Bangalore, August 11, 2014: An ultra-sensitive, low cost hand-held explosive detector system  conceptualised by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,  has won the top  Student Innovation  Challenge  Award  sponsored by 3M  at the decennial celebrations of  the Bangalore Chapter of The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last week.
The first runner up was a team from Anand Pharmacy College, Anand, Gujarat, who developed a cross-linked anti-bacterial hydrogel of silver sulfadiazine, a formula which could aid in healing severe burn wounds and a team from Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore.
Says Dr. Raja Krishnamurthy, R&D Head at 3M India, said “We are extremely delighted at this opportunity to support an Award aimed at furthering innovations with social relevance instituted by a well-recognized body such as CII. We could instantly relate to it as it fell in line with our CSR strategy which focuses on education and sustainable innovation. To arrive at the winners we had to explore organisations that have occupied this space with young students. Eventually, from a pool of over 100 student projects from colleges and institutes across India, 10 of the most innovative ideas were shortlisted based on themes of Sustainability, Infrastructure and Healthcare - the 3 key focus areas for 3M in India. The top 3 innovative projects were awarded at the Tenth CII India Innovation Summit event.”
Adds S Gopalakrishnan, Immediate Ex. President, CII: “The theme for this year’s landmark edition of the Summit was ‘Innovation for Inclusive Growth’- acknowledging the need for innovative thinking to improve the lives of people across the socio-economic strata. Given its unique industrious and entrepreneurial spirit, Bangalore offers a great incubation environment for sustainable innovations. We wanted to join hands with an entity that shared the same ethos. 3M as the trusted promoter of this award was the most logical choice, given its global reputation for innovation.”

Details of the Award winning innovations:  
“Ultra-sensitive, low cost Hand held Explosive Detector System”, Neena Avinash Gilda - IIT Bombay. The objective was to develop an ultra-sensitive, low cost hand held explosive detector to enhance India’s security.  With the help of this system, any explosive casing blast can be detected within few seconds & raise a public alarm. It is a low cost, portable, handheld device which is ultra-sensitive to selective explosives and can be used without much training. 
“Novel Cross-linked Anti-bacterial Hydrogel of Silver Sulfadiazine” by Nirav V.Patel, Vaishali T.Thakkar, Mr. Chakavala Soyeb Rafikbha - Anand Pharmacy College, Gujarat. This team aimed at developing a formula which could aid in healing of severe burn wounds.  The healing ability of the formula when tested in labs and juxtaposed with the effect of alternatives in circulation in the market, showed a significantly improved healing effect on burns. The formula is safe, bio-compatible and has excellent, enhanced burn healing capacity, positioning it as a viable application to help treat victims safely. Additionally, this innovation if commercialised, can help reduce hospital stay by aiding speedy recovery and ensuring better patient outcomes.
“Cost effective vegetable chiller for rural small farmers” by Vishnu Padmanaban, Ramesh Nachiappan, Manikandaraj Srinivasan - Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore.A cost cum energy efficient, sustainable and environment friendly device to store unsold/excess vegetables produced by rural farmers is a welcome innovation when India is reporting heavy food losses. The innovation is targeted towards the working class of ‘rural small farmers’ who constitute a majority of India's farming population. The chiller can help farmers in storing their valuable horticulture produce in a device which consumes minimal power, such that they can preserve their farm produce and sell it when market prices rise.  The chiller can operate in rural areas with interrupted grid power supply, is low maintenance and is CFC free.