3M™-CII Student Innovation Challenge Award in #Bangalore

The Bangalore Chapter of The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) announced the winners of the 3M™ -CII Student Innovation Challenge Award. 3M India awarded the winning innovation submitted by a team of students from IIT Bombay who conceptualised an ultra-sensitive, low cost hand-held explosive detector system. The first runner up was a team from Anand Pharmacy College, Anand, Gujarat, who developed a cross-linked anti-bacterial hydrogel of silver sulfadiazine, a formula which could aid in healing severe burn wounds and a team from Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore came in third with their cost effective vegetable chiller for rural small farmers.

Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Raja Krishnamurthy, R&D Head at 3M India, said “We are extremely delighted at this opportunity to support an Award aimed at furthering innovations with social relevance instituted by a well-recognized body such as CII. We could instantly relate to it as it fell in line with our CSR strategy which focuses on education and sustainable innovation. To arrive at the winners we had to explore organisations that have occupied this space with young students. Eventually, from a pool of over 100 student projects from colleges and institutes across India, 10 of the most innovative ideas were shortlisted based on themes of Sustainability, Infrastructure and Healthcare - the 3 key focus areas for 3M in India. The top 3 innovative projects were awarded at the Tenth CII India Innovation Summit event.”

Adding to this Mr. S Gopalakrishnan, Immediate Ex. President, CII said “The theme for this year’s landmark edition of the Summit was ‘Innovation for Inclusive Growth’- acknowledging the need for innovative thinking to improve the lives of people across the socio-economic strata. Given its unique industrious and entrepreneurial spirit, Bangalore offers a great incubation environment for sustainable innovations. We wanted to join hands with an entity that shared the same ethos. 3M as the trusted promoter of this award was the most logical choice, given its global reputation for innovation.”