IIT Mandi: Himachal Pradesh CM inaugurates Himalayan Startup Trek 2022

On Friday, the sixth iteration of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi Technology Incubator Catalyst’s annual signature event, the Himalayan Startup Trek, began (HST 2022). Innovative approaches to utilising computers’ intelligence and computation skills in decision-making, prediction, estimation, communication, and processing were the focus of this year’s HST 2022.

Jai Ram Thakur, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, officially opened the sixth iteration of HST 2022. The August 26–31 event aims to unite the Indian startup ecosystem’s players and give aspiring business owners a stage to present their concepts. Over 440 proposals were submitted this year to IIT Mandi from various sectors, including agriculture, biotechnology, healthcare, clean energy, waste management, enterprise solutions, education, tourism, and consumer internet.

IIT Mandi: Winners list HST 2022

There were 60 teams selected for the final round, and 11 winners from three different theme areas won a monetary reward of Rs. 6 lakh along with an invitation to IIT Mandi Catalyst’s incubator programme. Following is a list of the winning teams and the concepts they presented.

1. Sunbots Innovations LLP – Sunbots is creating a camera-based wearable device that converts visual information into audio in order to offer blind and visually impaired people actionable intelligence.

2. NEMA AI – The team is creating a thorough learning platform for Neurodivergent people with Autism who are between the ages of 5 and 30 via a brain-computer interface.

3. SerachGrand – Using IoT technology, the team is developing a team that can fit in shutters to monitor and guard against store burglaries.

4. Binary loop – To address issues with freight transportation in far locations, pesticide application in agricultural fields, and observation of remote areas, the Binary loop is creating multi-role UAVs for the logistical, agricultural, and surveillance sectors.

5. WebAgro Tech – To reduce field harvest time delays, WebAgro Tech is creating portable collection and size sorting equipment for round fruit middlemen. utilising a collecting arm and mobile size sorting tools

6. Oddessemania Private Limited – Oddessemania is creating a web application for designing itineraries and booking pre-travel guides.

7. Atalia Magastores Private Limited – Megastores.com has created a social marketplace that is tailored and simple to use for companies and artisans in order to promote and sell handmade goods to people across the world.

8. Kinowave – Using non-renewable energy producing techniques, Kinowave is creating grid-scale energy solutions to store energy on a big scale for power distribution firms to address peak load issues.

9. New Unnat India Techno Solution & Innovation Pvt Ltd. – New Unnat India Techno Solution & Innovation has created the “Shuddham,” a new hybrid water purifier that is specifically designed for rural India. It is an inexpensive method of purifying drinking water that uses chilling and natural testing technology.

10. Urbanblue Technologies Pvt Ltd – Using a combination of AI, MI, and computer vision, Urban Blue Technologies is creating a treatment plant management suite of software for wastewater treatment facilities to address the delays in analysing and troubleshooting the data from treatment plants.

11. Exsure is developing a medication delivery platform that will target both cancer cells and cancer stem cells, lowering the risk of tumour recurrence.

Thakur encouraged upcoming business owners by saying “IIT Mandi provides the finest environment for young students to think more clearly and develop their startup ideas. It also has the best location for researchers. I anticipate that IIT Mandi will concentrate on a few key areas that could improve the quality of life in Himachal Pradesh, such as smart agriculture and horticulture.”

“The main characteristics of a startup are to solve issues that benefit society as a whole. IIT Mandi Catalyst encourages young minds to find original solutions to the problems facing the modern world and aims to transform the Kamand valley into the Silicon Valley of the Himalayas. IIT Mandi director Laxmidhar Behera said, “We at IIT Mandi look forward to encouraging more and more startups with creative ideas. Over 260 businesses in a range of sectors, including clean energy, healthcare, enterprise management, agriculture, manufacturing, biotech, education, and consumer internet, have received assistance from IIT Mandi Catalyst. To date, Catalyst has held more than 130 such programmes and given entrepreneurs more than Rs 6 crore for prototyping and commercialization.