Free WiFi for people who dispose trash into dustbins, a smartphone app to take care of parking woes, an arterial pulse analyser to help diagnose cardiovascular diseases, an SMS vaccination reminder service, or even a platform to combat child trafficking. While citizens of all walks of life irrespective of age or education background are responding to Digital India in a big way, this is how technology giant Ericsson pitched in for ‘Networked India 2015’.
Ericsson is not developing these on its own, but has invited nominations from innovators across the country in a bid to select top five projects related to subjects and sectors such as Healthcare, Environment, Transport and Human Rights. Here are the top five concepts that aim to solve problems in sectors like Healthcare, Environment, Transport and Human Rights.
1) Arterial Pulse Analyzer
Sushant Poojary of IIT Bombay and Maryland University PhD student Pradeep Gatkine with their low cost Arterial Pulse Analyzer aim to help clinicians diagnose CardioVascular Diseases (CVDs) cases. Given that cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death in the country, the duo’s innovation targets rural India. The non-invasive diagnostic instrument with onboard analysis being performed on a mobile phone or tablet promises to make diagnosis more effective by automating the process. This highly portable instrument doesn’t require trained healthcare professionals to run it and costs around Rs 4,000. It will include features like wireless data acquisition and cloud storage of reports.
Poojary also mentioned the possibility of delivering this analyser in the form of a fitness band. As the technology is clinically approved, the reports from the wearable could be used by doctors, unlike other commercially available devices.
2) ImmunizeIndia
The simple concept delivered by The Better India aims at reminding parents to vaccinate their child on time. Claiming to be the world’s largest free SMS service to get vaccination reminders, founder Dhimant Parekh and co-founder Anuradha have partnered with Vodafone for providing free SMS reminders. To register for the timely alerts, the parent needs to SMS “Immunize {space} Name of child {space} Date of birth (DD-MM-YYYY)” to 566778. The registered mobile number will receive three reminders for a particular vaccine – two before the ideal date and one after it.
3) Constapark
Do you dread driving to some place in your city because of lack of parking space? Well, Constapark is a parking on demand app build with exactly this scenario in mind. Though it is currently available in Bengaluru only, the app lets users pick and drop cars without worrying about parking.
So, while visiting a place, you can request for a driver to pick up your car at a specified location on the app and then get it delivered at the same or different location as per your need. Constapark has its own parking inventory in five busy pockets of the city and in these areas, the driver ensures that your car gets parked within a kilometer radius.
This is an insured service and Constapark offers up to Rs 50 lakh in insurance. The service is available for Rs 70 for the first hour and Rs 35 per hour after it. Owners can also request for car wash and refuelling during the idle time. There is a chat facility in the app through which the owner can be in touch with the valet driver always.
4) WiFi Trash Bin
The idea is simple. Dump trash in designated dustbins to get free WiFi. The innovation which considers both Swachh Bharat and Digital India has been put into effect by co-founders Raj Desai and Pratik Agarwal from Mumbai. Both innovators are not techies. And Desai informs that the idea struck while partying at a popular event. WiFi Trash Bin gives out a unique passcode to users to access free WiFi Internet every time they put trash in the bin. It was first executed at NH7 Weekender music festival along with MTS.
5) Helping Faceless
This app aims to combat child trafficking by creating a platform for community policing. Founded by Amol Gupta and Shashank Singh, the aim is to track children and help them get back to their homes. We all are familiar with Facebook posts from people like “Please share and spread the word about this child in the photograph attached below to help him/her reach home.” The Helping Faceless app is all about this. So, if you spot a missing child you can immediately alert the team. They have collaborated with local police and NGOs to help the particular missing child reach his/her home.
Both Arterial Pulse Analyzer and ImmunizeIndia were the winning projects at Ericsson Networked India 2015 and were awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh to each. The jury panel included Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM; Harkesh Mittal, Head of Innovation, National S & T Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), DST, Govt of India; Nishant Rao, Country Manager, LinkedIn & Chairman, IAMAI; Alok Goel, MD, SAIF Partners & Former CEO, Freecharge; Sonam Wangchuk, Innovator & Founder, SECMOL.
Did you like the above projects? Are you working on any project of your own? Feel free to share your opinion or idea in the comment section below or [email protected]
