IIT Mandi announces winners for Start-up Grand Challenge

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi’s Technology Business Incubator wrapped up the fifth edition of its Annual Flagship Event, Himalayan Start-up Trek (HST), in partnership with IIT Mandi iHUB and HCI Foundation.

“The start-up ecosystem is the best place to tackle the New Normal the pandemic has created. New solutions are needed to tackle the multitude of problems and challenges and, for that, we will require the brightest and most innovative minds. In 2021 alone, 42 new unicorns have risen in India. The three themes that HST Grand Challenge included — HCI, Build for the Himalayas, and Environment and Sustainability, are all focus areas that the world requires today,” said Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer, NITI Aayog.

Other dignitaries included Rakesh Kumar Prajapati, director of industries, Himachal Pradesh; Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, director, IIT Mandi; Ajay Garg Sr. director, MeitY. Among the keynote speakers were Ashutosh Garg, founder, Eightfold.ai and Bloomreach, California-US, and Arvind Jain (CEO-Glean & Co Founder – Rubric).

HST 2021 hosted the first-of-its-kind Start-up Grand Challenge – start-up pitch competition in which over 300 start-ups, innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs participated in three thematic areas.

Upside Down Labs won the first prize of Rs 1 lakh under the HCI thematic area. The start-up has a product named BioAmp EXG Pills, the very first and one-of-a-kind chip that can record all biopotential signals be it EEG, ECG, EOG, and EMG. The developed chip is a Do-It-Yourself Neuroscience learning kit for students and researchers.

Dextroware Devices won the second cash prize of Rs 60,000 under the HCI thematic area. The start-up has developed a wearable device named Mouseware that will empower people with upper limb disability by enabling hands-free operation of computers and smart devices with simple head movements. With this device worn on the head, users can move the mouse cursor by just rotating their head and perform clicks with accessible switches.

Dectrocel Healthcare won the third cash prize of Rs 40,000 under the HCI thematic area. This is a HealthTech start-up that uses Artificial Intelligence to detect genetic disorders and respiratory abnormalities in healthcare diagnostics. The start-up has developed a platform as a service product that uses AI diagnostic algorithms to detect diseases like Down Syndrome and tuberculosis. This algorithm was trained on a data set of more than 5 lakh patients and about 6,000 patients have been screened until now with an accuracy of more than 98%. The vision of the founders is to make healthcare more accessible and affordable by providing affordable disease diagnosis to the society at large.

The chief minister congratulated the winners through a video message, wished the participants and promised to support the start-up ecosystem.

“Congratulations to all the start-ups for coming up with new solutions. We will ensure the success of the winning teams with incubation support and look forward to inspiring more and more start-ups with innovative solutions. IIT Mandi is happy to take the responsibility of building and strengthening the start-up valley in Himachal Pradesh,” said Ajit K. Chaturvedi, director, IIT Mandi.