Bengaluru student Prerna Wadikar wins Oxford University V-C Impact Award 2021

Bengaluru : Prerna Wadikar, a graduate student from Bengaluru, has won the Vice Chancellor's Social Impact Award of the University of Oxford.

Wadikar has been recognized for her initiatives for starting a clean energy social enterprise, creating Oxford India Business Conclave and supporting Eritrean and Sudanese refugees through an Oxfordshire based organisation.

Wadikar was recognised for making portable energy access more affordable by developing a model using a lithium-ion battery. The objective of the innovation is to make energy both accessible and, more importantly, affordable to the end users.

Talking about the innovation, she said, "There are estimated 10 million street vendors in India who belong to economically weaker sections of society. Energy poverty perpetuates their economic hardship. Due to the temporary nature of their 'shops' - no electrical supply from the grid, they either shut shop after dark or rely on streetlights or low lumen lead-acid powered lights or costly fossil fuel lamps.

Poor visibility to potential clients leads to revenue loss. They don't have access to low-cost finance to upgrade to cleaner, better solutions. We are confident that when manufactured at scale, this will be one of the lowest priced solar chargeable products in its category internationally."

The idea was conceptualised during the first lockdown which was imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus. The pushcart vendors were affected severely as the businesses were wrecked.

"Although the government announced the Rs 5000 crore SVANiDHI scheme to help pushcart vendors, people are hesitant to buy from them even now. This inspired the business model to supplement the income of pushcart vendors through additional revenue sources and facilitate increased earning potential.

Employees of the knowledge economy have conveniently reset their work environment from office to their houses and even exotic locations like beach resorts. However, this luxury cannot be extended to the labour markets whose survival depends on daily wages through physical work and have no alternate means of livelihood," Wadikar told this newspaper.

She got in touch with a private electronic system design and manufacturing company based out of Bengaluru to explore the feasibility of addressing the energy need of micro entrepreneurs for developing a fast charging solar battery product at a lower cost.

"Dr Sathya Prasad ( Phd in Lithium Ion Chemistry) — internationally reputed for his pioneering innovations in lithium-ion technology — and Bharat Krishna Rao — a leader in green infrastructure development in India and founder of United Sustainable Energy India Pvt Ltd, helped convert the specifications into prototype for pilot deployments of a solar chargeable lithium-ion portable battery for pushcart vendors," Wadikar added.

This is a unique product innovation that makes it very user friendly and has multiple use cases for global markets in South Asia and Africa.

Explaining further about the usage of the divide, Wadikar said, "We can use end of life electric vehicle battery cells to reduce cost of this device. This 400 gram product looks very similar to a power bank. It can be charged through a normal electrical socket at home in less than one hour using our supercharger.

It can also be charged through a solar panel. The portable device can simultaneously power 3 electrical devices at the same time, for e.g a fan, an LED light and even a small advertising board for 4-6 hours. We have designed a battery backup multiplier casing, using this, we can increase the battery capacity by 10 times, that can help power a mini refrigerator too."

The Vice Chancellor's Social Impact Award was set up in 2010 by former Vice- Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, with a mission of showcasing and recognizing the commitment of Oxford students to development.

The awards are presented every year to Oxford University students who show exceptional achievement and commitment to positive social change. This year, the award was extended to university staff members as well for their contribution to Oxfordshire and the global community.

"It was truly humbling to receive the award in recognition of my contribution to society while at Oxford and a decade long demonstration of social development through my personal and professional life," she said.