Nine innovations get Indo-US Millennium Alliance awards

NEW DELHI: A smart cook stove that generates power, a unique audio-visual learning program and clean water delivery systems in rural were among projects selected for the innovation awards jointly instituted by the US and India.

The Millennium Alliance awards were given away in the presence of Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy, Assistant to US President for S&T John Holdren, FICCI member Saurabh Shrivastava among others, a US embassy statement said.

The Alliance is a partnership between USAID, FICCI, and Technology Development Fund of the Department of Science and Technology to support new innovations.

Of the over 1,400 applications in the first round, nine awardees were announced with the award amount totaling approximately Rs 8.9 crore.

Secretary of State John Kerry met some of the innovators separately where he was given demonstration on some of the working models of the products and services.

Kerry, who is on a three-day visit to India, appeared to take keen interest in smart cook stove which uses two innovative generators based on low-cost thermoelectric modules that generate electricity from widely used biomass.

Waterlife India showed a model of financially sustainable community water plants which supply clean water to villagers at Rs five per 20 litres.

Another innovation was a smart micro grid that cuts transmission and distribution losses in power supply to villages.

Two young innovators had displayed a product that could prevent blindness using smartphone-based diagnostic technology for cataracts and other eye conditions.

The product collects images of the human eye and transmits them through sophisticated applications to the nearest ophthalmic centre thereby speeding up diagnosis of any eye ailment.