IIT Palakkad and TECHIN, in collaboration with the following entities, conducted SAMASTHA as the first Workshop-cum-Pitch of the Global Sanitation Center of Excellence (GSCOE). The organizations that were part of the Governing Council served as the driving force and change creators of this center.
- HDFC BANK (through its CSR is the funding agency for the Incubation of teams under GSCOE)
- Principal Scientific Advisor’s Office (PSA office) knowledge and guidance partner
- International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) knowledge and guidance partner
- Toilet Board Coalition(TBC) Knowledge and guidance partner
- ERAM Scientific (ERAM), the Industry collaborator for Scale testing and manufacturing
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation(BMGF) (expected to join soon)
- NGOs (including Keystone Foundation, S3IDF, DICCI) working in the Sanitation domain and tribal, women, underprivileged (including those who are involved in manual scavenging).
This version of SAMASTHA was an online workshop-cum-pitch event spread over January to March 2022. The problem statements were based on Sanitation, and details were provided in the guidelines document. It was not only a standalone event, as participants had to think of actually going on to make a product and deliver it to market in the post-event incubation phase. Since the event was online, the hardware challenges required the design, drawings, and simulations to be demonstrated. The teams selected after this event were incubated by us and received the opportunity to build their prototype, conduct field testing, receive mentorship, assess business viability, and eventually deploy the products with innovation grants of up to ₹10L. All of this had to be achieved within a short time span so that we could make a difference to humanity by creating a clean and safe environment.
SAMASTHA had two parts:
The Gala, panel discussion, and workshops held on 28th January 2022, 7th February 2022, and 12th February 2022.
The mentoring and pitch sessions that spanned from 5th March to 16th March 2022.
The program on 28th January 2022 featured three eminent speakers who elucidated on Future & Innovation in Sanitation for Human Health and Environment and the Billion-Dollar Opportunity that exists.
The speakers were:
Dr. Nimish Shah, MD, IAPMO
Mr. Venugopal Gupta, MD, TBC
Prof. Ligy Philip, IIT Madras
This was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A, which inspired participants and helped them garner ideas for their journey.
Subsequently, a Technical Workshop was conducted on 7th February 2022 and a Business Workshop on 12th February 2022, both of which enriched young minds and encouraged innovation