Social eyes' of namma youth!

Not too long ago, the hullabaloo around demonetisation left the nation in a panic-stricken frenzy. While a volley of us were breaking a sweat over it; Vishnu Ramakrishnan, Siddhanth Gaonkar, Kiran Reddy and Rohit Neil Gosh, four young engineering graduates, decided to shift the focus to cater to the needs of the visually impaired in town. And they’re creating a splash, indeed – through Blank Solutions, their debut social venture, which aims to empower the visually impaired through DBB, a low-cost braille board device. The enterprising Bengalureans share the inside track with us, just as they gear up to render free classes across NGOs in the city to equip the blind...

“The idea sprouted about three months ago, from a purely project perspective. But, what really hit us to conjure up a commercial venture of sorts was the realisation that India’s visually impaired were completely left out from the thought process of the currency change. Some harrowing stories about the conditions of the blind population, which is about 15 million in India at present, inspired us to bring forth a concept, which will empower visually challenged individuals to be a part of the forward wave– digital media,” shares Vishnu. The devise enables the visually impaired to stream digital data into its equivalent Braille output in real time. The device, priced at Rs 2500, consists of a single cell forming a rolling display. Projecting onto the users fingers, access to digital content and media is enabled.

Stoked about how the responses have been nothing short of spectacular, Siddhanth opines, “The principal at this blind school in Indiranagar has been immensely supportive. We are in talks with a couple of NGOs. Furthermore, we will be conducting free classes across town, to teach blind youths on ways to use it. The whole idea was to make them active participants, who’re fully capable of operating in a cashless society we are heading towards.”

While the initiative keeps the youngsters on their toes, they enthuse how there’s always time for some creative downtime.”I love playing the guitar, cycling, learning about psychology and honing my martial arts skills, whenever I can. Kiran and Siddhanth are tech buffs who love coding and travelling, while Vishnu is a proper Sci-fi buff. He’s the biggest aerospace enthusiast I’ve known and never misses an aero show in the city,” concludes Rohit.