1. Anusweta Deb’s plastic lifejackets Devastated by repeated floods in the Hailakandi and nearby areas in Assam, 18-year-old Anusweta Deb found a solution that not only reuses plastic bottles but also is cost-effective.

She made life jackets out of plastic bottles and bags that would have otherwise ended up in landfills. Available in small, medium, and large sizes, these jackets have the capacity to support up to 110 kg of weight while floating on water and cost only Rs 150 to make.

2. Akshay Mashelkar’s jugaad robot Born and raised in Sirsi village in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, Akshay grew up in a household full of teachers. Wanting to make education in rural areas smart and technology-based, he invented Shiksha.

Shiksha is a humanoid robot capable of teaching in regional languages up to Class 4. The humanoid needs to be unlocked with a master card, and then, one can use the normal card to access the lessons. It can teach various subjects, including rhymes in Kannada and English.

3. Pal Singh Brar’s tractor innovation Pal Singh Brar, a sarpanch from the Sri Muktsar Sahib district in Punjab, devised an innovation that saves farmers’ life from farm fires that arise from hot temperatures and dry winds.

He transformed a farm tractor into a fire brigade vehicle. This jugaad tractor is equipped with a long pressure pipe and can cover long distances, making it very efficient in terms of timely intervention.

4. Kedar Prasad Mahto's hydropower plant Growing up, Kedar always saw erratic power cuts in his village. This made it difficult for farmers to use water pumps for irrigation, affected businesses and disturbed the students during their studies.

The 33-year-old claims to have spent 18 years of his life developing a technology to eradicate this issue. He built a hydropower unit, a concrete column, and fitted a turbine with a magnet, coil, motor, armature and other parts.

5. Ramesh Bariya’s irrigation system Sinking neck deep in debt due to low rainfall and crops dying, Ramesh Bariya came up with a unique solution to combat the problem of low irrigation. He developed a unique DIY drip irrigation technique that not only solves the problem of water shortage but also recycles waste.

The technique involved cutting the bottom portion of the glucose bottle with a sharp knife and hanging it upside down from a wooden stake next to the saplings. A plastic tube with a nozzle is then made to touch the ground near the root system of the plant for a regulated discharge of water.

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