Eco-Friendly Pencils in India

Vikash Khandelwal graduated from college at a time when polypropylene plastic stationery was popular in the market. He too started a business as a stationery supplier in Coimbatore, majorly supplying file covers and folders made of the same material. But a few years down the road, when the world began talking about “eco-friendly” products, Vikash too decided to try his hand at creating products that would not harm the environment. His latest creation is the most interesting of all the products he has designed and manufactured so far – pencils made out of newspaper.

All pencils are 172 mm in length and comfortably thick for children of all ages to use. The glue used is not just of extremely good quality but also gives a cushion effect to the lead so that it does not break if the pencil is dropped. Moreover, the glue has an amazing waterproofing effect on the newsprint material; it helps ensure the paper does not get soggy even if it is left in water for more than six hours at a stretch.

Vikash and his team are able to make two pencils from a double sheet of a newspaper. The newspaper sheet is cut into half, horizontally. The piece of lead, which is sourced from China, is placed at one corner and has to be stuck manually. A machine is used to tightly roll the paper around the lead and special glue is applied simultaneously and evenly inside all the layers.

As soon as the pencils were ready in 2015, Vikash placed them in a few stationery shops in Coimbatore. Although the local market was not really for these eco-friendly pencils, word about them spread soon enough and customized orders kept the manufacturing unit busy.

Vikash says the ECO’ME pencils have been given as return gifts at a little girl’s birthday party. He also used them at his own school reunion, gifting all his old classmates two pencils each. Many hotels place these pencils in prominent positions in their establishments and they are also given to people attending various events and conferences.

Vikash’s 13-year-old daughter Siya and others in his family helped him test samples of the newspaper pencils at every stage and their critical opinions helped him come up with the final product that is currently in the market

My Children App

A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that by 2025, every second child born, will be autistic and every sixth child will face developmental problems. Despite these figures however, developmental issues tend to remain unaddressed and are still largely misunderstood.

Anything that escapes the boxed understanding of ‘normal’ is instantly termed ‘abnormal’ or ‘disabling,’ in a way that the product of its efforts would fail to derive the expected result. But what the society fails to realise is that there are ample ways to achieve something, even if it means that one has to take ‘the road less travelled.’ Harsh Songra is proof of this.

Harsh grew up with a developmental coordination disorder called dyspraxia, which affected his motor and cognitive abilities. He was 9 years old when he was first diagnosed.

When he was in elementary school, Harsh failed in an exam. His teacher’s reaction was to ask him, during a parent-teacher meeting, to attend a school meant for the ‘disabled.’The teacher failed to understand that the only difference between differently-abled individuals and others lies in the fact that while one might take 4 hours to complete a certain task, another might take just two.

Unfortunately however, Harsh’s teacher is not the only one labouring under misconceptions. The need of the hour is to raise awareness and improve understanding of mental health problems, while breaking the taboo surrounding such problems. Their also needs to be greater acceptance of individuals dealing with these problems, which should be treated using therapy and not superstitious beliefs.

Not one to let his circumstances define him, Harsh turned what others might view as a weakness, into a business opportunity.

The app focusses on identifying developmental, neurological, motor and speech impairment related issues in a child, through a questionnaire. It asks for the child’s age, weight and height and then asks parents to answer a questionnaire consisting of only ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. The App derives the results in merely 45 seconds, the same results that took Harsh’s parents 9 years to get. It can be used for children aged between the ages of 1 to 24 months.

It is not meant to replace doctors or do their work for them, but rather, is meant to work as a point of referral as it can recommend doctors according to the child’s needs.

Harsh’s app received praise from people worldwide, with over 12,000 downloads on Google Play from 140+ countries. His work is also proof that smartphones can be used to solve real world health problems.

Harsh plans to upgrade the App with features that focus on things to take care of during pregnancy, the do’s and don’ts of parenting and a community consisting of both, parents and doctors where all parties can discuss the various issues they may face related to their child’s health.

Alternative for Bottled Water – Water ATM

When the massive anti-corruption protests led by Anna Hazare swept Delhi, city cleaners also had to sweep away thousands of plastic water bottles. While the protestors were on the roads shouting slogans throughout the day, they needed water to quench their thirst. But access to safe drinking water was a problem. The most convenient option was bottled water. For those who couldn’t afford these bottles priced at Rs 20 each, cheaply available water packets that are largely unsafe for consumption were the only source of water. The city had no other convenient and accessible public sources of drinking water. At the end of the day, many fell ill from drinking contaminated water and the plastic menace was revolting.

Vikas Malik was shocked to see this situation. He wanted to change the scenario and make safe drinking water accessible and affordable for all. With this vision, Vikas joined hands with his friends Jatin Ahlawat, Parveen Singh, Ajay Yadav, and Mohamad Yunus Ansari. “We are a team of engineers, automation experts, water technology experts and social workers. We decided that we will build drinking water ATMs – water vending machines that will dispense water that is purified using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology at a cost that everyone can afford. With this intent we started Abhyuday Automation in 2013,” says Vikas.

After investing over two years in raising funds and building a robust technology, the team launched water vending machines called ‘Pi-lo’ in 2015.

How is Pi-lo able to provide RO water at this price? Vivek Malik explains, “RO purified water is considered 100% pure for consumption. But the technology’s biggest downfall is the wastage. The usual rate of wastage in RO filters is as high as 40-50%. We decided on Zero Liquid Discharge technology, where 95% of the input water is made available for consumption. This helped us reduce the wastage cost. Then we decided that we will not spend any money on advertising. We decided to partner with public institutions and make our vending carts visibly available in public places. We also made sure that our water transportation cost is low by creating water source points across Delhi. All this helped us in keeping our pricing exceptionally low”.

As much as the team wanted to keep the cost low, they also were obsessed with the quality of water. Pi-lo has a real time water quality display, something that no one in the country is currently doing. Its built-in sensors check purity in terms of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), temperature and ph level of water and display these for the users in real time. They have also made testing kits available at the kiosks for people to check the water quality for themselves. The kiosks display and distribute printed information about the standard water purity indicators to create awareness. “If the water quality is below the standards, Pi-lo just shuts down and will not dispense water

The Indian Way Of Innovation

Innovation definition:  If someone improves on or makes a significant contribution to an existing product, process or service called "Innovation".

A small change in existing process or product can give much more results some time. A small murch of street side who are selling corn flour in southern part of india is working on his duty in treditional way, which means firing the corn flour with fanning every time and spending 4 to 5 hours near to fire making him as thing differently.

So he started to think innovative way, the result is an existing product is modifed in a better way. 

The traditiona way of firing of corn flour is showin in below image:

The new way which the street seller emrged with new idea as shown below:

The new approch is he connected a fan to a stick with some tube light and then he pluged this equpment to powe plug. The result is a small idea wich reduces work, time, and effort.

This is the way innovate ourself according to struggle. An Innovation mean we not only innovate Airebus, Boing, and etc. An innovation which will available in every corner of world.

Low cost 3D Printer by indian Students.

The new world feeling heat with technology. The 3-D printer is the 21st century invention which is making easy the work of labour.

The world's first 3D printing office building is constructed in Dubai. It takes 30 days to complete office. The cost for construction is reduced 50% of overall cost

In order to create all the pieces needed for the office, builders used a 3D printer measuring 20 feet hight, 120 feet long, and 40 feet width. It took very small team of workers to put the office together.

This type of printer is created some engineering students in india. The cost of 3D printers regularly in million of cost. But these students are created a cheap model of 3D printer for only 37000 INR. This 3D printer is chepest in the terms of cost of the world.

Remember guys really india is going in a right that is in a innovative way but not coping or imitating of theres. Thisis the way Make in India is raising in the hands of young india. The 3D printing as cheaper model for india at MakerFest NID. Please visit below link for more details .

You can see more details from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad-J5sOXCtQ

Air-O-Bike amongst Top Innovations of India during the Year 2015

Top Innovation of the Year 2015 

Innovators are:
Air-O-Bike is one of the Top 10 Innovations as: UP ki Shaan, Lucknow ki Pahchaan and SMS ki JaanThe Innovation of Air-O-Bike once placed in the market for commercial use it will improve the Environment for the betterment of society.

i). Bharat ki Shaan 

ii). Make in India ki Pahchaan 
iii). Skill India ki Jaan

Th only indians are concern about clean enviorment. For example you can see rual innovations news.

A man in gujrat created a refrigrator without electricity. It makes vegitable freash in 7 days.

It is working on water mechanism.

For more, just watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_LDsB8ddXI