Announcing Winners of #myLOVESTEELidea Contest
The #myLOVESTEELidea contest was held between 15th November 2017 and 15th December 2017 with the objective of promoting Start-Up India, Stand-Up India and providing support for steel-related innovation, deployment or commercialization of new product, processes or services or intellectual property.
The theme of the #myLOVESTEELidea challenge was to come up with the best ways to use steel for creating new and innovative products for general public and/or businesses that are practical and commercially viable.
An ‘Evaluation’ team was constituted by the Ministry of Steel to evaluate all valid proposals/entries on “start-up / Stand up” in steel sector, which were submitted online by the contestants, with the underlying focus on boosting steel consumption in the country, refresh citizens’ perception of steel, and encourage people to think of steel as an exciting material to work with and for finding innovative solutions and applications.
The Evaluation Committee declared 3 winners of the #myLOVESTEELidea contest-
First Prize: Sumit Gupta (20 years) from Delhi (Individual entry) for “Steel based expandable Tiny homes for providing low-cost basic housing with solar panels and bio-toilets.”
Impact: The idea offers the potential to catalyze the development of a new market for quick, affordable, safe and comfortable housing made of steel, equipped with solar panels for electricity generation, which will help in reducing carbon emission. This will have an enormous multiplier effect on steel consumption, the economy and the social benefits of having citizens who are stable and rooted in their own homes.
Second Prize: Hareesh S. (46 years) from Valiyakunnu, Trivandrum (Individual entry) for “Design for Stainless steel waste bin, incorporating enclosed segregated storage and with provisions for advertising space outside.”
Impact: The idea offers the potential to increase steel consumption at the local community/corporation level and help change community habits with a positive effect on public hygiene and health. The potential to buttress local resources through advertising revenues is a major additional benefit.
Third Prize: Vasim Malek (31 years) from Nadiad City, Gujarat (Individual entry) for “Permanent Steel Utility ducting for underground laying along roads and in apartments / public spaces for eliminating disruption due to repeated digging up for the laying of utilities.”
Impact: The idea offers the potential to impact steel consumption hugely, and improve quality of life, save recurring expenditures, facilitate infrastructure development and expansion of utilities.
Keeping in view the positive impact of government recognition, a few entries were recognised for the creativity and innovation displayed.
Certificate of Appreciation was awarded to-
Revathi Kannan (32 years) from Chennai (Individual entry) for “Funtoons– stainless steel idli moulds in shapes of cartoon characters.”
Impact: The idea offers an innovative solution of using steel to address the age-old dilemma of parents: A child who does not want to eat. The effort at applying steel to resolve a common household problem demonstrated an innovative flair which was worthy of recognition.
Karan Garg (30 years), Multimelt Steel industries from Bathinda (Individual entry) for “B2B website for aggregation of raw material purchases by steel SMEs, to obtain the advantage of bulk pricing and buying.”
Impact: The idea has the potential to streamline and reduce costs of steel sector SMEs, helping to establish a globally competitive and nationally relevant steel industry in India. The idea for resolving an issue faced by steel SMEs was worthy of recognition and for encouraging the development of more such ideas that leverage technology to address issues of steel SMEs.
Anand Verma (25 years) from Ghazipur, UP (Individual entry) for “Generation of electricity by placing solar panels over highways.”
Impact: The idea offers the potential to utilise solar panels as a cost-effective and energy-efficient solution for feeding our highways, villages and interior areas with power. The ambitious scale and creativity of this idea, out of the box thinking for increasing steel consumption while simultaneously promoting multiple uses of already committed land resources made it worthy of recognition.
Usman Khan (21 years) & Naseem Khan (39 years) from Paonta Sahib, H.P. (Team entry) for “Development and sale of designer creative steel items.”
Impact: The idea offers the potential to promote small Indian businesses and entrepreneurs from semi-urban areas to use steel creatively to widen their clientele, helping them make their mark on the global e-Commerce platform. This recognition would trigger similar efforts by other businesses in semi-urban and rural areas to help boost steel consumption in India and encourage more small businesses to set their sights on the world stage. Small entrepreneurs in semi-urban and rural areas can rejuvenate the economy and act as employment generators – any recognition shall help to unleash more entrepreneurial efforts, which can only benefit the country.
Honourable Union Minister of Steel, Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh, felicitated the winners on 17th April 2018 at SCOPE Complex, Lodhi Road in New Delhi.
