The delight of the event attendees was the juices made by a 58 year old man Dharambir Kamboj.
Maker Mela, a premier event for grassroot innovations in India and organized by riidl (Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory) to accelerate the Maker Movement in India and to create a community of Makers announced the 4th edition of its event.
Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory (riidl) was set up in the year 2010 by Somaiya Vidyavihar on its Mumbai campus. It was created to drive innovation & entrepreneurship and currently facilitates 39,000 students and 1500 faculty in the campus. In, 2014 riidl was affiliated to the Centre for Bits and Atoms (MIT USA) as a Fablab (now a Fablab Node in India) and in 2016 with support from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, riidl became a Technology Business Incubator. The incubator helps entrepreneurs to convert their ideas into becoming successful and profitable ventures by supporting them in business planning, mentoring, recruiting their top team, commercialising their technologies, developing their products, getting early engagement and customer validations from the market, getting early stage seed funding, help in forging partnership at the national and global level, advice on intellectual property, training and development and many other things.
This year’s Maker Mela was organized from 17-19th January 2019 and it witnessed participation from many young people and entrepreneurs. Various participants of the event were:
Grishma Garach, a 20 year old Somaiya student has developed a formula to make a crunchy instant energy bar which gives a feeling of stomach fullness when consumed. The bar contains a good amount of proteins and omega 3 fats. Made with ingredients such as almonds, cashews, jaggery, oats etc. Grishma got inspiration to make this bars from her mom. Priced at Rs. 30, a 50 gm bar can be eaten as snack anytime and is a better option as it’s good for health and fulfils daily nutrient requirements of the body.
Aniket Bagul and Jinal Katariya, 23 year old Somaiya students have prepared a formula of making Jamboline Nutraceutical Tablets which is a Nutraceutical Health Product and can help Diabetic individual prevent Diabetes in a natural way and also many other diseases according to health claims of the product. Bioactives present in the Nutraceutical Product helps prevent diseases as they have their health-promoting role in a natural way, also the Nutraceutical Product has health claims like Anti-diabetic, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antibacterial which will help prevent the different diseases based on health problems an individual have, without increasing the side effects as modern medicine does. Society will get educated about the Natural Way of living with this Nutraceutical product and will get a better idea about the natural remedies and their health-promoting role.
Ankit Raj and Sayali Welekar are Somaiya students who have started Health Eatos, a healthy snack manufacturing firm aiming to change unhealthy snacking habits and thinking of customers towards snacks by opting healthy sources of ingredients and processes to develop a scalable, and market acceptable product. They started with nachos and replacing corn with beans rich in multi-nutrients. They are also working on existing snacks as well as develop new snacks through R & D to prevent customers look at snacks positively in terms of health. Unhealthy snacking is leading to diseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiac ailments and many more. People need to switch to healthy options to avoid life taking risks. This product is not only healthy but also provides add-on nutrients like protein, fibre and multi-nutrients from beans. It is gluten-free and vegan too.
Pracheta, a Somaiya student as well has developed healthy snacks with ingredients such as corn, ragi, soyabean, oats, flaxseeds, moong, urad, wheat etc and no oil. Priced at Rs. 10 for 8-10 discs, the product can be carried easily, anywhere.
23 year old Gujaratis Bhoomi Shah and Yash Gada from Mumbai have developed Growbar Greens that sells micro green salads that have various health benefits. They also teach how to grow them without soil, provide seeds of micro greens and encourage a healthy lifestyle. Micro greens are packed with nutrients and incorporating them in diet is a great step towards healthy living. They are natural, vegan, gluten-free and yummy. The concern behind this was surrounding the diet of people in general all over the world; this would help enforce the idea of a healthy lifestyle. With growing health issues, due to unhealthy lifestyles, consumption adulterated foods and climatic changes; people have become health conscious. Many people in India are unaware of the benefits of microgreens in their diets which is very popular culture in the west. Growbar Greens is a small step towards making the health scenario better for Indians.
The delight of the event attendees was the juices made by a 58 year old man Dharambir Kamboj. Belonging to a rural district in Haryana, he has developed a multi-purpose food processing machine. One of the salient features of the machine is that it makes pulp or juice without breaking the seeds, so the product does not turn bitter or change taste. The device is designed in such a way that it can also be used as a big pressure cooker, a homogeniser or a steriliser. Working on a single phase motor, it is useful in processing of various fruits, herbs and seeds. It offers condensation mechanism, which helps in extraction of essence and extracts from flowers and medicinal plants. Its portability makes it most suitable for farm processing, thereby producing farm fresh products and reducing problems associated with transportation and stocking.
Mr. Dharambir said that this machine has provided employment to rural women and has helped many earn their living. When asked about the juice which did not turned bitter unlike other juicers, he commented that as the machine did not have blades and had cutters, the seed did not break and hence were easy to filter.
The two-day event saw participation from tens of thousands of vistors from all age groups and all sectors.