We are happy to bring you the Jan-Mar-2021 quarter issue of the WIN Newsletter.
The Covid19 situation, after showing substantial reduction in cases
upto February, has again deteriorated, with sudden and rapid growth in
the number of new cases in March. Strong recovery rate and our growing
vaccination program provide ground for cautious optimism. Fortunately,
as the world’s largest producer and user of vaccines, India is
well placed in terms of the Covid Vaccine production and stocks as well
as a strong immunisation program.
Our economy shows encouraging recovery with resumption of most economic
activities, with very strong upturn in basic consumption goods, rural
sales and corporate results. Travel still remains highly restricted, a
major barrier to collaborations, field visits and also a significant
barrier for startups with physical products.
Our project partners have now reached nearly the full level in project
work, having worked out creative ways to carry forward projects during
the pandemic.
Our R&D projects reached promising stages. These include the IIT
Kharagpur project to take sewage water through modular multi-stage
process to potable level water output, IIT Bombay project to produce
prototypes for household desalination using capacitive deionisation
through carbon nanotubes technology, and IIT Gandhinagar project of
household decontamination filter using Surface Engineered Particle
technology.
Our NGO partners continue to work with communities, and in addition
help bring new innovations to these communities, through
multi-stakeholder and community empowerment approach.
In this issue, we cover our multi-stakeholder approach in Water and
Sanitation, bringing value to grass root interventions with multiple
innovations in technology and processes, community empowerment and
knowledge management.
We also cover details of innovative start-up Sascan – CerviScan,
winner of NBEC 2020 under Maternal and Child Health category, with an
interview of its founder.
We continue to seek more startups for the WIN Innovative Product Market
Validation Program for startups. Our currently supported
start-ups have installed their innovative products like borewell water
sensors, soil testing kits, toilet attachment for disabled people in
the respective project areas and are getting very good
response and feedback from the communities.
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, or suggestions for collaboration.
With Warm Regards
Paresh Vora
Director India Operations
LATEST UPDATES
IIT
Gandhinagar, ACT and WIN decided to work together to replicate the PGWM
project in villages near IIT Gandhinagar and began spadework with
initial meetings with the village. This will enable developing a
virtual centre of excellence for the hydrogeological region of Central
Alluvial Plains in Gujarat, to create region specific solutions,
protocols with on-ground action research.
We completed our project to provide ready-to-eat packets for breakfast
to anganwadi children for 1 year. The packets were provided by Decimal
Foundation, India, while Niswarth Children's Foundation provided local
execution support. Simultaneously, nutrition, health and hygiene
counselling was done among the mothers. The packets were well received
and the mothers opined that they will try to provide more healthy food
to children.
Dr. Rupal Dalal has continued to spread the Mother and Child Nutrition
training for field health workers in several locations in Gujarat ,
Maharashtra and other states and subsequently helped the field health
workers track the health of babies. WIN welcomes more NGOs to approach
for arranging this training for Field Health Workers in their areas.
WIN Foundation participated in the online Sustainability Fair 2021,
organized by IIT Gandhinagar - Kiran Patel Center for Sustainability.
WIN Foundation was one of the partners for the virtual Inaugural
function of K-MARC Center for Excellence for Participatory Groundwater
Management, on 29th Dec, 2020. An initiative by Arid Communities
and Communities (ACT) jointly with Geo Science Services , KSKV
Kachchh University, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (Tata Power Unit), WIN
Foundation, PARAB and Arghyam.
WIN signed an MOU with Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore,
to support its initiative Atria Business Incubation Centre. This
collaboration aims to support technology entrepreneurship in general
and to enable socially responsible start-ups to define, design and
bring to life meaningful innovations.
WIN supported Parul University, Vadodara, in its Hackathon for
startups, in the social media track, held from 24th to 26th March.
We continue our outreach activities, together with partners to more
Startups and NGOs to identify collaborative opportunities towards our
vision.
WIN MUTI-STAKEHOLDER APPROACH - WATER AND SANITATION
WIN’s
multi-stakeholder approach, with multiple partners, each bringing
unique competencies, enables accomplishing complete solutions
significantly better than that achievable individually by each. In the
last issue, we covered our multi-stakeholder approach for Mother and
Child Nutrition.
In this issue we cover our multi-stakeholder approach for Water and Sanitation.
Challenges :
“Water touches every aspect of development
and it links with nearly every Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). It
drives economic growth, supports healthy ecosystems, and is essential
and fundamental for life itself. Some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed
drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed
sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic handwashing
facilities.” – World Bank
Water
shortages and its poor quality affect hundreds of districts. Our
agriculture suffers from vagaries of water supply, seriously affecting
the food and nutrition security of the country as well as livelihood of
millions of small farmers.
The
annual natural water cycle provides us limited fresh water. On the
other hand, the increased demand for water due to modern lifestyle and
industry have led us to over-use surface water and over-extract
groundwater. This has lowered water levels and increased salinity in
groundwater. Pollution, both human and industrial, add to the water
problems.
The living ecosystem around us also requires water and seriously affected by water problems.
Hence,
the governance and practices for water at various levels should ensure:
(i) water conservation, (ii) optimized usage, (iii) recycling and reuse
of water.
The
Government of India has recognised the massive challenges in Water and
Sanitation domain and launched the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan, Atal Bhujal
Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission.
WIN Water and Sanitation Projects overview:
WIN Foundation has supported
(i) Participatory Ground Water Management Project pioneered by Arid
Communities and Technologies (ACT), Kutch, for water conservation. This
project is also guided and supported by Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (a
Unit of Tata Power Limited in Kutch). CGPL provides on-ground support
with its own team, logistics support and project monitoring and review
support.
(ii) Technology, products and process development projects with 4 IITs,
covering water treatment, water distribution and waste-water
processing, with further aim to translate the technology developed and
apply in the field.
(iii)
WIN has supported several innovative startups in this domain, bringing
their products through ACT and other NGOs to community, for the
critical prototype -> test -> refine stage of product market
validation.
Snapshot of Impact of Projects so far
Approach :
PARTNERS :
1. Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT), Bhuj, Kutch Dist, Gujarat - Lead NGO partner and principal project managers
ACT
pioneered Participatory GroundWater Management since 2003. This has
involved capacity building in local village communities, supply side
intervention to strengthen water availability, demand side
interventions to optimize water usage, knowledge management and
technology introduction. The major activities are described below.
Institution and Capacity Building:
“Bhujal Jankar” from village youth (men and women): trained on
geo-hydrology, Water Security planning, coordination among village
bodies and groups
Farmers and Women Groups in villages for institution building, farming practices
Interventions:
Water Security Plan (WSP) for 19 villages - with comprehensive
study including village socio-economic profile, land topology and
use, hydrogeology, water sources, storage and uses and possible
strategies for improvements : Prepared by Bhujal Jankar
Supply Side Interventions:
Ground water recharge: in village water bodies, river-bed, abandoned well (over 700 numbers)
Desilting, embankment repair for village water bodies.
Demand Side Interventions:
Farming intervention support like drip irrigation, fodder crops, silt application, and so on
Before,
the K Marc Project the gram panchayat’s village tubewell was
supplying water of 6600 PPM TDS but after the implementation of
salinity control structures like recharge tube well, river bed recharge
pit and desilting of our old check dam of 7000 cum and due to blessings
of God , we received good rain in last year, we are
supplying drinking water of good quality with 1200 ppm TDS since last 9
months and we are hoping that our TDS will decrease further post this
monsoon
Soil moisture measurement, Low cost weather station, Borewell electronic water level monitoring, water meters
Knowledge Management:
Data
management: store and analyse data collection from all measurements to
provide farmers useful actionable advice, and also develop farmers own
capabilities to use data
Project field research lab at Bidada,village in Mandvi block, with water testing and geo-survey equipment
Extension of PGWM to another Hydrogeological Region
1.
Implementing Decentralized Drinking Water Schemes in Coastal Villages
of Khambhaliya Block of Devbhumi Dwarka District, Gujarat
The
processes and protocols developed over several years, through action
research in Kachchh, one of the Geo-hydrological subregions of state,
are now applied to another geo-hydrological sub-region of Gujarat,
namely the Coastal tract of Saurashtra from 2014,
with Khambhaliya region as the location for piloting the action
research. Early pilots have already been done to show how similar
protocols are effective with suitable modifications for the
hydrogeological, socio-economic and cultural differences
2. Central Gujarat Alluvium – Participatory Ground Water Management (PGWM at Gandhinagar – being started)
This
project aims to setup a centre of excellence for groundwater mapping,
conservation and optimum usage, focused on the hydrogeological region
of Central Alluvial Plains in Gujarat, through a partnership between
WIN, ACT and IIT Gandhinagar. Through this project, individuals at the
village level will get knowledge and training (as bhujal-jankaars) so
that they can coordinate work with village panchayat, farmer groups and
women groups for water security. This replicates and builds on the
experiences gained by Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT) in
“participatory groundwater management” in Kachchh district of Gujarat.
IIT Gandhinagar will be a specialized knowledge partner and hub,
bringing valuable faculty research and student involvement.
Ms.Manisha Jadeja, Khambhaliya-Project Coordinator, Arid Communities and Technologies
"Our PGWM program in Khambhaliya demonstrates ACT's ability to
transplant the learnings from PGWM in Kutch, to an entirely different
hydrogeological region: Coastal Saurashtra, and develop local capacity
and protocols to solve water issues. My young team, including our two
youthful women Bhujal Jankars, are excited to work in partnership with
WIN Foundation and bring this transformation in our villages in a
sustainable manner. We have started with drinking water problem and
will progressively move to demand side practices."
ACT has also been appointed as a `District Implementation Partner(DIP),
under the Atal Bhujal Yojana for 123 villages in Kutch. Further, ACT
has formed a consortium of like minded NGOs to adopt common best
practices for this project across multiple partners. The Atal
Bhujal Yojna is being implemented in 213 Villages in Kachchh and 2207
Villages in Gujarat, with 22 District Implementation Partners, across 7
Districts of Gujarat.
Thus Multi-stakeholder partnerships established by ACT, where WIN is a
partner, have shown the feasibility for setting up of virtual Bhujal
Gurukul for groundwater management in any new hydrogeological
region.
The following picture highlights the outcomes over last 3 years :
Interview
with Pradeep Kumar Ghosal, Head - Environment, CR &
Sustainability, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (Tata Power)
1. CGPL's vision for the multi stakeholder holder approach in watsan
CGPL-
CSR has coined a new definition of CSR which is Collaborative
Social Responsibility and believes that only collective approach can
bring the desired impact and the sustainability of any project. Hence,
if for any project or program, Multi- stakeholder approach is
practiced, the key elements of sustainable development can easily be
attained which is economic efficiency, equity, endogeneity or
self-reliance and environmental soundness. The results are then
multidimensional and reach to the last mile with the cohesive approach
of each of the likeminded stakeholder through a singular platform. It
has been seen over the years, through the practices and program
implementation that those programs or the project where involvement of
more than single stakeholders, multi-stakeholders are involved, the
impact is meaningful and long lasting. Moreover, CGPL/Tata power
adopted this success mantra for most of the program
2. Major challenges and strategy
After
robust assessment of the Regional need, (which I feel is the biggest
challenge), a scientific strategic intent for holistic
development has been formulated in CGPL area which says about actual
and prioritized need of the region which can lead to overall
development of the region. Simultaneously, if the same can be practiced
in partnership with the expert agencies keeping in mind of all the
rubrics , then I feel many of the challenges can be mitigated and
addressed in a very systematic way. Obviously, the challenges are
converted in to opportunities through efficient deployment, networking,
effective dialogue, program delivery and buying the critical inputs
from all the stakeholders etc, hence created a vibrant and effective
cohort and traversed from Transactional to Transformation
3. Your experience of working with WIN Foundation
Infact
the partnership with WIN foundation over the years, has given a new
dimension of regional growth with valuable learning and cohesiveness.
This partnership has many facets starting with synergy of thoughts,
exchange of field tested experiments and action research, aspiration
for doing the goods for the targeted communities, boosting appropriate
start-ups in the field, supportive monitoring and evaluation, exchange
of learning and the opportunities in various platforms for high impact
visibility which has always created an improvisation effect on
the entire CGPL- CSR team. Working with WIN Foundation has also
paved a way that how a trust worthy partnership if created, can take
any program to the last miles through synergetic approach and cross
learning. We always regard this partnership in a very high esteem.
The
soil testing kits provided by the WIN Foundation has been ‘Like a soil
doctor’ as said by the Gabha bhai Koli a farmer from Javavadh village
of Rapar block of Kutch. It has contributed significantly in the area
of agriculture. The farmers are able to know the exact nutrient
found in their farm soil and the pH level for healthy crop
production. The soil health and condition enabled these farmers
to decide on which crop to grow. With the Soil testing Kit available to
Samerth, farmers from remote villages would access this facility.
19 farmers who got the soil tested found a nutrient deficiency such
zinc and phosphorous and were suggested to use organic fertilisers
(locally prepared vermicompost and bacteria fed fertilisers) and also
change the crops to bring diversity. This year instead of sowing cumin,
5 farmers have sown cattle feed grass, and Ajwain (carom seeds) .
Technology that is simple and easy to handle is a boon and we are thankful to WIN Foundation for facilitating this.
START-UP PARTNERS
Startups
come with dynamism and high energy to develop innovations and also
evolve innovative business models to take products to market. Startups
create highly scalable models, as they attract venture investments, and
attract competition and hence more and better products for users.
WIN has introduced some innovative products from startups in water and sanitation to communities through our NGO partners.
Objectives:
1. Take “Science to Society”: Usage of advanced technologies and
processes for better work productivity and quality of life at village
level.
2. Take “Society to Science”: Inculcating scientific approach, knowledge and habits in village communities.
Outcomes • Physical outputs on ground and outcomes in terms of improvement in quality of life/work/agriculture etc.
• Resonance: replication across larger area through outreach, training etc. in surrounding areas
Mr.Samuel Rajkumar, Co-founder, Foundation for Environmental Monitoring, Bangalore
"As a
product development house, we need to see deployments and usage to
guide continuous improvement and come up with new product ideas. Our
experience working with the Bhoojal Jaakaars in Kachchh with WIN
Foundation, ACT and Samerth provided us key inputs and we are keen to
take these learnings and scale"
Institutional Partners and R&D Projects
WIN
has actively fostered partnerships with some of the leading IITs with
the objective of translation of technology to products through
startups, industries, social organizations for social impact
Conclusion :
WIN
Foundation partnerships with leading Institutions and NGOs, and
promising startups, aim to bring innovative practices, processes and
products to empower communities to improve their water and sanitation
conditions. With promising results so far, we look forward to
strengthening our partnerships to serve communities further, in
quality, innovativeness and scale.
START-UP SPOTLIGHT
Sascan Meditech Pvt Ltd. - Cerviscan, Bangalore
CerviScan
is an automated system for screening and detection of very early stage
cervical cancers using a disruptive multimodal imaging
technology with the following characteristics:
Imaging of tissue fluorescence, diffuse reflectance and absorption, using multispectral illumination·
Non-invasive mapping of the loss in collagen fluorescence and oxyhaemoglobin absorption in cervical tissues·
Application of cloud-based ML algorithm for detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)·
Biopsy guidance for improving diagnostic accuracy
Health
Workers can be trained to operate the Cerviscan under field
conditions. Cerviscan is portable, easy to use. Thus it provides
an ideal tool for mass screening in remote areas
Sascan Meditech Pvt.Ltd., - Cerviscan has won
the WIN Foundation's sponsored award in 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, in Maternal and Child Health
domain.
Interview with Dr. Subhash Narayanan, Founder Director & CEO, Sascan Meditech Pvt Ltd.
1. Your vision behind Sascan Meditech?
Our vision is to develop a non-invasive and real-time methods for
screening and detection of cervical malignancies using optical
technology. CerviScan can help the gynaecologist in early detection of
tissue abnormalities and locate the optimal site for biopsy, based on
the structural, morphological and biochemical changes at the cellular
level.
2. What is current status of Cerviscan - challenges and opportunities?
We
are engaged in a clinical study at the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, Kasthurba Medical College in Manipal to validate the
CerviScan device.
The Cerviscan results on comparison with histopathology and cytology
reports confirm an increase of the R610/R545 ratio value in malignant
cells. The cervicitis diagnosed patients had an increase in the
R610/R575 ratio value. The fluorescence image shows a decrease in
intensity in the affected regions owing to the destruction of collagen
in tissues.
The major challenge is the integration of CerviScan camera with the
laptop or tablet such that the whole process of image capture and
screening can be completed in a short time by a gynecologist or health
worker and data shared to the cloud for followup and report generation.
3. How do you view support by a non-profit foundation like WIN Foundation for Sascan?
In
view of the interest of the WIN Foundation in maternal and child
health, and with their experience and exposure of working in these
domains, we expect their help in creating awareness among women to do
periodic checks for cervical cancer and also provide us opportunities
to conduct clinical trials in the rural villages or through the Govt
Health Department of the States WIN is working with. This, we
believe, could go a long way in reducing the mortality rates associated
with cervical cancer in the country. User's Voice
Dr.Rekha Upadhyay, Professor,Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Cerviscan is a novel screening device. Being non-invasive,
patient acceptance would be easier. The device is handy and the
software easy to operate and provides screening results in real time,
without any wait period.
Cerviscan would be of great help to the gynaecologist, as it can
identify areas of cervical abnormality, which are difficult to detect
with naked eyes. The issues related to inadequate sample collection or
omission of cells during Pap smear, and difficulties related to
colposcopy directed biopsies could be solved and accelerated
treatment provided to the patient.
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
Inaugural function of K-MARC Center for Excellence for Participatory Groundwater Management
K-MARC
Center for Excellence for Participatory Groundwater Management, an
initiative by Arid Communities and Technologies
was inaugurated on 29th December’20. The function was jointly
organized by Arid Communities and Technologies, Geo Science Services ,
KSKV Kachchh University, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd, WIN Foundation,
PARAB and Arghyam.
The
objective of the Center is to provide training and capacity building on
various Participatory Groundwater Management to stakeholders ranging
from Grassroots level to decision makers. In addition to Centre, an
Interactive website on Kankavati Aquifer Management (kmarc.live) was
also launched in this inaugural function.
Dr. Dhimant Vyas, Additional Secretary, Water Resource Department
(WRD), inaugurated the Centre and gave keynote speech, while others who
addressed the gathering included (i) Dr. Jayrajsinh Jadeja, Vice
Chancellor, KSKV Kachchh University, (ii) Mr. Pradeep Ghosal, Head
Environment, CR and Sustainability – CGPL, (iii) Mr. Ron Mehta,
Executive Director and Mr. Paresh Vora, Head-India Operations, WIN
Foundation, (iv) Ms. Madhvi Purohit, Senior Manager, Programmes,
Arghyam. The Centre was inaugurated by the Chief Guest - Dr. Dhimant
Vyas, Additional Secretary, Water Resource Department (WRD).
For more details, please visit www.kmarc.live
MOU with Atria Institute of Technology for its initiative Atria Business Incubation Centre :
WIN
Foundation signed an MOU with Atria Institute of Technology,
Bangalore, to support the development of technology
entrepreneurship in general and help to achieve the mission of
enabling socially responsible start-ups to define, design and bring to
life meaningful innovations for social impact. WIN will support in
talent search, mentoring, and also bring in its Innovative product
market validation scheme to support qualifying startups.
Vadodara Hackathon 2.0
Vadodara
Hackathon 2.0, one of the biggest Hackathons of Gujarat, was organised
by Parul University, in collaboration with various state and national
authorities and stakeholders. Held from 24th to 26th February 2021 for
36 hours, with 500+ registrations, 10+ partners, 450+ideas and with 20
tracks, it provided students a platform to solve some of the
pressing problems we face in our daily lives, to inculcate a culture of
product innovation and problem solving.
WIN Foundation partnered and posed specific challenges for the social
innovations track. 15 teams participated in this track from various
universities across India. Ms. Shanti Menon, Manager - Programs and
Outreach, WIN Foundation, participated as mentor and jury for this
track.
Sustainability Fair 2021, IIT Gandhinagar 3rd
Annual Sustainability Fair was organized by the Dr Kiran C Patel
Centre for Sustainable Development at IIT
Gandhinagar on Friday, March 26, 2021. This
event was inaugurated by Honourable Vijay Rupani. Chief
Minister of Gujarat and attended by more than 600
participants from 14 countries across the globe.
WIN
Foundation is closely associated with KPCSD, IIT Gandhinagar and
participated in the virtual booth alongwith some of its community
partners like ACT, CGPL (Tata Power), Samerth Charitable Trust etc..
With
the theme of Renewable Energy and Water Resources, the Sustainability
Fair had (i) virtual exhibitions by regional and national industries
and organizations working in these domains, (ii) keynotes and
panel-discussions on the best practices and projects, and (iii)
networking sessions designed to explore knowledge transfer and
academia-industry partnerships around sustainable development.
Government officials, industries, researchers, academicians, NGOs,
innovators and corporates attended the event
World Water Day - 22nd March' 2021
On
the `World Water Day; on 22nd March, 2021, K-Marc (Arid
Communities and Technologies) and its partner
organizations - WIN Foundation, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (Tata Power)
and Geo Science Services organized an event
to celebrate the World Water day, through a seminar, to
rekindle our past traditions on water conservation and spread awareness
on - Participatory GroundWater Management (PGWM) and Atal Bhujal
Yojana, at Bidada, Mandvi taluka, Kutch District, Gujarat.
1. CGPL's vision for the multi stakeholder holder approach in watsan
T
r N
Vadodara
Hackathon 2.0, one of the biggest Hackathons of Gujarat, was organised
by Parul University, in collaboration with various state and national
authorities and stakeholders. Held from 24th to 26th February 2021 for
36 hours, with 500+ registrations, 10+ partners, 450+ideas and with 20
tracks, it provided students a platform to solve some of the
pressing problems we face in our daily lives, to inculcate a culture of
product innovation and problem solving.
