IIT Guwahati BioNEST concludes Rural Healthcare Hackathon

Guwahati : BioNEST, the Bio-Incubation Centre of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, successfully concluded the Rural Healthcare Hackathon today, on 4th November 2022. Rural Healthcare Hackathon was conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Nanotechnology, Jyoti & Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences & Technology from IIT Guwahati, and CCAMP-Bangalore. The broad theme of the Hackathon was to explore accessible, affordable, and sustainable Healthcare solutions for Rural India. Hackathon is categorized into four problem statements:

Ø User-friendly digital solutions for efficient communication between community health workers and Expert Doctors

Ø Point-of-Care Diagnostic Solutions for rural healthcare

Ø Bridging the gap between need & feed in rural area

Ø Affordable and Sustainable solutions for rural sanitation & hygiene

The 4-Day event commenced on 1st November 2022 in which a total of 31 teams with over 100 participants from various states of the country visited IIT Guwahati and participated in the hackathon. Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati inaugurated the Hackathon on 1st November and motivated the participant teams and wished that new solutions brought by the participants will add value to the efforts of IITG BioNEST in Rural Healthcare innovations.

Stressing upon the need of innovations in rural healthcare Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “Rural Healthcare Infrastructure of India requires lot of help and support and this is only possible by new innovations and that too with Nanotechnology, microfluidics coming into picture, which can bring down the cost”.

Addressing the participant teams, Prof. Sitharam added, “At the end of day whatever technological solutions you come up with, it should be affordable and sustainable, which is the very key contributing towards rural healthcare system.”

Prof. Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Head of Jyoti & Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sci. & Tech. and Principal Investigator for IITG BioNEST added that its very encouraging to see huge participation from North East and he wished that these future entrepreneurs will incubate at IITG where they can get necessary hand-holding from ideation to commercialization of their innovation.

During the 4 days of hackathon, participants were exhaustively mentored by domain experts on various aspects of entrepreneurship including how to start a venture, fundraising, building a team, business plan and step to commercialization. Mr. Arijit, CIIE-CO IIM-A, Mr. Rajiv Goswami, senior consultant at NeCons, Mr. Satyam Sarma, Founder-AllProAuto Consultants and Dr. Jayanta Chakravorty, Founder-Asentrek Global enthralled the participants on Day 1 with their insightful talks on startup ecosystem and leadership.

During the Round 1 Jury pitching, 14 teams were selected as finalists. The finalist teams were given new problem statements related to the broad theme of the Hackathon on November 2, to work upon the solutions and pitch their ideas in front of Jury on November 4th 2022. On Day 3, the finalist teams were one-to-one mentored on how to make perfect pitch, Legal compliances of Startups, how to make a business plan, by the sponsoring partners, Dr. Vishal Gandhi, CEO-BIORx Venture Advisors and Mr. Deepak Nagpal, Managing Partner-Indian Accelerators and speakers, Dr. Manvinder Singh Pahwa, Dean-School of Business-Kaziranga University and Dr. T.L. Srinath, Founder GenoPhe Biotech Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore.

During the award ceremony, Mr. R. Venkataramannan, Founder & CEO-Karkinos Healthcare as the Chief-Guest. While addressing the finalist teams, he said, “Try to add value to common people and be passionate about what you do.”

Dr. Swapnil Sinha, CEO IITG TIDF BioNEST, announced the winners.

Ø First Prize of INR 40,000/- sponsored by Molbiogen, was awarded to Team Hycare; Dr. Sayantan Ghosh, Dr. Lopamudra Giri. Team Hycare proposed a tear fluid-based cost effective, portable imaging device for diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy in remote and rural areas.

Ø Second Prize of INR 25,000/- sponsored by BIORx Venture Advisors and Indian Healthcare Angels was awarded to Team Udigni; Mr. Mit Patel, Mr. Navneet Pathak and Mr. Shamshudheen who presented a cost-effective solutions addressing the gap in diagnostic services in rural India.

Ø Third prize of INR 15,000/- sponsored by India Accelerators was awarded to Team Biosensor Group; Ms. Phuradema Thungon, Mr. Arup Dutta, Ms. Malaya Mili, Ms, Kangkana Barman and Ms. Priya Bharti Patel for their project titled, ‘EnerJivanu’ which is a sensor addressing the problem for waste water disposal management in villages.