From plates made from rice bran to providing dignity of life for the elderly–our top social stories of the week

While on a visit to Dubai, Vinay Balakrishnan came across plates made from wheat bran. Intrigued, he wrote to the Polish company that was manufacturing it asking whether they would like to collaborate and bring the brand to India.

Their reply was rude, and this snub played on Balakrishnan’s mind. After leaving his job as CEO of an insurance company in Mauritius, he returned to India to work on a sustainable idea.

With the help of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who supplied the technology, Balakrishnan and his wife Indira launched Thooshan, a brand that produces plates from rice bran. Later, they developed rice straws made from mix of rice powder and tapioca starch.

But their journey has been one of many challenges. Read all about how they suffered many setbacks before finding success here.

Smart innovations

SocialStory was a guest at GITAM University’s SmartIDEAthon, held last week, that invited participation from undergraduate and postgraduate student innovators and ideation-level ventures to pitch ideas for sustainable and resilient community building across four themes: food and health, toys for STEM, sustainable fashion, and frugal innovation.

Anup Paikaray, a final year student of Odisha University of Technology and Research, Bhubaneswar, won the first prize of Rs 2 lakh and a trip to Boston. He has developed Chuliv, the world’s first automatic blower. The runner-up, Polyfueler, is a revolutionary idea from Vineet Kumar and Manish Bibhu, students of Sershah Engineering College in Bihar. Polyfueler is working on revolutionising waste management by transforming diverse plastic waste into fuel, powered by a proprietary catalyst.

Creating an urban green landscape

Mangaluru resident Jeeth Milan Roche quit his corporate job to transform the city’s landscape by planting over two lakh trees in dumpyards, schools, and other places.

Recalling his passion for planting trees, Roche says, in 2004, he incurred a financial loss of over Rs 45 lakh. He was shaken and was in a state of extreme turmoil. During this challenging period, his engagement with nature served to be therapeutic, aiding him in overcoming his emotional struggles.

In cemeteries, Roche has been using the Miyawaki technique. After he started planting trees full-time, he read articles about this technique and its success. As such he became increasingly interested in the technique and decided to try it out.

Dignity for the elderly

Captain AC Barua runs Seneh, a home in Guwahati that provides shelter, food, healthcare facilities, and clothing to homeless and abandoned elderly women and helps them lead a life of dignity.

The shelter home for homeless elderly women—called Seneh—was established in 2011, under the Bhavada Devi Memorial Philanthropic Trust, named after the captain’s mother. Since then, the home has provided a roof to over 100 women from Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Telangana.

In other good news…

Celebrating a win

While India celebrated Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal in the World Athletics Championships, a 27-year-old auto driver from Chandigarh celebrated the feat by giving free rides all through the day.

According to a report in the New Indian Express, Anil Kumar gave free rides to passengers in his auto in the tri-city (Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali) from 9am to 5pm.

The report adds that it’s not the first time that Kumar has ferried passengers for free. In 2019, when the IAF carried out air strikes in Pakistan after the terror attack in Pulwama, he ferried around 2000 passengers for free in his auto for a month.

Kumar, who is from Abohar in Punjab, has also announced that he will offer free rides if India beats Pakistan in the World Cup cricket match on October 14.