Six startups under the leadership of women have won the COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge. It was organized by MyGov in collaboration with UN Women and was launched in April 2020.
COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge was hosted on the platform of MyGov. It called for the applications from the startups that are led by women as well as those startups who provide solutions to issues faced by a large number of women.
COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge was implemented in two stages- Proof of Concept Stage and Ideation Stage. It also received an overwhelming response with a total of 1265 entries from all over the nation.
Taking forward the women entrepreneurship in India, here are the winners of the COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge 2020 - Dr. P Gayatri Hela, Romita Ghosh, Dr. Anjana Ramkumar, and Dr. Anushka Ashokan. Read the blog to know more: https://t.co/S1B8qXmnb0 #AatmaNirbharBharat pic.twitter.com/FWXq7pDkQt
— MyGovIndia (@mygovindia) November 4, 2020
Objective of COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge:
COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge was organized by MyGov in collaboration with UN women to involve and encourage women-led startups to come up with innovative ideas and solutions that will be able to help in the fight against COVID-19 or assist in solving problems that impact a large number of women.
Selection of the winners: Highlights
• After the thorough screening of the applications received, 25 startups were shortlisted for the presentations to the jury which included officials from Atal Innovation Mission, UN Women India, and MyGov.
• All the 25 shortlisted startups presented their solutions and ideas to the jury who then evaluated the solutions on the parameters such as usability, innovation, relevance, and its impact on society.
• After the thorough review, 11 finalists were chosen for the next stage. The selected finalists were then awarded a prize amount of Rs. 75,000 each for further developing their ideas.
• After giving time to selected 11 startups for developing their solutions, the final presentations were made again on October 27, 2020.
• After the intense discussion, the jury selected the top 3 entries as winners and recognized additional 3 entries as ‘Promising Solutions’ in view of the high- quality solutions and ideas presented by them.
• Apart from rewarding Rs. 5 lakhs to the top 3 winners, UN women also agreed to reward Rs. 2 lakhs each to the 3 startups chosen for ‘Promising Solutions’.
Top 3 winners of COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge |
| • P Gayatri Hela- She is a founder of Resada Lifesciences Private Ltd in Bengaluru. It organizes and develops agricultural and home-based products with the use of plant extracts instead of synthetic chemicals. • Romita Ghosh- She is a cancer survivor and is the founder of iHeal HealthTech Private Ltd. in Shimla. It is a healthcare startup that has been at the forefront of the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic and has been providing PPE to the hospitals. • Dr. Anjana Ramkumar and Dr. Anushka Ashokan- They are the product manager and co-founder of Thanmatra Innovations Pvt. Ltd. in Kerala. They have come up with an innovative solution of anti-microbial solution that can be sprayed into dupattas or handkerchiefs for making them safe so that they can be used as face masks. |
3 startups identified as ‘Promising Solutions’ |
| • Vasanthi Palanivel- She is a CEO and co-founder of Seragen BioTherapeutics Pvt Ltd. in Bengaluru. Palanivel as a scientist and researcher studied the impacts and symptoms of the virus and identified that the lungs were one of the worst infected organs in COVID-19. She also developed a plasma solution for treating respiratory distress due to COVID. • Shivi Kapil- She is a co-founder of Empathy Design Labs, Bengaluru. The labs focus on healthcare and took the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for designing solutions for pregnant women who could not go to the hospitals. Shivi Kapil designed Kriya which is a wearable device for the daily monitoring of pregnancy. It provides alerts and suggestions for expecting parents for timely action. • Jaya and Ankita Parashar (Mother and daughter)- They are the founder and co-founder of STREAM Minds. It is an ed-tech company that works on promoting technology, science, mathematics, reading/writing, and arts education among children all over India. They have also designed ‘Dobot’, a fully automated robot. It acts as an in-house delivery assistant for making hospitals and healthcare clinics safe from the risks of COVID-19. |
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