Infosys Foundation awards Rs 1.7 cr prize money to 12 social innovators

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of IT major Infosys, Tuesday said it will award 12 social innovators in the country with prize money worth Rs 1.7 crore for developing solutions for social causes.

Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty told PTI that the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards were instituted with the vision to recognise and reward individuals, teams or NGOs that are developing solutions for the social sector that can positively impact the underprivileged in India, at scale.

"These awards span across six categories like healthcare, rural development, destitute care, women's safety and empowerment, education sports, and sustainability. We received 906 submissions and have chosen 12 winners who will get prize money ranging from Rs 5-30 lakhs," she said.

The gold and platinum winners will also be offered eight-weeks of residential mentorship at IIT-Hyderabad where they will get help like scaling the product, enhancement in products etc. The associated costs will be jointly sponsored by IIT Hyderabad and Infosys Foundation, Murty said.

The platinum awards of Rs 30 lakh have been given to Prashant Gade from Madhya Pradesh (who has developed a low-cost myo-electric prosthetic arm called Inali Arm), and Khushwant Rai and Anjali Khurana from Punjab (who have created an affordable personal braille printer).

Other innovations include products like a water-disinfecting hand pump, a SmartLoo platform, a mobility device for the specially-abled (Handicare), and a smart automated drug delivery and anti-pollution mask for respiratory patients called Caeli.

"These innovators face a number of challenges like unavailability of funds to scale up the products, lack of facilities to test their products and the right mentorship. we are committed to providing continued encouragement for such innovations and help scale their impact to change lives of those in need," Murty said.