All you need to know about global grassroot innovations recognised by Honey Bee Network and GIAN (Representative Image: Shutterstock)

Honey Bee Network and GIAN have jointly organised first International annual competition for creative and innovative ideas or traditional knowledge practices, which solve day-to-day problems faced by human society, including animals and the environment.

The initiative, Honey Bee Network Creativity & Inclusive Innovation Awards (HBNCRIIA) accepts entries from parents, teachers, professionals, college students, or any other adult in the formal or informal sector. This award aims to give international recognition to the innovations which are from/for grassroots, and address unmet social needs.

Prof Anil K Gupta while welcoming the jury members mentioned that Honey Bee Network Creativity & Inclusive Innovation Awards (HBNCRIIA) 2020 is given to most promising inclusive innovations from around the world. The members of the jury included Prof. PVM Rao, Head, Department of Design, IIT-Delhi; Prof. Vijaya Sherry Chand, Chairperson, Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, IIM; Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy, IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay; Prof. Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning, MIT, Boston; Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Senior Lecturer, MIT’s Sloan School of Management; Chetan Patel, National Coordinator – Shodhyatra at SRISTI; Basma Saeed, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Accelerator Labs, Sudan; Nilesh Kulkarni, Director, Gharda Chemicals; Dan Kiernan, Careers Coach at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; Wong Ada, Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture; Rozita Singh, Head of Solutions Mapping, Accelerator Lab at UNDP, India; and Alison Field- Juma, Executive Director at OARS Cambridge, United States.

This year, the organisers have reviewed around 2,500 entries from 87 countries. These were screened by eminent scholars and practitioners at the primary stage followed by expert jury review. The winners include 10 international awards, four Coping with COVID awards and four appreciation awards from nine countries.

Table of winner’s details

Title	Country	Name of Innovator	Innovation Details
One Peso Internet	Philippines	A collective of Computer Technicians in Quiapo, Manila	Pisonets are standalone internet kiosks that operated by inserting Php1.00 coins in exchange for 5 minutes of internet use.
Dog against gender violence	Ecuador	Andrea Mosquera	This solution was created by Andrea Mosquera who shared her experience in the Human Library event organised by Ecuador’s Acc lab in January. Andrea is a woman with disability (cerebral palsy) who was assaulted in a park by a man who had followed her. When she was brought down to the floor, suddenly a dog approached them and barked insistently to the point that the attacker had to let her go. From this experience, Andrea Funded ARNV (Non-violence Rapid Action), a foundation that trains street dogs to protect battered women who have a restraining order.
Mobile app to identify mosquitoes and, therefore, to prevent vector-borne diseases	Argentina	Joaquín Cochero, young scientist Guide: Dr. Fernando Garelli, CONICET, Assistant Researcher, Science Didactics Group (IFLYSIB)	Dengue and Participation, contributions from an educational look and the digital Mosquito Digital Project
Zyenika Adaptiv e Clothing	Kolkata, West Bengal, India	Soumita Basu	The biggest innovation will be in the structural design using different cuts, fasteners and fabrics and lay them out in a creative way clothes that are easy, quick, and painless to wear as independently as possible. It will adapt to low shoulder movements (like frozen shoulder), poor grip, low backache (like in slip disc), lack of movement of the back on bending and low finger dexterity. There are two large categories of products- adaptive innerwear and outerwear.
Galah Tuis (Fruit packing/ wrapping Pole)	Malaysia	Azhar bin Ismail	This handy tool enables fruits to be swiftly and easily wrapped directly on tree branches without the need to climb up trees. The innovation protects damage to ripening fruits caused by birds, insects and tree-climbing animals such as squirrels while also reducing the risk of accidents from falling off trees. It is easy to use with minimal maintenance costs.
	Uganda	SIMI Mobile Uganda/ Engo Holdings Group	The phone has infrared temperature sensors integrated into the rear camera block, which can measure one’s body temperature.
Life shelter for displaced population	Iraq	Iraq Response Innovation Lab	Durable, environment friendly, cost-effective, affordable and modular shelter solution made entirely with Rockwool, compliant with UN standards, with a life expectancy of 15 years+, to provide dignity to displaced population. Simple and easy to erect and disassemble. Semi-permanent. Safe and resistant to fire, earthquake and storm. Lockable doors.
Tomatoes Shelf Life Enhance – “Live More”	Visakhapatnam, India	Dabu Raja	The innovator has come upwith a herbal extract made of leafy vegetables which allows tomatoes to be in good shape and in good condition for at least thirty days.
Agro-processing innovations	Haryana, India	Dharambir Kamboj	The innovator designed a machine which helps people to extract corn kernels and corn milk easily. One has to just put the corn into the machine and the kernels are ready at the other end. Also, there is a grinder associated with the set up which grinds the kernels to milk if needed.
Modha device replacing Jacquard in Handlooms	Telangana, India	Sivakumar Modha	Innovator brought electronics to guide the weaver on the handloom for colour selection and number of threads hitherto being done by Jacquard. Easy to install, easy to operate, low cost, no maintenance, unlimited designs by using a pen drive can be weaved on the handloom.

COVID Awards

Title	Country	Name of Innovator	Innovation Details
Isolated bed with enclosure structure	India	Ashokumar Aasarani	It is an isolated bed designed to ensure social distancing between the COVID positive patients and the health workers treating them. The main aim behind the innovation is to stop further spreading of the virus from one patient to other.
Teaching through conference calls	India	Balaji Jadhav	The teacher has started conference calling from April 2020 as students don’t have smartphones at home, they have simple keypad phones, and internet is a major issue in Satara, Maharashtra. The 80 percent of the students don’t have smartphone facility at home. Contacting 10 students in one call in the morning and evening for one hour.
Interactive soap	Iraq	Field Ready – Makerspace (Community Initiative)	A soap that contains toys inside it to motivate the children to wash their hands and get the toys. The soap are locally produced and the toys are manufactured by using the 3D printing mechanism.
Cable classroom	India	Ashokbhai Dave	Arranged an educational lecture series through cable network telecast in rural areas where internet connectivity is a major issue. Free services provide covering schools of 70 villages and 20,000 children of Shankheshwar block in Gujarat. 350 teachers of the block are delivering lectures according to decided time table. Daily two hour lectures are being delivered from last two months

Appreciation

Title	Country	Name of Innovator	Innovation Details
Cassava & Sargassum Bioplastic	Barbados	Kerri-Ann Bovell	The innovator Kerri-Ann Bovell has developed a prototype and done testing only thus far.
Drinking straws from coconut leaves	India	Saji Varghese	He has come up with an innovation of biodegradable straws from naturally fallen coconut leaves. They have also developed four machines for the production process which can be given to women groups in rural areas and engage them in the production of straws.
Modification inelectric plug	India	Ravi Kumar Sharma	The idea is to attach a switch with the electric plug which will stop passage of electricity to the electronic appliance connected through the plug. With this, there will be no need for the user to remove the plug from the socket after each usage of the appliance.
Sun Handloom for disabled	India	Kapil Vaidya	In order to solve the problem of disabled weavers who cannot operate shafts by their legs, the innovators made a new mechanism by adding hand-levers to raise and lower the head shafts. So, this new loom is fully operated by hand levers and no need of foot to run this loom.