6 students from Chennai-based Loyola Institute of Business Administration have won the 3^rd spot in the UK-India Social Innovation Challenge, 2017. Their project was titled ‘Proving defluoridated water to villages affected by fluoride contamination.” While 8 Indian teams were among the top 10, the Chennai team impressed the judges by providing the most efficient solution to the challenge – of providing clean water and sanitation to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The winning project was ‘A BCD Egg’ by Claire Scott from Cranfield University in the UK. It focused on reducing the risk of unsafe drinking water. The first runner-up was ‘Juamaji’ a project by University of Southampton’s Alexandre Beardshall. The project proposed using solar distillation for giving Kenyan communities a reliable source of water and fish . All three winners have been awarded cash prizes.

Monica M, one of the members of the Chennai team, said, “It was a great experience for the team, we got the exposure which has heightened our confidence in our purpose. Our success has given us the hope to implement this project on a commercial scale now.”

This was the first competition launched by the United Kingdom-India Social Entrepreneurship Education Network (UKISEEN) in collaboration with the Social Impact Lab at the University of Southampton, the Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT-Madras, open innovation platform Babele, the British Council, and the Confederation of Indian Industry. The aim was to generate and support sustainable solutions to the global problem of finding clean water. Over 50 universities from the UK and India participated.

Congratulating the top three winners, Dr. Pathik Pathak, Director of Social Enterprise at the University of Southampton, and Founding Director of the university’s Social Impact Lab, said, “The UK-India Social Innovation Challenge shows how two countries can work shoulder to shoulder to tackle the pressing challenges of our age. Clean water and sanitation is an urgent problem for our world, and through this Challenge we hope to found some game-changing innovation which can improve the lives of millions.”

Watch the participants explaining their proposed solutions here.