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Start-up from Udaipur gets selected for a program in Japan with funding of 10M

The Journey: 

It was a long process which had a total of four phases over a duration of 4 months. The team had applied to the website of OIST(Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) that required all the information about the start-up.

OIST shortlisted the start-up from n number of applications which came across from various parts of the world. They stated that a total of 50,000 applications were received. Top 100 ideas were shortlisted for the interview with OIST professionals and Japanese Government.

They took an interview of the whole startup team which comprised of four members from Japan.A final interview was conducted in last, impressed by the start-up idea the team received a confirmation email which stated that the idea was selected for the 1-year Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program in Japan.

The Japanese Government is going to sponsor all activities including Visa, travel, accommodation, and R&D works on the start-up. They funded the team with a huge amount of 10M Japanese Yen to start a business in Japan. Two members from the team Mr. Narayan Lal Gurjar and Mr. Puran Singh Rajput are selected to visit Japan for a 1-year program.

About the Game changing Start-up:

Keeping in mind that India is an agricultural dependent economy and a big part of the country’s economy depends on agriculture. The production in agriculture is directly proportional to water availability. In India, 266 districts from 11 states are declared as drought affected. The average food grain production between 2010-2011 and 2014-2015 was 255.59 million tons, while in 2015-2016, it was estimated to be at 253.16 million tons. More than 70% of the districts are drought affected in 8 states. The data clearly shows that scarcity and unavailability of water cause too many losses.

So the team tried to create something helpful to retain water for a longer duration of time, and in the process, the team was successful to create a polymer named “Eco-Friendly Water Retention Natural Polymer”. Keeping in mind all the conditions of the country and its farmers the team designed the product at low cost with much more efficiency.

Brief about the Polymer:

Eco-Friendly Water Retention Natural Polymer works on the properties of SAP. As the team knew SAP had properties to absorb a large quantity of water. The team used properties of SAP and designed natural polymer, which has more capacity to store water for longer time.

On testing of the product, the team found that it may retain water for 4 to 6 weeks that means crops irrigated at intervals of 2 to 4 days can now be irrigated up to 7 to 8 days with less water consumption. Finally, farmers can get more crop production in low water consumption.

The natural polymer was produced by using natural waste material like orange peels, banana peels and peepal barks with gel. All the ingredient used are biodegradable, the designed product is also biodegradable and completely pollution free. It can be easily mixed with soil and does not create any problem for the future. Also, the team has not used any type of chemicals, so it is harmless to crops, soil, and farmers as well.

About the team: 

We all know that the source of income in our villages is mainly agriculture. The team witnessed a big draught in a nearby village which caused complete damage to the crops. The situation was very bad and it became worst when the villagers started to fight for the water. At that time few relatives came to the team and said that one thing that you need to and should do is to find a solution to this problem.

The idea popped up for the first time when they saw how the orange peels were able to store water for a long time. With some google search in the start and shared the idea with one of the old friends. They both researched and found that orange peels have special property to store water for a longer time. The team started to work on this idea.

Being the students of Agriculture Engineering at the College of Technology & Engineering, Udaipur they got the best environment to develop this idea. They shared the idea with the professors and got appreciated by the Dean of College as well. This and having support from a good team with dedicated people inspired them to work with more power.

The team started to work more deeply as well as started researching the idea. After 6 months of research, the team created a process to develop EF Polymer. After college hours, the team used to go to the juice shops and collects fruit peels. Everyone there was of helping nature.

Apart from this idea was presented in front of the state and central government. They were appreciated by Rajasthan’s C.M. Ms.Vasundhara Raje Sindhiya in Rajasthan Education Fair. Recently they were also awarded GYTI award from Honorable President of India Mr. Ramnath Kovind Ji.

Help from UdaipurBlog:

Narayan Lal Gurjar says:

“Udaipur Blog interviewed the team last year and motivated to get the idea out in public. Also, the interview helped the project to receive more orders. This motivated us to do the work with more dedication.”

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Fatehsagar and Pichola soon to have ‘No-Selfie Zones’

A meeting was hosted by District Tourism Development Committee in the collectorate premises on Tuesday. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss various steps that needed to be taken to improve the conditions of various tourist attractions in Udaipur. Tourism Industry is one of the biggest business sectors for the Udaipurites and needs reforms to strengthen its roots.

Steps like regular police patrolling, improving traffic conditions around the tourist spots were discussed at length. Common accident-prone spots at popular tourist attractions like Fatehsagar, Badi, Sajjangarh Fort, Gangaur Ghat, Jagdish Mandir, Fatehsagar, Ambrai, Rani Road will soon be declared as no-selfie zone due to safety concerns. The meeting was led by Additional District Collector Sanjay Kumar and Udaipur’s Mayor Chandra Singh Kothari, District Traffic Administrator Kalpana Sharma along with other officials attended the meeting.

The Heritage Walk which is closed from the past 2 years was also discussed and steps to restart it was one of the major discussion points. The mayor is in discussion with officials from the Udaipur Guide Association to restart the Heritage Walk at the earliest.

Udaipur is well known for its tourism industry and the government is taking various steps from time to time for its betterment.

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Are We Easily Accepting the Insane Decisions of Government? | Internet Ban in Udaipur

Rajasthan is witnessing an action that is unprecedented in the history of a democracy anywhere in this world. Rajasthan officials enforced a two-day statewide internet ban with arbitrary geographical boundaries. The reason for this was to deter cheating at the Rajasthan State Constable Examination.

Administrators in each district had to pass orders to shut down the cellular internet (and home broadband services too maybe) on the last weekend from 8AM-5PM in the day [copy of an order from Divisional Commissioner, Udaipur]. This is the first time something of this scale happened but Rajasthan is no stranger to regional internet bans. We are being normalized for what is an extreme action. This time the reason for the shutdown was to deter cheating at a government examination. Shutdown internet for the whole state to stop cheating at an exam makes perfect sense.

Folks at Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) have been tracking the Internet Shutdowns across India for last four years. According to InternetShutdowns.in, state of Rajasthan has seen 25 shutdowns in this duration which is second highest for any state in India after J&K! SFLC’s handbook on Internet Shutdowns in India is fairly useful policy primer on the issue.

This meant a loss of livelihood to many (cab drivers, mobile recharge shops, food delivery businesses, remote employees, freelancers, the list goes on). Approximately, the transaction of around 20 crores was interrupted, 14,000 e-tickets were not booked, roadways tickets suffered a loss of 5% and similarly, numerous people suffered from the ban. This directly negated the whole idea of digital India and the push to digital payment that came after demonetization. This is probably harmful in a hundred more ways. None of these shutdowns are properly communicated. The government simply is not even interested to gauge in the economic and other losses as a result of these bans to a state of 6.89 Crore people!

It is even more important that you make yourself heard because there is no framework or metric right now that the Office of District Magistrate or any official higher in the ladder uses to decide what events/occasions duly require a blanket ban (if any at all!). By not speaking, you are surrendering your rights to access the internet which is equivalent only to let the government decide when you get to be online and when not.

I am not sure if you or your friends are directly affected but we still need to hold our administration accountable at this moment. Only because this is an immense power exercise!

We need our government to answer a few really basic questions:

  • What is the process of arriving at the conclusion of such a blanket ban?
  • How are geographical boundaries in ban enforced? Who is enforcing these boundaries?
  • What all exams in the future will require a blanket ban?
  • What is significantly different about these exams that we have to resort to an action of this scale? An order like this is unprecedented in the history of our country (or any country probably)

To put things in perspective, internet bans are used around the world even by authoritarian regimes only in dire needs and at times of revolt (think Arab spring). We are a liberal democracy seeing this enforced so casually. This is normalization!

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Udaipur inches closer towards becoming a Smart City – still a long way to go!

Udaipur inches closer towards becoming a Smart City – still a long way to go!

After the recent amendments to the Smart City project, Udaipur has come a lot closer to realizing its dream of becoming a smart city. Needless to say, Udaipur literally upped the ante by performing exceptionally well in the latest ranking conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and has really given the other cities a run for their money. It is the combined efforts of the people of the city and the Municipality that Udaipur is now seen as a competitor in the smart city race. Udaipur ranked 4th in the rankings and was judged on the basis of the commencement and completion of projects within the timeframe along with the tender allotment process and the implementation speed.

Some of the recent developments in the city include pole-less old city area, under which all the open lines and connections including cable, internet, telephone will be made underground, also, the undergoing sewage line modification and the door-to-door garbage collection plans have given a boost to the residents and motivated everyone to perform our bit towards making Udaipur a Smart City.

Different people have different approaches to the concept of Smart City. It depends on the level of development, desire to change and reform, and most importantly, the dreams of the citizens of the city. The main aim remains to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and provide a decent standard of living to its residents along with a clean and green environment.

The main objectives with which a smart city is developed include:
  1. E-Governance, through online records, complaint management, etc.
  2. Green City, providing alternate energy and utilities, also, being transport efficient.
  3. Public Safety which means strict law enforcement and proper security and surveillance.
  4. Smart Building which optimizes energy and smart metering.
  5. Proper healthcare services followed by asset management, telemedicine, and remote monitoring.
  6. Education that is research-based and is technologically equipped.
  7. Transport, which includes, fleet optimization, airport, and railway management.

Running along the same lines, Smart City Board gave a nod to ABD tenders (Area Based Development worth ₹537 crores to L&T company. They broadly include the development of 50 Bus Q shelters, Conservation and development of works of heritage appearance, lighting for bazaars in the Walled city area under Udaipur Smart City project Phase-I and redevelopment of Government schools and Anganbaris in the municipal areas for which the work-order will be prepared in the next 10 days. Whereas, the work shall commence after the company’s two-month survey and is expected to complete the same within a timeframe of 2 years.

Here are some amendments that make the ABD tender such a special gift for the city:

An all-day water supply to all the eighteen wards coming under the Walled city area.

New network of sewage lines to be laid.

Upgradation of old lines with new techniques.

Pole-less walled city area with all the connections going underground.

New roads in ABD area.

Covered drainage lines and gutters.

SCADA system implementation that helps to gather reports online about electricity, water, etc. through sensors and delivering commands to control relays.

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) lauded the tender allotment process of Smart City Limited and Board and gave directions as to how the same should be served as a Model Tender throughout the country.

Rajasthan was the first major state to have gotten the smart city projects approved for all the four cities in mere two rounds of the competition. Udaipur got through in just the first round of 20 smart cities along with Jaipur followed by Ajmer and Kota in the second round of the competition. Rajasthan is one of the 11 states to start implementing the six urban missions that comprise the development of the heritage city and augmentation yojana. The Government of Rajasthan is spending close to ₹30,000 crores on these projects. The projects are expected to be completed by the year 2020.

What are your thoughts about Udaipur’s Smart City mission?

Tell us in the comments below and suggest some ideas and measures we can take to take it a level further. After all, it is our city and our participation remains of the utmost importance!

Keep the city clean. Charity begins at home!