We are pleased to announce that Earthzy Technology Solutions (RecycloBin) won the 1st runners up prize at SCOUT 2021 declared on 17 January 2022.
SCOUT (Smart City Challenge & Outcome for Urban Transformation) - 2021 launched by Electropreneur Park (EP), Bhubaneswar was a Pan-India contest for start-ups/ innovators focusing on solutions for Smart-Cities. The objective of SCOUT 2021 was to invite solutions from Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Enthusiasts, Students and Research communities to come up with alternative ways of fulfilling the specific needs & products or services in making the city life better and bringing transformation through disruptive technologies. The objective was also to bring out state-of-art made-in India solutions and thus give a further boost to the idea of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
SCOUT 2021 was organized by Electropreneur Park, Bhubaneswar, an ESDM Incubation Centre set up by STPI (Software Technology Parks of India), with the support from the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Govt. of India and Govt. of Odisha as part of its PAN India initiative to create a network of Centres of Excellence.
The program was supported by several esteemed partners under whom startups were mentored. The companies included Microchip Technology Inc, Excelpoint Systems, Ashoka Buildcon Limited, L&T, iWave Systems, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, CSM Technologies, Analog Devices, Xilinx, and Zeliot.
Last year, our solution, RecycloBin, was selected among the Top 36 finalists after several rounds of evaluation and screening from a pool of thousands of entries. RecycloBin was chosen as a smart solution that can mitigate smart city waste management problems and make the city life better. Throughout the program, RecycloBin's team was mentored by Excelpoint Systems and Microchip Technology Inc.
On 17th January 2022, a Valedictory cum Product Showcasing Event was conducted where eminent dignitaries and key stakeholders from MeitY, State Govt.,Industry, Smart cities, Academia were present and winners were felicitated. The insights shared by panellists boosted the startups' spirits to continue working on their innovations.
The keynote by Shri Arvind Kumar, Director General, STPI was just what we needed,
“Innovations across the world face initial obstacles before they come on the ground. Resistance to new technologies or innovations is seen even in the case of computers or telephony. People had doubts in mind about their benefits. For example, when mobile telephony first came, some people could not foresee the significant impact of this technology, but today they have realised how the telephone has played a transformational role in their life. Similarly, for adopting innovative solutions, the initial reaction can be different without proper analysis. Thus, innovators need to have the patience to overcome the resistance to adoption and work towards building innovations. Sometimes, the fear of failures can discourage startups and innovators to develop path-breaking innovations; however, over a period of time such instances become extraneous when success pours in the process. When someone starts some innovation, he or she shouldn’t be deterred by the failures. Each failure brings a new success and leads a startup/innovator towards success. It takes 6-7 attempts sometimes 10 attempts to succeed. Innovation should be demanding. Every country has its own problems. For example, at C-DOT we developed a cost-effective telephone exchange for rural areas and reduced the cost per line from Rs. 20,000 to just Rs. 2,000. I am happy that Electropreneur Park, Bhubaneswar and SCOUT have become successful and empowered startups to come out with innovative solutions for smart city applications for bringing better quality in the lives of citizens.”
Events like these are a reassurance for innovative startups to continue building solutions that can solve problems of current times.