LIBA students bag 3rd place in UK-India Social Innovation Challenge

LIBA students bag 3rd place in UK-India Social Innovation Challenge

LIBA students from Chennai won third place in the UK-India Social Innovation Challenge 2017 for a low-cost solution to remove excess fluoride from groundwater in rural areas, earning a £500 prize and national media recognition.​

Competition and theme

• The UK-India Social Innovation Challenge 2017 was organized by the University of Southampton and focused on the theme of water, sanitation, and hygiene, inviting entries from students in India and the UK.​

• Out of more than 2,000 submissions, the LIBA team was shortlisted into the top ten and finally secured the third position.​

The LIBA student team

• The winning team comprised six students from Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai: Monica M, Praveen Devaraajan N, Divya Rupa Amalraj, B Antonette Rosalyn, Deepika Krithika Lakshmanan, and R Rinaldo Roshin.​

• They were mentored by Dr A Siluvai Raja, Assistant Professor at LIBA, who introduced the competition through his social entrepreneurship elective and guided them throughout the project.​

The innovation and its impact

• The project aimed to provide clean, safe drinking water to villages affected by high fluoride levels by using fly ash–based granules to defluorinate groundwater in a simple, affordable apparatus.​

• Experiments showed that the granules could reduce fluoride content in water from about 9 ppm to around 5 ppm, within safe limits for consumption, at a production cost of roughly under ₹50 for 1–2 kg of granules.​

Research support and collaboration

• The team built on a research paper suggesting that fly ash could help reduce fluoride in water and collaborated with the Chemistry Research Laboratory at Loyola College to test and convert fly ash into effective granules.​

• They also received data and technical support from the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD), who provided groundwater fluoride data and a testing kit.​

Social entrepreneurship focus

• The project began as a 5-mark assignment in a social entrepreneurship elective but evolved into a full-fledged social innovation with real-world application potential.​

• The students expressed that they were not interested in patenting the idea and instead wanted NGOs and government agencies to help implement it widely to benefit rural communities with safe drinking water.