L-RAMP Award Winners 2008

 Muthu Ayyapan’s device is an innovative automatic feed dispensing unit that dispenses smaller doses of feed twice or thrice a day on a periodic basis.

The mosquito attraction and electrocution device attracts mosquitoes using the principles of ‘warmth attracting insects’ and electrocutes them.

This idea is based on delivering drip irrigation using waste materials such as plastic bottles and other material. This new method of drip irrigation reduces the costs because it does not require any extra pipes and fittings. It also does not demand any technical skills and can be used by any farmer.

 The innovation is a unique mosquito repellent that uses plant parts. It makes use of both liquid extract and solid left out as a mosquito repellent. The formulation is made into a paste. When the paste is burnt, the fumes repel mosquitoes. The liquid formulation can be filled in a bottle and used as an electric repellent.

Today, only iodine has been integrated into salt and research is still underway to make salt iodine+iron and iodine+iron+vitamin A fortified. The innovator has managed to achieve enrichment of salt, overcoming the difficulties of the harsh environment of salt. Provision of micronutrients through salt will significantly reduce micronutrient malnourishment suffered by significant sections of the population.

While 70% of India lives in semi-urban and rural areas, 80% of India’s healthcare facilities are in urban/metro areas. Vaatsalya is bridging this gap by building and managing hospitals/clinics in semi-urban and rural areas and bringing healthcare services where it is needed most. They have hospitals in Hubli, Gadag, Karwar and Bijapur (North Karnataka) and are expanding to other locations across Karnataka and neighbouring states. Their hospital network, complemented by their low cost healthcare services, enable lower and middle income families lead a productive and healthier life.

 IFMR Trust's Network Enterprises Fund™ (NEF) invests in specifically chosen companies focused on rural supply chains for products and services. The Trust calls these companies Network Enterprises (NEs). The objective of NEs is to address gaps in rural supply chains such as: 

• High costs of intermediation at the rural end due to dispersed nature of markets and production centres
• Severe constraints of access to working and investment capital
• Information asymmetry vis-à-vis quality and traceability between buyers and sellers located far away from each other

 DARE is media platform for the Indian entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ecosystem. DARE is not just a magazine it is an interactive platform for enabling entrepreneurs to start and run their own businesses.

Ela Ramesh Bhatt (born in 1933 in Ahmedabad) is the founder of India's Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). Dr. Bhatt is a respected leader of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. Through SEWA (established in 1972), the lowest rungs of working women have become self-reliant. The idea of trade unionism in the self-employed sector is difficult enough as it is. To be a woman breaking away from the grip of an established trade union in which men ran the show was a bold step by which she created her own paths and methods of organisation. That she did it without militancy and aggressive rhetoric was unusual in itself and that these became models for international institutions and NGOs is further proof of the efficacy of her actions.