CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards conferred upon Innovative Entrepreneurs 2020 

Chennai: Relentless in its efforts to identify hidden entrepreneurial innovations with a purpose, CavinKare and MMA jointly conducted the 9th edition of Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards today in a distinctive contactless manner. The coveted award aims to shine the spotlight on budding entrepreneurial ventures for their uniqueness, benefit to people and scalability from across the state of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. This year’s awards were conferred upon 3 Innovators in the Innovation Category and 2 in the Great Idea Category, for their cutting-edge breakthrough. Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd presided over the event as Chief Guest and awarded the winners.  

For the first time in its nine years journey, the award property was conducted in a true virtual environment from end-to-end. In the wake of COVID 19, CavinKare and MMA jointly opted to host the award property by bringing together the jury members and Chief Guest to confer the awards upon winners on a virtual platform. Further amplifying its grandeur, CavinKare and MMA seamlessly integrated digital and technology to package the function in an intriguing manner catering to a global audience.  
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. C K Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director, CavinKare Pvt Ltd, said, “The pandemic has pushed all of us to truly innovate and make the impossible seem possible. With the advent of technology in today’s digital world, we are happy to continue our journey of discovering hidden entrepreneurial gems that add great value to the society, people, and industry as a whole. This time has also presented itself as an opportunity for us to take these innovations to a global audience in a very coherent manner. I congratulate all the winners and encourage them to strive harder in their business pursuit.”   

Adding to this, Mr Ravichandran Purushothaman, President – India Region, Danfoss Industries Pvt Ltd & President MMA stated “MMA partnered with CavinKare in hosting this prestigious award and also in identifying the prospective nominees for the award. The entire process of the award including the jury meeting was organized online due to the pandemic and this in itself is a great innovation by CavinKare and MMA, which has been recognized as the best management association in the country for 11th time in a row”. 

Commemorated in the memory of Late Shri R Chinnikrishnan and to celebrate his revolutionary innovation, Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards was instituted in the year 2011 and has recognized 28 small-scale businesses for their innovative practices. Winners of the innovation awards are also mentored by CavinKare to provide support on marketing, finance, designing, packaging, R&D and HR. Introduced recently, the ‘GREAT IDEAS’ category aims to recognize and foster the next big idea, which can become a business opportunity and scalable in a reasonable time frame. A special recognition award was conferred upon Ms Sruthi Babu for developing Sahayatha, a smart wheelchair for assisting mobility impaired people. 

The call for nominations process received 314 applications from across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where the nominees were interviewed under various stringent guidelines streamlined by process advisor E & Y. The distinguished panel of Jury that joined virtually from across the region  to select the winners of this prestigious award comprised Mr Santhanam, Chairman & Managing Director, Saint Gobain India Pvt Ltd, Mr Satyakam Arya, CEO & Managing Director, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd, Mr Anand Pandey, CEO, L & T Infrastructure Engineering Ltd, Mr G V Anand Bhushan, Partner, Chennai Head, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., Dr Prof L S Ganesh,  HOD, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, Dr Rekha Shetty, Managing Director, Farstar Distribution Network Ltd and Mr R Senguttuvan, CEO, ITC Ltd, Packing and Printing.  
The following entrepreneurs were awarded for 9th CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards 2020: 
INNOVATIONS CATEGORY: 
Er. Manickam A. Gounder, Chairman- MAK group of Companies &Dr Raman Sivakumar, Chief Scientist of MAK India Limited have been awarded in recognition of their innovative zero-waste, non-polluting garbage incinerating system, known as the MAK Green Incinerator. Their innovation helps to convert wastes into organic manure, inorganic ash and carbon. The ash which has properties like cement can be used for making solid paver bricks. This innovation has the potential to completely reduce dumping in landfills and emission of greenhouse gases. 
Lt. Dr. K P Sridhar, Founder, S&G Innovators has been awarded in recognition of his innovative borewell rescue machine, which can in 15 minutes rescue infants, children or animals fallen into open borewell pits. It operates on a very simple mechanism with a worm, rack and pinion gear set. It can reach up to 150 ft and it is equipped with IR camera. The equipment would be very effective in recovery operations conducted by NDRF, Fire Service Departments and various NGOs. 
Mr Sriram Gopal, Founder & CEO, FutureFarms has been awarded in recognition of his  hydroponic and vertical farming agricultural system, which can enable us to grow plants without soil substrates and save 95% water. Equipped with a cloud-based climate management, smart irrigation and nutrition management system, the technology can help in developing hi-tech farms around major metros. 
GREAT IDEAS CATEGORY: 
Mr Amirtha Ganesh has been awarded for developing an innovative low-cost device that can save the lives of sanitation workers by detecting and removing harmful gases in sewage drains, pits and manholes. 
Special Jury Award For Great Idea  
Ms Sruthi Babu has been awarded for developing Sahayatha, a smart wheelchair for assisting mobility impaired people in the locomotion and defecation with minimal assistance from caretakers. The idea aims to elevate the quality of living of the mobility impaired and aged people.