Keralite in MeA list of social innovators

Kochi: Come this Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 9 and Thrissur native Sandith Thandasherry, 38, will be among 20 ‘Social Innovators’ to be felicitated by the Ministry of External Affairs at the annual global convention for the Indian diaspora to be held in Bengaluru.

The IITian, who is behind the construction of the nation’s largest solar-powered passenger ferry set to be launched in the Vaikom-Tavanakkadavu route from January 12 onwards, has made it to the list of 20 winners of the ‘National Contest on Social Innovation’ by the ministry and will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

The objective of the contest was to identify a pool of 20 social impact innovations that offer commercially viable solutions to the socio-economic problems of the country. A total of 774 applications were received and 20 social innovations have been selected, considering their impact on various sectors, a statement by the ministry said.

“I vied in the transport sector and the solar passenger ferry is perhaps the only application of renewable sources of energy which gives returns so quickly. Compared to diesel boats, solar ferries can achieve break-even in three years,” Sandith, the founder of NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats that has built the solar-powered ferry for the Kerala State Water Transport Department, told this newspaper.

“The solar ferries would cost around Rs 2.5 crore while conventional ones of the same capacity costs around Rs 1.5 crore. The additional cost can be recovered in about two-three years. The reason being that diesel ferries would require at least Rs 30 lakh per year for fuel plus maintenance. Solar ferries would need to spend Rs 30 lakh on battery replacement every seven years and a grid charging cost of Rs 1.4 lakh per year,” he said.

The current format of the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas-2017,’  which includes ‘Social Innovations’ initiative,  was first announced by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during the annual conference last time.