Infosys Foundation felicitates eight social innovators with third edition of Aarohan Social Innovation Awards
Infosys Foundation announced the winners of the third edition of its Aarohan Social Innovation Awards on Wednesday. The eight winners across Education, Healthcare and Women empowerment categories, shortlisted over a pool of 2,400 entries, received Rs 50 lakh each in prize money.
Infosys Foundation founder Sudha Murthy said compassion is the basis of the foundation's work.
«While social innovations are less lauded than technological, they are what the country needs today...which is what Aarohan awards encourage,» she said.
Subrahmanyam Prasad Muddam and Akitha Kolloju from Hyderabad won the award in the Healthcare category for developing ‘nLite 360’ – a battery-powered smart phototherapy device that provides customised treatment for severe and dynamic jaundice conditions.
Seetharam Muthangi from Bengaluru won in the education category for developing ‘Smart Vision Glasses’ – an AI-enriched assistive device that helps people with visual disabilities identify objects and people, gauge distance, detect currency, read books and manuscripts in Indian regional languages, among other things.
In the women empowerment category, Shelter Associates, an NGO from Pune walked away with the prize for its data-driven model ‘One Home One Toilet,’ which facilitated sanitized household toilets for underprivileged urban women.
Chairman of Infosys Foundation, Salil Parekh said that tough real-world problems could only be solved with purposeful innovation. “The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards not only celebrate such innovations but empower social innovators by helping them scale-up and impact more lives.”
This year, the foundation introduced the ‘Jury’s Special Awards’ to felicitate five more innovators with Rs 10 lakh each.
