CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards conferred upon Innovative Entrepreneurs 2020
~ The 9th Edition of Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards recognized five entrepreneurs under Innovations and Great Ideas categories~
Chennai, 17th October 2020: 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.
About Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards:
Dreamer, innovator, ideator, entrepreneur – just some of the words that can describe Late Shri R Chinnikrishnan, the man who pioneered the sachet revolution. His idea were based on the simple philosophy that, “what the rich man can enjoy, the poor man should be able to afford”. Today, his innovations are seen in every shop in the form of sachets. They stand testimony to the fact that his dream is alive and well. CavinKare has constituted an award as a tribute to Late Shri R. Chinnikrishnan to encourage businessmen/businesswomen running small and tiny scale industries,. “The Chinnikrishnan innovation Awards” focuses on the overall value of the innovation in terms of its uniqueness, its benefits to people and its ability to be scalable. Those being shortlisted will be mentored in all their business development activities covering varied specializations.
About CavinKare Pvt. Ltd:
CavinKare is a diversified FMCG major with business interest in personal care, professional care, dairy, snacks, foods, beverages & salons. The brand portfolio consists of Shampoos (Chik, Meera, Karthika and Nyle), Hair Wash Powders (Meera & Karthika), Coconut Oil (Meera), Fairness creams (Fairever), Deodorant ; Talc (Spinz), Pickles; Snacks (Ruchi, Chinni’s; Garden), Hair Colours (Indica), Retail Salon Products (Raaga Professional), Beverages (Maa), Dairy (Cavin’s), and Beauty Salons (Green Trends & Limelite). With its recent expansion into health and hygiene category, CavinKare offers a spectrum of sanitization products ranging from SaaFoo for vegetable and fruit hygiene and safety to Bacto-V multi-surface and gadget disinfectant. Under some of its key personal care brands, CavinKare also offers hand sanitizers and liquid soaps. Most of the brands are clear winners in their respective product categories. A dedicated R & D center equipped with latest equipment and technologies constantly supports the divisions in their endeavor. CavinKare has achieved significant milestones and a competitive edge with sound understanding of mass marketing dynamics and has established a firm foothold in the national market. CavinKare’s success is based on it being firmly grounded to its corporate mission ‘We shall grow significantly better than the industry by fostering innovation and building preferred brands, through passionate and delighted employees.’
About Madras Management Association (MMA):
Madras Management Association (MMA) was established in 1956 with the objective of promoting management education, training and development activities in this part of the country.
The vision of MMA is: “To be the fountainhead of world-class management excellence in India.”
With over 8000 corporate houses, professionals, academics and executives as members, MMA fosters and nurtures management expertise by combining Indian ethos with global management thoughts and practices. Every year, MMA organizes about 750 executive development activities, including seminars for top managem ent. Over 59,000 executives and entrepreneurs have participated in MMA’s regular events.
Madras Management Association is the largest affiliate member of All India Management Association (AIMA). It has been adjudged the Best Management Association in India by AIMA for eleven times in a row. It won the “Nati onal Excellence Award” for the year 2019-20. MMA has local chapters in Ambur, Attur, Erode, Hosur, Nam akkal, Salem, Sri City, Trichy and Puducherry.Apart from corporate leaders, MMA Managing Committee also includes as members the Vice Chancellors of Madras University and Anna University, the Directors of IIT Madr as and IFMR, and the Chief Secretary of Government of Tamil Nadu.F N
