Two Indian startups won the Mohammed Bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity award at the second edition of Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The initiative, named after the ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the UAE, seeks to recognise achievements that positively contribute to the well being of the world while promoting resilience, community, harmony and dignity.
GARV Toilets (providers of IoT enabled smart sanitation services) won in the ‘Sustainable Cities’ category, while A2P Energy Solutions (providers for waste-to-energy conversion solutions) bagged the honours in the ‘Sustainable Energy’ category.
The two startups were selected from over 1,100 entries across four categories in an open challenge that included multiple rounds of pitches and interviews. Each winner was conferred with prize money of $100,000.
Faridabad-based start-up GARV Toilets was set up in 2015 by Mayank Midha, a graduate from the Institute of Rural Management at Anand (Gujarat), who drew inspiration from the Swachh Bharat Mission and the fact that 774 million Indians lack access to adequate sanitation.
GARV’s portable toilets are made of steel and are fitted with IoT sensors to collect data on usage, automation functioning of the toilet and capture information on user’s hygiene behaviour. The startup has so far installed 721 toilets of which 320 are smart technology enabled across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra.
The start-up will soon roll out Smart Sanitation Hubs in Mathura and Brindavan. It plans to offer a monthly subscription plan for users through smart cards. As of now as many as one lakh people are using its facilities every day. Recently, it received funding from IIT-Kanpur Incubation Centre.
A2P Energy Solutions, a start-up founded in 2018 by Sukhmeet Singh, a tech consultant, seeks to provide solution to the most pressing issue of stubble burning that adds up to the alarming level of pollution in Delhi. It seeks to offer technology to convert 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste into fuel pellets and animal feed.
The startup uses technology to colour code pre-harvested fields to ensure efficient collection of waste. It has innovated to manufacture effective fuel (those that do not damage the boiler) and design machines using material science to produce that fuel.
In the last one year, the start-up has converted 900 tonnes of waste thereby saving 13.14 lakh kg of CO2. A2P Energy, which has received a grant from Aston University, UK, is in the process of setting up a pilot plant after which the scaling up process will commence either by setting up its own facilities or through a franchisee model.
