safaire
innovation isn’t always about ‘cutting-edge tech’.
futurescope made an affordable air-disinfectant (that used ultra-violet-light), to be sold to hospitals, research centres, office-spaces, etc in india.
this market-space was originally dominated by products designed in north america. after the pandemic lockdowns, several companies flooded the indian market, but with lesser-quality materials, uncertified outputs, and a whole bunch of false-marketing. irrespective of origin, these products were quite expensive, and there remained a paucity of quality-yet-affordable products of this kind.
i worked on optics and (some) mechanical design, raising the product’s output threefold from 150 to 500 µW/cm². we used best-in-class materials, surpassed outputs claimed by every competitor globally, and did so at a much lesser price (because everything was designed and manufactured locally).
.png)
illustration: rashmi venkitaraman
the company won the nidhi prayas award for innovative startups (2021) from the department of science and technology, government of india ; was incubated at the centre for innovation and entrepreneurship, iiit hyderabad ; and was mentored by programmes at bits bionest, bhive canada, and dlabs at the indian school of business.
—
work: advisor (industrial design, identity, product photography).
full credit & copyright: prashant kothari, futurescope technologies.