a one-time occurrence. That is when the idea of periodically hosting such an event struck us - through which innovative, path-breaking ideas from common people can come to fore. Upon discussion, we conceptualized the formation of an organization that would help build an eco-system of innovation in India.

As a founding member of i4c, please tell us about i4c’s mission? i4c’s mission is to build an ecosystem of innovation in India. By eco-system, infrastructure is not meant. Infrastructure already exists in the form of labs and incubators. Our mission is to bridge the gap between individuals with high-potential innovative ideas to labs and incubators and venture capitalists. We already have 55 industries collaborating with us. We will help innovators network to see their idea develop into market-ready products.

Besides hosting idea and innovation competition, how else does i4c intend to identify people with innovative ideas? i4c intends to build an interface between people of the country and industries. Anyone, who has a Contd... In conversation with Contd... good idea that they reckon can be transformed into market-ready products, can post their idea on the interface. If incubators, laboratories, industries find the idea interesting, they would then get in touch with the respective person, who has come up with the idea – to further develop it so that it can be transformed into market ready solution. Conversely, industries can also post the challenges they are facing - on the interface, asking people to come up with ideas that can be a solution to those challenges. Anyone, who has a potential idea that can overcome the challenge – can post it on the interface for the stakeholders to contact them.

Once you identify innovative ideas, how would you assist them for further development? Arun Jamkar We quest for innovative ideas to bring to fore high-potential concepts from people, which could Former Vice-chancellor of Maharashtra have otherwise languished going unnoticed. Once we identify them, we help the innovators network University of Health Sciences (MUHS) with appropriate entities like respective incubators, venture capitalists, labs, and industrialists – for further development of their idea into beneficial market-ready products.

What have been i4c’s major achievements since inception? During November 18-20, 2014 – i4c had collaborated with AICTE, CII, and DST to organize India Innovation Initiative (i3) in Greater Noida. The 2014 edition of the expo witnessed participation of 60 innovators (selected from over 1800 entrants) demonstrating the capabilities of their innovations. In i4c’s endeavor to provide platform to individuals with innovative ideas, it had organized the first of its kind science and technology innovation competition among students and scholars in the state of Goa. The event was organized in collaboration with Goa State Innovation Council, the Education Department Govt. of Goa, Vidnyan Parishad Goa, and Persistent Systems Ltd, in which 245 ideas were submitted. In October2015, i4c had organized Digital Pune Hackathon, along with Persistent Systems and Sakal Media Group. Pune based students of Computer Science and Electronics and Telecommunication came up with ideas on identified problems pertaining to power, water and sanitation, education, public health, transportation, and citizen security concerning Pune city. Several of the working- prototypes coded duing the hackathon are now being implemented in governing bodies like Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Transport and others. Amazing innovation Interview with Mahesh Innovation: S olar-powered ice-cream cart How did the idea of making a solar-powered ice-cream cart occur to you? Once, when I bought an ice-cream from an ice-cream vendor in Delhi, I found the ice-cream melting down my hand. When I asked the vendor to give me a more solid one, he said that it was not possible to keep the ice-creams completely solid as the scorching Delhi heat causes them to thaw in little time. As I was already working on for 4-5 years then, it occurred to me to why not make use the solar energy itself to keep the ice-creams from melting.

How long did it take you to come up with a prototype? It took us around 10-12 months to come up with the prototype. We have also developed a solar- power driven cold storage that can be installed on fishing-boats sailing out for several days. Currently, they use ice. These boats typically go out for 15-20 days in the sea. By using our cold- storage, which is of 4-5-ton capacity, each boat can save up to Rs 50,000 a month.

When will the solar-powered ice-cream cart be commercially available? And, what is going to be Mr. Mahesh Rathi your business model? They are already ready with us. In all probability, we are going to launch it in March, this year. The carts will be let out on rent to NGOs at a tentative rent of 6-7 thousand rupees per month. The NGOs can further let it out to individuals for selling ice-creams.

What is your long-term plan vis-à-vis the solar-powered ice-cream cart? In the long-run, we want to use these carts to sell fresh frozen-fish, which people can buy on the road itself—without the need to step into a market separately. Events Upcoming events

Past events Launch of i4c’s YouTube channel Digital Pune Hackathon 2015 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi envisages 100 smart cities in India. With this goal in mind he Inclusive Innovations launched the ‘Digital India’ initiative. In order to help materialize the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Date tentative. vision, i4c is organized an innovation competition followed by a 30-hour hackathon for under-graduate and post-graduate students of computer science/ENTC of Pune, to identify new, disruptive, and sustainable digital solutions to the problems the city of Pune is facing in various walks of life. The following governing bodies had provided the problems they are facing to accomplish their goals: • The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) • Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd. (PMPL) • Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) • Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) • Police Dept i4c had put forward these problems to the computer science students of all colleges in Pune. The students are engaged themselves to any of the problems in any of the sectors—based on their interest—to find out a viable idea that can be coded to form a digital solution. The evaluation committee screened the submitted ideas, and shortlisted the best amongst them. The corresponding students whose ideas were shortlisted were called upon for a 30-hour non-stop hackathon, where they coded to form working-prototypes on October 11, 2015. 6 ideas have been identified and are in the process of working with the respective governing bodies for effective implementation in Pune city. Goa Idea & Innovation Competition (Gi2C) 2015 The ‘Goa Idea & Innovation Competition (Gi2C) 2015’ event was organized in collaboration with Goa State Innovation Council, the Education Department Govt. of Goa, Vidnyan Parishad Goa, and Persistent Systems Ltd. This was the first of its kind science and technology innovation competition among students and scholars in the state of Goa. This event was organized as a part of the fourth Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan (BVS) 2015. Photo gallery Digital Pune Hackathon 2015 i4c house of experts The founding members team of i4c boasts of pack of experts with an exceptional experience.

Dr. Anand Deshpande Dr. Arun Jamkar Mr. Ravi Pandit Mr. Pramod Chaudhari CEO & Managing Director, Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra Co-founder, Chairman and Executive Chairman, Praj Industries Persistent Systems Limited University of Health Sciences (MUHS) Group CEO of KPIT Technologies

Dr. Ganesh Natrajan Mr. Ashok Kataria Dr. Rajendra Jagdale Mr. Ajay Bhagwat Vice President and Chairman, Ashoka Buildcom Ltd. Director General, Sciene and Founder, Renu Electronics CEO, Zensar Technologies Technology Park, UoP

Mr. Sharad Kalmegh Mr. Shrikrishna Chitale Mr. Gireendra Kasmalkar Mr. C. Manivannan Founder President, Swargiya Partner, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale MD and CEO, SQS India President, Suma Soft Pvt Ltd Dadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Pratishthan Dental College & Hospital

Mr. Bharat Agarwal Mr.. K. R. Natu Mr. Abhay Gadgil Executive Director, Managing Director, Deccan Mechanical Partner, PN Gadgil and Sons Vishwakarma Institute of Technology and Chemical Industries Private Limited (DEMECH) About i4c Acknowledgement What is i4c? We would like to acknowledge and thank the design • i4c is an independent, non-profit entity. and editorial team for their contribution in the first • i4c acts as a platform to proactively scout, showcase and handhold technology innovations, issue of the i4c e-newsletter especially aimed at the base of the pyramid. • Through i4C, we wish to systematically support innovations and innovators and make ‘India ka Idea’ themmarket ready. • i4c will also aggressively work to promote the culture of Innovation through crowdsourcing of Editorial Team Design Team new ideas, Grand challenges and Innovation competitions. • Our mentors include esteemed personalities like Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, Mr. Kiran Karnik & • Abhay Jere • Sachin Ranawade Dr. Anil Kakodkar. • Disha Singh • Ayananta Chowdhury Our achievements • Successfully organized the Digital Pune Hackathon 2015 among Engineering, and Electronics and Telecommunication • Nabanita Chatterjee students of Pune to overcome the constraints and challenges confronted by various city-governing bodies by means of building digital solutions, so that these governing bodies - can not only extend higher quality service, but also delightful ones to the citizens of Pune. • Collaborated with Goa State Innovation Council, the Education Department Govt. of Goa, Vidnyan Parishad Goa, and Persistent Systems Ltd to host the first-of-its-kind science and technology innovation competition among students and Persistent Systems Ltd. scholars in the state of Goa. The event was named – Goa Idea & Innovation Competition 2015. Aryabhatta-Pingala 9A/12, • Partner with CII, DST and AICTE in India’s biggest Innovation Challenge - India Innovation Erandwane, Pune-411004, Initiative (i3), 2014. Maharashtra, India. • Knowledge partner in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by Govt. of India, 2014. 020-67036702 • Knowledge & technical partner at National Level Summit on Srijan Bharati 2014 - Safe drinking water and sanitation organized by Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Govt. of India. • Inclusive Innovation 2013 was the most successful innovation initiative in India till date : www.i4c.co.in - 150+ innovations showcased [email protected] - 1,50,000+ people witnessed these innovations - 50+ industrialists involved in determining the commercial of innovations www.facebook.com/InclusiveInnovations • Knowledge Partner for Deloitte reports – Inclusive Indian Innovations – Perspectives & Case Studies (2013) and the https://twitter.com/IndiaKaIdea Innovation Ecosystem in India (2014). https://www.linkedin.com/company/ Contact : inter-institutional-inclusive-innova- Dr. Abhay Jere tions-center---i4c?trk=biz-companies-cym Convenor i4C, Editor, India ka Idea