At the outset, let us together welcome the new year 2021, with a
resolve to continue to work to better the quality of life and
livelihoods within our communities and empower them to own their own
destinies.
It is our pleasure to bring out this 4th issue of the WIN newsletter.
Amidst continuing Covid19 related uncertainties, our partners continue
to work around these challenges and focus on the pressing challenges in
the twin focus domains of WIN Foundation. On economic front, the
last four months have seen rebound of economic activity
with positive indicators like rural FMCG sales, vehicle sales, GST
collection, fuel consumption, among others, thus creating grounds for
cautious optimism.
It is heartening to see even poor and middle class communities adopt
progressive means to overcome hurdles posed by covid, eg. adopting
online or blended mode of communication and learning. This has great
potential benefits for their future.
WIN approach continues to evolve around following key drivers:
(i) Multi-stakeholder approach, bringing
multiple complementary capabilities, to provide complete solution.
(ii) Community empowerment including building
awareness, skilling and micro-entrepreneurship, to create grass roots
driven sustainability.
(iii) Technology and process innovation to bring science to society and society to science.
(iv) Knowledge management with data, analysis and
improvement in processes for moving to a more knowledge based society.
In this issue, we present an outline of the our above approach in
Nutrition and our projects and partners under this approach. The
recently released National Family Health Survey (NHFS) 5
report clearly underlines the continued critical challenges in
nutrition.
Innovation also requires continuous search for talent and support for
their growth. The annual National Bio-Entrepreneurship
Competition(NBEC), organized by C-CAMP on behalf of the Department of
Biotechnology, Government of India, has emerged as a flagship program
for bio-entrepreneurship. Like last year, WIN Foundation is a category
partner in (i) Water and Sanitation and (ii) Maternal and Child Health,
in the NBEC 2020. We cover the winners in these categories.
We continue our support for the WIN Innovative Product Market
Validation Program for startups. Last quarter saw installation
of automatic borewell water sensors in the PGWM project area
under ACT in Kutch and toilet attachment for disabled from Oston in the
project area of MHT in Rajasthan. We look forward to more applications
from startups.(https://winfoundations.org/programs/)
Our WIN WATSAN Webinar Series 2020, organized jointly with leading
institutions, concluded on Oct 8th, with excellent response. This
was followed with a Roundtable among organizing partners to discuss
future directions including possible collaborative opportunities.
This issue covers the last three sessions and the roundtable.
WIN Foundation participated in the PAN IIT 2020 annual mega
virtual event, organized by PAN IIT USA. WIN Directors also addressed
several other conferences organized by other
prominent organisations.
In the coming months, WIN Foundation will remain focused on helping our
multiple partners to continue projects involving innovations and
empowerment, while overcoming the hurdles posed by the pandemic. We
firmly believe that grass root level advocacy generated by this will be
valuable for scaling up interventions in a self-sustaining manner.
We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter, and look forward to your feedback (email to info@winfoundations.org).
We also invite contributory articles, case studies etc. for future
issues.
With Warm Regards
Paresh Vora
Director India Operations
WIN Nutrition Support Projects: Multi-stakeholder Approach
WIN’s
vision of introducing innovations for social impact in a sustainable
manner, requires multiple partners in the ecosystem to collaborate.
These include:
Institutions - for research, technology, product, process development
Startups for innovation in product or service and business models.
Innovation
in business and delivery model by startups and by some dynamic NGOs
NGO’s to
take innovations to communities, including using new delivery models,
empowering communities, arranging financing and finance models to meet
community needs
Government for providing policy, regulations and local support
WIN
Foundation brings collaborations among its diverse partners for above.
This includes collaborations within projects, across projects and also
enabling collaborations between our partners for their
non-WIN-supported projects. This is particularly important in social
impact space as the economic drivers are not often strong enough,
at least to start with.
We present our multi-stakeholder approach for the critical challenges
in Mother and Child Nutrition, through multiple projects.
For
long term adoption of innovative nutrition practices, WIN Foundation,
has brought together diverse partners, each of whom bring unique and
strong competencies. By bringing them together to collaborate, WIN
enables a stronger and more sustainable solution for problems, as
compared to individual attempts. WIN nutrition projects are briefly
described below:
1. Women and Adolescent Girls led Approach for Food and Nutrition Security in Urban Slums
WIN
Foundation, through partnership with Mahila Housing Sewa Trust(MHT),
Rural ntrepreneurship and Livelihood Foundation (REAL), Shrimati Malati
Dahanukar Trust (SMDT) and Lok Swasthya Sewa Trust (LSST), launched
this project to improve health & well-being of slum dwellers
through integrated nutrition & WASH intervention coupled with
micro-entrepreneurship for nutrition – addressing Demand and Supply
factors as follows:
Create Pull or Demand for nutrition and hygiene:
Generate awareness and knowledge among communities for nutrition &
hygiene. Train Health Champions / Leaders from within community to
regularly train and counsel mothers and other stakeholders.
Create Push or Supply of nutritious food:Create
and nurture women microentrepreneurs from within the community, to make
and supply nutritious food items to community and outside. This creates
the Push or supply of nutritious food items to fulfil the demand and
also creates livelihoods and economic value-addition within the
community.
This dual Push – Pull strategy is aimed to create sustainable transformation with following outcomes:
High awareness and positive attitude towards health and hygiene among the community
Pool
of Master Health trainers and counsellors from among the community to
work within the community for better health and nutrition in long
term.
Increase in percentage of slum population using safely managed drinking water and sanitation facilities
Decrease cases of undernutrition among vulnerable groups of targeted communities.
At
least a few successful microentrepreneurs to provide livelihood and
improve quality of life within the community and build role models
within the community.
2. Child Nutrition Lab (ChiNu) at Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay
ChiNu
is working towards the goal of malnutrition free India, as a knowledge
partner, with focus on Nutrient delivery through food route, which
include: (i) develop innovative nutritious food products, with measured
nutrition content, (ii) test them with communities to verify outcome,
refine the products and then (iii) drive nutrition improvements through
suitable strategy, business /delivery models with products to target
segments and communities. This also includes supporting local
micro-entrepreneurship through Women Self Help Groups and other
micro-enterprises, guiding them on recipes and production methods,
nutrition content analysis, quality control, marketing, etc.
3. Training of Trainers - by Dr. Rupal Dalal, Shrimati Malati Dahanukar Trust (SMDT), Mumbai
Dr.
Rupal Dalal has developed an extensive training program to train Field
Health Workers, as master trainers, in mother and child nutrition,
covering the first 1000 days nutrition, from conception of baby to
about 2.5 years of age, covering both mother and child nutrition needs.
The training covers breastfeeding, recipes for complementary feeding,
pre-pregnancy, adolescence, nutrition during pregnancy, nutrition
during lactation, junk foods & health, science of nutrition and
safety & food hygiene. The Field Health workers,in turn, counsel
and train mothers and other community members.
4. Spoken Tutorials for Health - by Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT, Bombay
Health
Spoken Tutorials have been developed based on the intensive training
program described above, by Dr. Rupal Dalal, Trustee, SMDT, and also
Adjunct faculty at IIT Bombay. These tutorials have
progressively covered topics listed above.
Spoken tutorials use audio-visual screen-casts, are usually 10-12
minutes and are available in major Indian languages. They are easy to
use - for (i) training master trainers, (ii) use by master
trainers while training mothers and other community members, and (iii)
for self learning by mothers or other family community members.
Spoken Tutorials for Health allows the originally face to face
training to be adapted to blended face to face and online mode.
This allows scaling of the training, and has also allowed continuity
during the Covid pandemic.
5. Nutritious breakfast packets for Anganwadis - The Breakfast Revolution (TBR)
The
Breakfast Revolution, (TBR Inc., USA), provides nutritious breakfast in
ready to eat packs to anganwadi and primary school children primarily
in Maharashtra, and also measure health parameters to study
impact of this.
WIN
Foundation, with help of local implementation partner, Niswarth
Children Foundation, has introduced these nutritious breakfast
packs, from TBR, for anganwadi children, in selected villages in
Bavla area in Ahmedabad district, along with health counselling to
anganwadi workers, parents and children . The project covers 300
children over 1 year (approx. 250 days per year). Pre and post
health measurements are being done to study the impact.
Thus the multiple projects above involve partners
who address both Demand and Supply factors, in the following manner
Demand or Pull:
SMDT
- LSST - MHT: (i) Training of Field health workers as master trainers
and counselors and (ii) Awareness activities through mass contact and
regular follow up by the trained Field Health Workers.
Spoken
Tutorial , IITB - easy to use Spoken Tutorial videos for health- for
training master trainers, use by master trainers while training mothers
and other family seniors, and for self learning by mothers.
Thus the above activities are aimed at creating awareness and strong demand or pull for nutritious food within the communities.
Supply or Push:
REAL
- MHT: Micro-entrepreneurship among women groups to supply nutritious
food items to community, maintaining quality, safety and nutrition
standards.
CHiNU
(IIT Bombay) support to micro-entrepreneurs and self help groups, for
development of nutritious recipes, localise to local tastes and
preferences, nutrition content analysis of products and suggestions for
enhancement.
TBR:
Nutritious breakfast packets to anganwadis.Each stakeholder above has
strong competencies and together bring a stronger solution for the
community.
Combined
effort for both Demand and Supply, is aimed at a solution ultimately
owned by community itself, and hence becomes more sustainable and
replicable across other locations.
Each stakeholder above has strong competencies and together bring a stronger solution to the community.
Micro-entrepreneurship also brings greater empowerment among the community for better quality of life and livelihoods.
Our multi-stakeholder approach has also generated further collaboration
among WIN partners, helping them in their activities in their other
projects as well.
E.g. 1. During early days of pandemic, our partner MHT, consulted
through Dr. Rupal Dalal, nutrition experts at Nirmala Niketan,
Mumbai, to enhance the ration kit with greater nutritional balance,
with very little additional cost. This was then adopted by a few of our
other partners too.
E.g. 2. ChiNu labs at IIT Bombay, analysed the nutrition content of the
breakfast packs provided by the TBR. They confirmed the protein and
energy content, and made suggestions for further enhancement to improve
micronutrients.
E.g. 3. MHT introduced Training of Master Trainers by Dr. Rupal Dalal
through a blended online-offline mode for another Covid response health
project. In the same project, they are packaging Spoken Tutorials for
health in a health app, so that users can view the tutorials and this
usage data can be analysed.
Interview with Dr. Satish Agnihotri, Professor and Emeritus Fellow, CTARA at IIT Bombay
What are critical challenges in sustainable nutrition solutions in country?
Three
most critical challenges in sustainable solutions for reduction in
malnutrition are i) mother’s agency for correct MIYCF (Maternal, infant
and young child feeding) practices, ii) care during pregnancy and ii)
an infection free environment. The need to sustain these gains have
been highlighted by the latest NFHS survey results where even the
better off states have slipped back in terms of nutritional levels
among its young children and, equally worryingly, in terms of childhood
anemia. This clearly brings out the need to rethink the way we have
implemented the interventions.
What was the inspiration behind the establishment of ChiNu? What is ChiNu’s vision and challenges?
The main motivation for setting up
ChiNu was to encourage out of box thinking by engineering students
looking to engage with issues of rural development, to look at the
solutions for eliminating child malnutrition. Our students bring a
fresh perspective to the issue with the help of the data analytics and
infographics, innovative training pedagogy and new ways at looking at
food products to make these nutritious, convenient and affordable. The
second idea was to create a trained manpower that can take an
interdisciplinary view of the issue and is able to cope with the rapid
ingress of information, big data and new technologies in this field. I
am happy that both these aspects have worked out fine so far.
Our vision is to demystify the whole challenge of tackling child
malnutrition and contribute to malnutrition free India. The challenges
are quite a few. First is to gain acceptance among the community of
practitioners – IIT students working on child malnutrition is rather
unusual. But this barrier has been overcome due to the work of the
students with organisations like UNICEF and with Civil Society groups.
Then their academic publications have been of high quality and
participation in national and international conferences have given them
visibility and confidence. They are accepted in the sector and we have
managed to retain most of them in the sector.
The second challenge was to have access to policy makers and district
administration. The data analytical abilities developed in ChiNu have
helped in this regard. We have shared our analyses with state
governments and advocacy groups. But we have a long way to go. Our
advocacy tools on breastfeeding in various regional languages and
efforts for promotion of nutri-gardens have been well appreciated.
In the food products side, we are addressing the issue of the ‘hidden
hunger’ or the micro-nutrient deficiencies. Usually the fortification
efforts are centered around a specific micro-nutrient or two. We are
looking at products that are cater to the full spectrum of
micro-nutrients, and are convenient to process and affordable at the
same time. WIN is supporting this activity whole heartedly.
What is your view on the WIN support for ChiNu?
WIN
and ChiNu have similar thinking on the issue of the food products. Both
are looking at affordable, nutritious and convenient products. Today
what is convenient food is not nutritious and what is nutritious is not
convenient. In addition we want this to be affordable. But this can be
tackled. WIN is also supportive of the decentralized production through
SHGs and micro-entrepreneurs and to promote locally compatible foods.
Of course many local foods e.g. Idli or Dhokla have now become national
foods! We of course need to be careful about the quality control
aspects and do local capacity building for this. I am sure the ChiNu –
WIN partnership will be able to contribute to the important goal of
tackling child malnutrition in the difficult times ahead in the post
pandemic era.
Mr. Siraz Hirani, Senior Program Management Specialist, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust
“Social
issues are generally complex and require multi-sectoral interventions
for a comprehensive solution that is sustainable. However, in the
existing eco-system it is very challenging to plan such intervention
due to distinct mandates and funding sources of different stakeholders.
WIN Foundation is very forthcoming in trying out new ideas that might
seem challenging but promises lasting impact. Project titled “Women
& Adolescent Girls Led Approach for Food & Nutrition Security
in Urban Slums” is one such example wherein WIN Foundation facilitated
multi-stakeholder consultation and designed a project involving 3 NGOs
and 1 Social Enterprise bringing in distinct expertise of creating
social capital, health, nutrition, WASH and entrepreneurship. This
project addresses different interlinked issues of the poor urban
community like malnutrition, health, livelihood, water & sanitation
with a community led approach. Such projects not only help to address
complex social issues but also facilitate cross learning between
different partners.”
INNOVATION SUPPORT PROGRAMS
WIN Foundation Innovation Support programs aim to
Bring
Science to Society: support Researchers, Innovators and Startups, to
bring innovative technologies, products and business models from
labs to communities for better quality of lives and livelihood, and
help create sustainable and scalable social impact.
Bring
Society to Science: Inculcate a scientific approach among communities
through experience of trying and evaluating new technology, products,
and develop strong curiosity, capability and attitude to try new
and adopt products and processes to improve their lives and livelihoods
National Bio Entrepreneurship Competition (NBEC) – 2020 - organized
by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), on behalf of
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
C-CAMP conducted the fourth edition of
the NBEC 2020. NBEC identifies and rewards some of the most promising
deep tech ideas in all domains of the Life Sciences including agri,
environment, personal care products, AMR, drugs & therapeutics and
more.
As in NBEC 2019, WIN Foundation was again a category partner for
NBEC 2020 for (1) Water and Sanitation and (2) Maternal and child
health.
NBEC 2020 this time adopted innovative online processes, allowing for
participation by juries from across the country. It received 3100+
applications from Start-ups, individuals and students, from the 33
States and Union Territories of India. Based on review
by domain experts, 300+ applications were shortlisted for
regional qualifier pitching round (virtual), which were held between
November 17-24. The jury members were from diverse
background- industry, academia, and investor community. Following the
regional qualifiers, 54 business ideas have been shortlisted for a
virtual Boot Camp and Mentoring Programs were held between 1-3
December. The Grand Finale and prize distribution ceremony was held on
19th December 2020, the following startups won the awards in the WIN
sponsored categories:
Interview with Dr. Taslimarif, Saiyed, CEO and Director, C-CAMP
1. What is vision of NBEC
and how has it emerged as the leading talent unearthing competition in
bio-tech space in India? How do you see it emerging further over next
few years?
Within
three years, NBEC has emerged India’s biggest bio-entrepreneurship
competition, attracting innovative ideas from almost each and every
state as well as union territory in India, as well ideas from across
spectrum of socio-economic strata. In this way, NBEC, an open national
platform, essentially democratised the process for talents across
India, and more importantly supports them in their onward innovation
journey. This year, we had opportunity to build a dedicated prize for
students, another attempt to attract students to share their innovative
ideas, provide them level-playing field and we had overwhelming
response, indicating excitement in youth to build innovative ideas and
build them further.
2.
How do you view the role of a partner like WIN Foundation, a
non-profit, specifically for NBEC, and also in innovation movement
in general in India?
An
aspect of NBEC is to go beyond the competition and build partnerships
to support these innovators in different areas. This is exactly where
partnership with organisations like WIN Foundation, a dedicated
non-profit for (i) Water and Sanitation and (ii) Maternal and Child
Health sectors, is crucial to identify and support innovations
impacting society. This alignment of innovation with understanding of
the need from the ground, built with our partnership with WIN and other
organisations, is a key towards innovation’s impact and a must exercise
right in the beginning in innovations journey. We look forward to
further strengthening our partnership with WIN, bringing more
innovative solutions for these sectors, in India and beyond.
LOOK BACK AT NBEC - 2019 - WIN sponsored award winning start-ups:
We are happy to report that the winners
of the NEBC 2019 in the two WIN categories continue to make progress
towards their vision of making substantial impact. We present a glimpse
in the founders' own words below.
Alcheme Robotics: (Robotic
solution for cleaning in septic tanks and sewerage lines in a hygienic
safe and dignified manner) - winner for WIN award - WATSAN Category
Interview with Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal Professor, IIT Madras, Founder.
1. What is current status of Alcheme - challenges and opportunities? The key product being developed
under the banner of Alcheme is the HomoSEP robot for automatic
homogenization of septic tank contents. This year, our team has
worked very hard at product development despite the
severe restrictions imposed by lockdowns due to the COVID-19
pandemic, with innovative approaches including distributed design and
miniaturization for rapid testing. We now a working Laboratory
prototype and preliminary trials are to commence shortly. We foresee
being able to complete field trials in early next year, beyond which
the product will be further modified based on practical experiences,
and readied for market launch. We are also exploring connecting our
effort to Startups from our group at IITM, to accelerate the
process of product development and field deployment.
2. How do you view support by a non-profit foundation like WIN Foundation for Alcheme?
The process of developing a new
product based on practical requirements and taking it to the field
through the vital stages of design, mock-up and field trials and
iteration is a daunting task even for large organisations, and a period
that is not often friendly to results and productivity oriented
business cycles. It is here that the role of Startups and
proto-Startups such as Alcheme who particularly work with an academic
Laboratory such as ours, comes into picture, as they act as
pathfinders in the process of 'market discovery'. Finding a sustainable
product-business fit is also a challenge and a long cycle in itself. In
this process, we are fortunate to have the support of
technology-focused group such WIN Foundation that has
societal good as the basis of its positive approach to Startup
teams. We value and cherish the kind guidance and cheer received from
the Chairman Mr. Paresh Vora, and strongly believe that this
ecosystem will be backbone as we go forward in our efforts to get past
the 'technology valley of death' that chokes most efforts at
successful product development. Of course the support from the
R&D and startup ecosystem at IITM underlines our efforts.
Blackfrog
Technologies (Portable and battery powered medical grade refrigerator
for vaccine transport) winner under Maternal and Child Health
(MCH) Category.
Interview with Mr. Mayur Shetty, C.E.O & Product Architect
1. What is current status of Blackfrog - challenges and opportunities?
We have completed the R&D and
field-validation of Emvolio- our portable vaccine carrier technology
and are presently scaling up our manufacturing capabilities. We
celebrated our fifth year anniversary as of 4th November, 2020 and we
released our next-generation Vaccine carriers specifically designed to
transport COVID-19 vaccines when they are approved and deployed at
scale. We are now conversing with the MoHFW and trying to understand
how we may fit into the COVID-19 vaccine delivery campaign.
2. What was the importance of winning the WIN Foundation award in NBEC 2019 for Blackfrog and personally for you?
It certainly gave us the right
visibility to go ahead and raise further funds. The award in itself was
quite prestigious and gave us a lot of credibility among our partners
to implement our system in new setups. The cash-prize was a huge boost
for to deploy further units immediately. We're very grateful to your
support.
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
WIN
WATSAN Webinar Series 2020 concluded on Oct 8th, followed by a
Roundtable discussion on Oct 15th among organizing partners
for future directions. WIN Foundation coordinated and organized
this six part series on behalf of all partners, including outreach,
seminar organization, post-seminar archiving etc.
In the previous newsletter issue (Vol.3), we have covered the
highlights of the first three sessions. In this issue,
we cover highlights of the last three sessions and key points of the
roundtable.
Highlights of last 3 sessions:
24th Sep’20 (Session-4): Integrating the designs of water, wastewater, storm water and solid
waste for small towns and large villages, Speaker: Dr. Bakul Rao,
Professor Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA),
IIT Bombay
Prof. Bakul Rao presented on Designing a
model WATSAN system for two small towns in Maharashtra, including
systems for water storage and distribution, sanitation, sewage and
storm water management and solid-waste management. Innovative design
technology and solutions, including use of several open source tools,
were used, to address the challenges in development of integrated
solutions. This also resulted in a design tool with wider application
for small towns / large villages in India, who do not have large
budgets for designing such systems.
1st Oct’20 (Session-5): Water treatment and desalination: Addressing bottlenecks in energy
and materials, Speaker: Dr.Jaichander Swaminathan, Kanchan and Harilal
Doshi Chair,Assistant Professor for Water, Centre for Sustainable
Development, IIT Gandhinagar
Dr. Jaichander presented an overview on
Desalination technologies based on type of energy and limits of energy
consumption, including RO specific energy consumption. He covered the
general principles used to improve the energy efficiency. Dr. Chinmay
Ghoroi, B. S. Gelot Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering, IIT
Gandhinagar, presented about the innovative surface engineered particle
technology for a low-cost and Non-electric Water Disinfection Filter
for Point-of-Use or household level use. Dr. Manish Kumar, Assistant
Professor, Earth Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar talked about his two
projects supported by WIN Foundation (1) Micro-components
quantification of end uses of water consumption at household level and
(2) Ins-situ Arsenic and fluoride removal from the groundwater.
8th Oct’20 (Session 6): Empowering Communities through Innovations for sustainable Social
Impact – a dialog with Startups and Innovators, Speakers: Mr.Paresh
Vora, Director – India Operations, WIN Foundation and Dr.Subramaniam C
Associate Professor – Chemistry Dept., IIT Bombay. Startups which
presented:
Mr. Paresh Vora explained regarding the
vision of WIN Foundation and its initiatives to support the
innovations, to bring sustainable social impact in the domain of Water
and Sanitation, as part of the multi-stakeholder approach used by
WIN.
Dr. C. Subramanium, IIT Bombay, described his innovative Chakra product
to reduce TDS, supported by WIN Foundation, based on the capacitive
deionization, using carbon nanotubes coated cellulose threads.
This can provide a cost effective alternative to RO systems for low
income household and communities, with only 5% water wastage.
Three innovative start-ups with very unique socially relevant products
in the water and sanitation domain, talked about their products, target
markets, strategies, challenges and differences they aim to make.
1.Alcheme Robotics,(by Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal Professor, IIT
Madras and Divanshu Kumar) (Winner of WIN WATSAN Award at NEBC
2019): Robotic solution cleaning in septic tanks and
sewerage lines, to offer a safe, healthy and dignified work to
sanitation workers.
2. Oston Technology, Jaipur. (by Mr. Kumar Kalika and Mr.
Sayar Singh, Product : Smart retrofit toilet kit to transform existing
toilets into disabled friendly toilets, and thus ensure greater ODF
coverage. Oston has been supported under the WIN Innovative
Product Market Validation Program.
3. Proximal Soilsens Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Pune. (by Dr.
Rajul Patkar) : Low cost Soil moisture and Weather Monitoring
Stations at, to allow farmers and village level workers to use them for
smart agriculture practices, with optimized use of water and other
inputs. Soilsens has been supported under
the WIN Innovative Product Market Validation Program.
All three innovations are supported by WIN Foundation.
WIN WATSAN ROUNDTABLE SESSION, Scheduled on 15th October 20
The objectives of this roundtable
session was to discuss on the topics presented at the previously held
WIN WATSAN Webinar Series 2020 and possible future collaboration
opportunities for projects or any other activities. This session was a
closed group discussion with 25+ participants from nationally renowned
institutions in the domain of Water and Sanitation viz. CEPT University
– Centre for Water and Sanitation (CWAS), IIT Bombay – Centre for
Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Kharagpur – School
of Environmental Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar – Centre for Sustainable
Development, Arid Communities and Technologies, IIT Delhi - Centre for
Rural Development and Technologies, Mahila Housing Sewa Trust, WIN
Foundation and start-ups like Proximal Soilsens, Oston Technology.
Summary of discussions and way forward:
High potential for collaborative inter-disciplinary action research projects for integrated solutions.
Research
coupled with pilots which include developing implementation processes,
community involvement and ownership of solutions, skilling at grass
roots, and demonstrated outcomes for society, will generate best
advocacy at grass root levels among communities, as well as with
government.
Opportunity
for startups to collaborate and work together with research
institutions and field organisations can bring innovations to the field.
WIN
Foundation will continue its initiative to bring diverse stakeholders
together; for the common goal of social impact in sustainable manner.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP THROUGH A CHANGE OF MINDSET: TALK BY DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, WORLD RENOWNED EXECUTIVE COACH
WIN Foundation partnered with Competitiveness Mindset Institute, (CMI)
USA, to organize the above online talk on 29th October 2020 by Dr.
Marshall Goldsmith, ranked World’s #1 Executive Coach for two
consecutive years, and winner of the Lifetime Award for Leadership by
the Harvard Institute of Coaching.
Dr.
Goldsmith lucidly presented to the 475+ attendees, on how leadership
abilities in the youngest to the most accomplished professionals at the
top of their organizations spring from a change of mindset leading to
modifying one’s behavior in simple but fundamental ways. (https://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/), followed by a lively Q&A session.
Leadership development through change in mindset is one of the
important requirements for WIN Foundation’s vision of supporting
innovations for sustainable social impact.
PanIIT USA organised one of the world’s
largest two days virtual summit, with theme `IIT2020: The Future is
Now’ This conference brought together change makers, innovators and
thinkers, to innovate and inspire us all to rethink the future
of humanity.WIN Foundation put up a virtual booth under the umbrella of
its sister foundation, WHEELS Global Foundation. (link: https://sites.google.com/winfoundations.org/paniit2020/)
Mr. Paresh Vora participated in the panel discussion organized by
WHEELS Global Foundation during the PAN IIT 2020, organized by
PAN IIT USA, on Dec 4, 2020 and talked
about the R&D Innovation projects at IITs (IIT Gandhinagar, IIT
Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras) sponsored by WIN Foundation.
(link: https://www.facebook.com/WheelsGlobalFoundation/videos/203300777942945)
Participation in other events.
Mr.
Ron Mehta, Executive Director, WIN Foundation was one of the key
speakers at the India Water Forum 2020, organised by India Development
Coalition, USA. on Nov 22, 2020, and presented on WIN initiatives in
Water and Sanitation.
Mr.
Ron Mehta addressed the WHEELS webinar on Scaling Philanthropy
for India's Social Transformation on 9th Oct, 2020. He presented
on innovation initiatives in Water and Sanitation and Maternal and
Child Health with multiple partners. The recording of this is available
at: http://www.wheelsglobal.org/scaling-philanthropy.
Mr.
Ron Mehta presented at the Ideal Village Conference: Sustainability and
the Pandemic: Ensuring Human & Environmental Wellbeing, organized
by the Science for Society forum and sponsored by the Stanford
University School of Medicine & Science for Society, Stanford
University, on Oct 14, 2020. He presented on: Clean Water Innovations
at Grass Roots: Experiences at WIN Foundation.(https://www.scienceforsociety.com/s4s-october-14)
Ms.
Aishani Goswami, Project Associate - ACT, WIN Foundation, presented at
the Youth Perspectives on Gender in Water Policies hosted by Centre for
social research and TERI School of Advanced Studies on Oct 21, 2020 She
presented on her work which involved assessing the water and sanitation
needs of the urban poor in Gandhidham, Gujarat
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ChiNu
is working towards the goal of malnutrition free India, as a knowledge
partner, with focus on Nutrient delivery through food route, which
include: (i) develop innovative nutritious food products, with measured
nutrition content, (ii) test them with communities to verify outcome,
refine the products and then (iii) drive nutrition improvements through
suitable strategy, business /delivery models with products to target
segments and communities. This also includes supporting local
micro-entrepreneurship through Women Self Help Groups and other
micro-enterprises, guiding them on recipes and production methods,
nutrition content analysis, quality control, marketing, etc.
he
Breakfast Revolution, (TBR Inc., USA), provides nutritious breakfast in
ready to eat packs to anganwadi and primary school children primarily
in Maharashtra, and also measure health parameters to study
impact of this.
Micro-entrepreneurship also brings greater empowerment among the community for better quality of life and livelihoods.
irani, Senior Program Management Specialist, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust 
Within
three years, NBEC has emerged India’s biggest bio-entrepreneurship
competition, attracting innovative ideas from almost each and every
state as well as union territory in India, as well ideas from across
spectrum of socio-economic strata. In this way, NBEC, an open national
platform, essentially democratised the process for talents across
India, and more importantly supports them in their onward innovation
journey. This year, we had opportunity to build a dedicated prize for
students, another attempt to attract students to share their innovative
ideas, provide them level-playing field and we had overwhelming
response, indicating excitement in youth to build innovative ideas and
build them further.
Dr.
Goldsmith lucidly presented to the 475+ attendees, on how leadership
abilities in the youngest to the most accomplished professionals at the
top of their organizations spring from a change of mindset leading to
modifying one’s behavior in simple but fundamental ways. (
re
of humanity.WIN Foundation put up a virtual booth under the umbrella of
its sister foundation, WHEELS Global Foundation. (link: 
