Start-ups at NSRCEL, IIMB’s entrepreneurship and innovation hub, combat the COVID-19 crisis with creativity, collaboration and community
Start-ups from NSRCEL have responded proactively to tackle the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic using their current resources, technology, and expertise.
To support the healthcare infrastructure, two of NSRCEL’s start-ups, CHMI Indobionics and PupilMesh, from the India Innovation Challenge Design Contest (IICDC) have deployed their technology to support India’s healthcare infrastructure.
CHMI, a manufacturer of advanced, affordable prosthetics, founded by Humza Shaikh, now has employed 5000 migrant labourers to manufacture large-scale Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and low-cost ventilators. Currently, the team makes over 40,000 kits a day from four factories
PupilMesh, founded by Milind M Manoj and Mohammed Hazique Kola, is using their 3D printing expertise to meet the demand of face shields, ventilator mask and ventilator valves in the country. They have successfully manufactured the first set of face shields, aerosol boxes and deployed a couple of testing booths in Bangalore.
The start-ups at NSRCEL from Social Program are battling the worldwide pandemic at the forefront to serve the most vulnerable populations using their ingenuity to confront the problems on the ground. Some remarkable start-ups are mentioned here:
Mitti Cafe, run by differently-abled staff, is providing cooked meals and drinking water to 3,000 daily wage earners and the homeless every day. Alina Alam, the Founder of Mitti Cafe, and her team, has served 1,93,000+ meals in Bangalore, Bihar, and Kolkata till now through their ‘COVID Hunger Relief Program’.
Anthill Creations, a social venture founded by Pooja Rai, makes play accessible to all by building low cost and sustainable playscape. It has contributed to relief by serving over 1800 people by providing essential food packets and medical kits worth Rs 1,000 to migrant labour communities in Bangalore.
Meraki Foundation, a social start-up by Seemant Dadwal and Ghazal Gulati, is working with parents from low-income households to deepen their engagement in their children’s education at home and school. They have announced a collaboration with Delhi Government. They have put together episodes for a chat show to discuss and find solutions to the challenges of ‘Parenting in the time of Corona’.
Mantra4Change, a social start-up founded by Khushboo Awasthi and Santosh More, is enabling the under-resourced school to deliver quality education as the founders believe learning should not stop during the time of crisis. Mantra4Change is now the implementation partner of the Shikshalokam platform (Bodh) which has been accepted as a learning platform by the Andhra Pradesh government. The company has onboarded more than 50K teachers who are undergoing capacity building in a planned manner.
Let’s Be The Change (LBTC) is a non-profit organisation from Bangalore founded by Anirudh S Dutt that aims to build a cleaner and healthier society by working with citizens and the Government. They are mobilising their volunteers to connect residents to the nearest provision stores, police stations, and medical stores in Bangalore through online maps.
ThinkZone, founded by Binayak Acharya, is using accessible technology to work with low-income families on developing positive parent-child relationships. During the time of crisis, ThinkZone has been implementing their home-based model of learning for the low-income group families where parents can enable their children to learn over a phone call for free. So far, they have been able to help more than 8,000 families.
Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF), a social venture by Nelson Vinod Moses, facilitates community-based interventions for suicide prevention through training and workshops. SPIF is connecting people with mental health professionals who are offering free counselling to combat the increasing numbers of psychological issues during the lockdown. SPIF collated a list of 100+ mental health professionals for the people to seek help from.
Taxshe is headed by Vandana Suri with a mission to make India a safer place for families to commute by providing women drivers, for the women, children, and senior citizens. The team is now driving senior citizens, pregnant women, and children in need of sanitised drives for the emergencies during the lockdown.
Many start-ups of NSRCEL from the Launchpad program have deployed cutting-edge technology to solve the various challenges with the corona outbreak in the country.
Fabric Monde, founded by Ranjith J N, Jyothi Dakkumalla, and Hemalatha Kanneganti, is a B2B platform connecting SME textile mills to fashion brands across the world. The company is leveraging its strength and now manufacturing Quality Certified Surgical Masks made of non-woven textile and high-quality Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kits for hospital chains. So far, the organisation has produced and delivered 50,000 PPE kits across India.
MedPiper Technologies, headed by Nitthin Chandran Nair, connects authenticated, verified doctors and healthcare professionals to service opportunities at nearby hospitals and healthcare organisations. During these challenging times they have pooled in locally available doctors to enable a functional medical camp in Chikmagalur, Malapurram, and Hassan, to look after 300-350 patients every day and have catered to more than 3000 patients since March 2020. They have launched a free marketplace for connecting PPE, essentials, and sanitiser manufacturers in Bangalore with hospitals in need via www.corvid.glideapp.io.
Yobny Tech, founded by Saurabh Vyas, is building a marketplace platform using machine-learning algorithms and Blockchain technology. Their product QueueOne is a next-gen crowd-management platform that saves time for individuals and increases business value for vendors. It allows users to join virtual queues via the mobile/web app, and avail services without waiting for them in long lines. With their technology, they are helping hospitals/clinics/retailers and trying to move their customer queue to a digital avatar and promoting social distancing.
Gordian Technologies, founded by Prajwal Ajay, is a start-up delivering valuable goods and confidential documents securely using IoT enabled devices. To help the healthcare infrastructure in the current situation, they have developed a product to facilitate the process of safe transportation of testing kits and medicines between hospitals or to patient residences and to provide easy tracking and continuous surveillance of potentially contagious swab samples.
As a silver lining in this grim situation, some of the women entrepreneurs of NSRCEL are doing exceptionally well to combat the situation.
Canectar Foods, a start-up of NSRCEL from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program, is Maharashtra’s largest Agro-based Farm Direct Company in the organised cane juice sector founded by Kirty Datar and Milind Datar. Amidst Covid-19 crisis, the company has started an initiative, ‘Donate Meal Pune’, to feed police officials, stranded migrants, daily wagers, and labour camps till the lockdown continues. They have donated 1,13,152+ meals to date. Besides meals, they have also provided masks, gloves, sanitisers, PPE Kits, etc. to police officials, health care workers, Indian Army, and central railways.
Spudnik Farms, a start-up of NSRCEL from Women Start-up Program founded by Sumeet Kaur, is a community of local farmers growing and supplying organic vegetables directly to consumers. During the lockdown, Spudnik Farms is providing pesticide-free, fresh, local vegetables (standard box) to Bangaloreans through contact-less delivery.
Nativ Chefs, another start-up from Women Start-up Program founded by Leena Dixit, is delivering authentic home-cooked dishes right at the doorstep of customers in Nagpur. Amidst the crisis, the company has distributed over 13,000 meal boxes made by home chefs to the underprivileged in Nagpur.