Innovation Challenges

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Challenge Owner(s)
Kmart, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, Dharampal Satyapal Limited, East India Distilleries Limited, Healthcare Global Enterprises, Capitaland India, TVS Motor Company, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited
Organiser(s) Enterprise Singapore
Industry Type(s)
Agri-tech, Digital/ICT, Food Manufacturing, Healthcare & Biomedical, Retail
Opportunities and Support Shortlisted solvers will get to work on pilots to co-develop and testbed their solutions with regional corporates
Application Start Date 25 October 2022
Application End Date 31 January 2023
Website Click here to learn more

About Challenge

The India Open Innovation Challenge 2022 will facilitate demand-led innovation and seed small scale pilots with participating corporates in India. Startups and SMEs will gain access to a large Indian market and get the opportunity to propose solutions for wide-ranging challenge statements in areas including healthcare, real estate, retail and finance.

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Challenge Owner(s)TVS Motor Company
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Land Transport

TVS

Operators perform tasks along with pre-programmed machines across assembly lines in a set of predefined sequences. Even though the current system has a well-established process, human errors still occur. In addition, the system lacks data, insights of real-time analytics of operator actions, and alerts for deviations in the process flow.

Visual inspection by operators varies from person to person, and thus could sometimes lead to a defective product.

Though computer vision has been in use in manufacturing for decades, recent advances in Machine Learning (ML) and image processing have enabled new use cases. No longer limited to structured, repetitive tasks. AI-assisted, high-level computer vision and Hand Motion Analysis solutions are capable of functioning in increasingly complex, high-speed manufacturing environments and in conjunction with operators.

The desired result is improved efficiency, fewer errors, and better data.

What We Are Looking For

TVS believes that industrial transformation is an opportunity to elevate the manufacturing facility using AI and ML-based computer vision and Hand Motion Analysis (HMA) to monitor the actions of an operator in real-time, and enable defect-free assembly lines to unlock the potential for long-term competitiveness and sustainability.

TVS would like to explore a solution for one of their engine assembly lines. The desired solution should fulfil the following requirements:

  1. The solution is ready for mass-production engine assembly and vehicle assembly lines with high-speed conveyors.
  2. It should have the intelligence to ensure whether the right part is picked for assembly by the operator.
  3. It may capture and analyse the hand movement of the operator using HMA technology to ensure adherence to a preset sequence and cycle time (time allocated for each station) for every part of the assembly.
  4. As current engine assembly lines have the capability to produce multiple models in the same engine line, the solution should have the intelligence to identify whether the operator picked the right part among different parts across various models. The operation is for only one model; it should not interfere with other variant production.
  5. The solution should be capable of connecting defects to the stage where it occurs and alerting the operator in real time.
Challenge Owner(s)Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Financial Services

Kotak Mahindra Bank 

The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst that drove the world into a digital lifestyle. It motivated customers to seek services like contactless banking, managing personal budgets, purchasing gift cards and more, right from the comfort of their phones. This explosive growth of customer interaction touchpoints has blurred the lines between traditionally defined channels. Banks now realise they must change the way channels are built and managed.

Omnichannel banking is offering the same set of services to the customer across all the channels whether they are digital or offline. In terms of banking, it means that the users can avail all the banking operations from a website, mobile app, social media, messaging apps, bank’s branch, or any other available channel.

Specifically in India, multiple solutions have been and are being built on mobile to engage customers. However, powerful messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Wechat, Viber, etc are emerging to become primary engagement tools among the consumers in the banking sector. Creating a robust omnichannel banking platform is surely the next step for banks to offer top-notch customer experience to their users. In coming years, we might see retail banks ramping up their omnichannel infrastructure to compete with FinTech enterprises.

What We Are Looking For

Kotak Mahindra Bank is looking for innovative omni-channel solutions that can make WhatsApp, Telegram, Wechat, Viber, etc an integrated banking platform to better engage customers and offer banking services.

The desired solution should fulfil the following requirements:

  1. For initial submission, we are looking for a minimum of prototype/MVP.
  2. The product/solution should be backed by need analysis, competitive mapping & market mapping.
  3. The solution should be standalone and have clearly defined UI/UX parameters.
  4. Solutions that help with discoverability, increasing adoption and improving customer retention on these platforms will get special consideration.
  5. The omnichannel platform should include the following features:
    • Making payments (voice based, Peer-to-peer payment, etc.)
    • Evaluating & applying credit cards
    • Booking transportation
    • Purchasing insurances
    • Budgeting and planning
    • Investment management
    • Utility bill reminders & one tap payments
    • Context-aware notifications
    • Image recognition
    • Advanced geolocation
    • Value added banking services
    • Loan applications
    • SME banking products (payroll management, etc.)
    • Promotions & cross-selling
    • Online shopping

Additional innovative solutions can also be considered.

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Challenge Owner(s)Kmart
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Retail

Kmart 

Retail patterns of consumers have rapidly changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, consumers often demand a contactless retail experience, checkout-free stores and autonomous delivery as part of their shopping journey. Thus, the need to drive social commerce to attract and engage with a younger generation of consumers is critical.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a very exciting and promising technology to respond to these trends. VR in shopping has already been demonstrated to be beneficial to both consumers and retailers. Online shopping permanently altered consumers’ expectations of a brick-and-mortar store, and now VR is revolutionising the online shopping experience and changing the retail industry landscape.

VR allows customers to get a full overview of an item, almost as if they were holding it in-store. Customers can also use VR to quickly customise items they are interested in and see these changes in real time. For example, imagine seeing a shirt and then changing the colour, graphics, and other product features, as you hold it in your (virtual) hand. This allows customers to buy exactly what they want. Kmart can deliver the exact product that every customer is looking for. The result is more sales, and reduction in returns and chargebacks.

What We Are Looking For

Kmart would like to explore possibilities using VR technology, especially how VR can enhance their customer experience and add value to the business.

Solution providers should fulfil the following requirements:

  • The solution enables customers to create their very own digital avatar and undergo a virtual fitting journey similar to what consumers would have experienced in a physical store.
  • It should replicate a specific section of the Kmart store into a virtual environment. This store consists of certain replicated products to be displayed in the virtual environment and is complete with the Kmart logo and other branding elements like taglines.
  • Alpha and Beta customers should be able to navigate through the virtual store and view product descriptions, add products to a cart, and perform a self-checkout.
  • Elements of the store, such as the measurements of its in-store furniture and stock-keeping units, will be provided, and the replication of these elements are required as part of the solution.
  • The solution should be hosted on a mobile app or a desktop and should not utilise a VR headset.
  • Ideally, the solution provider should already have a product in the market and be able to implement a pilot for Australian consumers within 6 months.
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Challenge Owner(s)Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited
Industry Types(s)Healthcare & Biomedical

Apollo 247

Hypertension is the most common chronic health condition, affecting 1.4 billion (31%) adults globally[1]. With long-term manifestations including cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and chronic kidney disease, hypertension has been identified by the World Health Organization as a leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality, responsible for the deaths of one in six adults annually[2]. Despite significant evidence demonstrating the benefits of antihypertensive treatment, hypertension remains underdiagnosed and undertreated.

Nearly 63% of total deaths in India are due to non-communicable diseases, of which 27% are attributed to cardiovascular disease which affects 45% people in the 40-69 age group. High blood pressure is among the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, it remains poorly controlled due to low awareness about hypertension, lack of appropriate care through primary care and poor follow-up[3].

Hypertensive individuals adopting healthy lifestyles, such as being active for at least four days per week, weight-loss in the presence of obesity, consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and sodium below the recommended threshold, avoiding high alcohol consumption and refraining from smoking have been effective lifestyle changes to prevent or control early stage of hypertension[4].

What We Are Looking For

Apollo 247 is looking to decrease the number of patients with uncontrolled hypertension to improve each patient’s overall health and well-being. A common problem with such programmes is the lack of consistency in adhering to the proposed lifestyle changes. For example, patients do not take their medication regularly, have trouble sticking to their exercise regime, and deviate from recommended dietary changes. 

The desired solution could come in the form of hardware, software or a combination of both. There are many such health and wellness applications in the market, but a specific application focused on high blood pressure is preferred in the effort to better monitor, engage, and manage patients.

Motivation to follow the required workout routine and recommended diet, clock enough sleep, and take medication on time is generally lacking. The solution provider should take this into consideration and propose an effective solution to address this as well.

The solution should also cover the following requirements:

  • Integration capability with leading activity and health trackers. Selection of trackers can be mutually agreed upon alignment of the pilot project. Apollo 247 will help with getting those trackers.
  • A front-end to engage the hypertensives, and a back-end for care providers.
  • Focus on the Indian and Southeast Asian market.
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Challenge Owner(s)Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Healthcare & Biomedical

Apollo 247 

Skin diseases are more common than other diseases and have a serious impact on people’s life and health. Skin diseases may be caused by fungal infection, bacteria, allergy, viruses, etc. However, access to dermatology specialists and diagnostic processes is limited, time-consuming, expensive, and invasive even at early stages. While all countries may have challenges for access to treatment, emerging countries face a greater incidence of a variety of factors but much lower dermatologist-to-population ratios to treat disease.

Image recognition of skin disorders can help classify the disorder to help take appropriate action remotely, at an early stage, and in situations where there is lack of access to expertise. In the treatment of skin disease, early detection is the critical factor to cure the disease, effectively reducing its impact and improving quality of life, especially in patients with other underlying conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

Separately, the accuracy of skin disease recognition is inconsistent due to the similarity between different skin diseases and the limited number of dermatologists with professional knowledge. Nowadays, the majority of conclusions on the patients’ existing symptoms are drawn mainly based on doctors’ years of experience or their own subjective judgments, which may lead to misjudgments and consequently delay the treatment of the condition. To solve this challenge, the algorithm should be highly accurate.

What We Are Looking For

Apollo 247 is looking to improve overall patient engagement in dermatology by providing easy, low-cost, quick, efficient, and high-accuracy diagnosis of skin conditions with the convenience of patients’ own smartphone cameras. This will help in delivering consistent quality healthcare for patients who do not have immediate access to primary healthcare centres.

The desired solution should come with a strong image processing capability powered by machine learning algorithms to effectively analyse the image of affected skin collected through a smartphone camera. It should classify the type of skin condition and report back to an appropriate dermatology specialist to plan the next steps.

The solution should also cover the following requirements:

  • A micro-service API and a front-end interface;
  • A multicast classification with high-precision and recall of conditions analysed;
  • The MVP can be a mobile app with an ability to identify top 10 commonly seen skin disorders in outpatient settings with high precision and recall;
  • Focus on the Indian and Southeast Asian markets.
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Challenge Owner(s)Dharampal Satyapal Limited
Industry Types(s)
Agri-tech, Digital/ICT

DS Group

In 2021 the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated up to 40 per cent of global crop production is lost to pests each year. Plant diseases cost the global economy over US$220 billion, and invasive insects at least US $70 billion each year. Not only does this cause massive loss of income to farmers it is tragic when FAO estimates hunger affected between 700-829m people in 2021. As climate change is predicted to increase the impact of pests, the losses are likely to increase.

Decades of mono cropping and inappropriate application of fertilisers has impacted soil health, further exacerbated by water challenges. We need a better understanding of conditions to manage crop growth.

Many crops and plants are very sensitive to a range of internal and external factors that can cause them to perish very quickly. Soil parameters impact plant health directly and regular monitoring is paramount to alleviate possible problems.

Plant health management is currently based on human visual reporting and subsequent management. Human errors in timing and / or interpretation impact the timely detection of such issues. Experts in plant health issues cannot be present across all sites. Problems need to be centralised where identification, analysis, and resolution is possible with the best resources and capabilities. Further, past data and causal relationships can inform and support future actions , both pre-emptively and reactively to new incidents.

Advances in automated data collection and analysis, machine learning and the development of artificial intelligence and predictive solutions have improved efficiencies in operations across many industries. The same is possible and increasingly necessary in agriculture to prevent crop and plant losses to enable us to better feed the world.

DS Group is a major conglomerate with multiple locations across India growing crops including macadamia, blueberry, almonds and Stevia and currently expanding internationally.

What We Are Looking For

Utilise machine learning and AI with hardware to better understand soil and plant parameters to significantly reduce pre-harvest plant and crop losses caused by pests and disease.

The desired solution should fulfil the following requirements:

 

 

  • Allow for multiple crops, plants and other flora to be added and automatic analyses generated.
  • Solutions should be capable of application globally.
  • Solutions should provide real-time analytics.
  • AI algorithms must be capable of identifying plant health issues, interpreting detailed soil and water parameters (surface and deep subsoil).
  • Any system should be capable of basic image recognition, voice recognition, and OCR.
  • Computer vision algorithms must take inputs from multiple device types – CCTV cameras, drone cameras, shoulder-mounted cameras, handheld mobile device photos and videos. Video formats of all types must be acceptable as inputs to the solution. SONAR or similar inputs will be necessary for deep sub-soil water levels and volumes.
  • Systems should be standalone units which can be deployed at remote farm sites with little or no infrastructure and be weatherproof to withstand extreme climatic swings and salinity or humidity.
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Challenge Owner(s)Dharampal Satyapal Limited
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Infrastructure

DS Group

In 2006, the DS Group revived the endangered forest species, sandalwood, in Madhya Pradesh and established the largest sandalwood plantation as an agro-forestry model in India. Sandalwood takes an average of 18 to 25 years to reach harvestable age. Thus, there is a substantial investment in planting and managing the trees until harvest.

Over that time, the plantations are exposed to risks from nature, especially fire, and theft by individuals and organised gangs. Risk management of these plantations is ineffective given their location and size. Furthermore, being in rural areas implies limited power and connectivity options, which presents additional challenges for technology solutions. The solutions themselves can also be subject to the same risks as the assets they seek to protect.

Certain weather conditions and patterns can be indicative or predictive of fire. Likewise, what human activities might be tracked and assessed to provide insights into possible theft? Many industries monitor and track high-value assets through a range of technologies and adoption of hardware from asset tags through to remote satellite monitoring via satellite.

What We Are Looking For

DS Group wants to design a web-based platform and low-cost hardware system to provide real-time alerts on intrusion attempts, perimeter infringements, blacklisted entrants and fire outbreaks for remote high-value assets.

The desired solution should incorporate the following features:

  • Wired solutions with large-sized sensors visible or detectable by thieves are best avoided.
  • Longevity of components, power packs, weather proofing and low power usage should be incumbent in any expected solution.
  • Real-time alerts on intrusion attempts, perimeter infringements, blacklisted entrants, and/or fire outbreaks.
  • The solution needs to be tamper-proof.
  • Solar-power supply is paramount to allow stand-alone deployment in remote areas.
  • The solution should be low cost and fit for purpose.
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Challenge Owner(s)East India Distilleries Limited
Industry Types(s)Food Services

EID Parry

While India consumes less sugar per capita than the world average, it is the largest consumer of sugar globally. Founded 225 years ago, EID Parry is one of the largest sugar companies in India.

As much as people enjoy the sweetness that sugar provides, it comes with a lot of calories and well-documented health risks. If we consume more calories than the body processes over time, we gain weight and can be exposed to a range of conditions with serious consequences for our health.

Many Indian consumers look for healthy alternatives to sugar to sweeten their coffee and tea beverages. One approach is the blending of sugar and Stevia. Essentially, this can provide the same sweetness with half the calories of sugar. The process involves coating the sugar with Stevia.

The challenge is that there is an aftertaste that many consumers reject. Furthermore, the resultant product produces an altered texture and mouthfeel compared to regular sugar.

Co-crystallisation is a process that companies have explored to overcome the “non-sugar” character of a blended product. Given the size of the Indian sugar market, the potential for developing a sugar-like product with 30-50% calories is enormous.

What We Are Looking For

EID Parry wants to create a new hybrid product with sugar and Stevia and other natural sweeteners that reduces calories but maintains all the desirable properties of sugar in a sweetner.

The solution should fulfil the following requirements:

  • The product should have good physico-chemical characteristics, such as dispersion, solubility and mouthfeel.
  • It should be equivalent to regular sugar in terms of sweetness, particle size, and organoleptic properties.
  • The calories should be reduced at least by 30%.
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Challenge Owner(s)Healthcare Global Enterprises
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Healthcare & Biomedical

HCG

Radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) have become a norm in the oncology research field and are now often the go-to proposed solution for complex clinical prediction problems when imaging is available. This is fueled by the promise of radiomics (machine-learning approaches for image features analyses) and AI (neural networks that learn from the image directly) to be able to extract information in images that cannot be observed by the human eye.

Nevertheless, more than just detecting meaningful features that cannot visually be observed, these machine-learning pipelines can facilitate pattern recognition in images, detection in biomarker data, and integration with non-imaging variables that cannot be comprehended by humans due to the large number of potential variables.

The most evident example is risk prediction of overall survival or tumour control after treatment, based on imaging tumour and clinical characteristics in patients with head and neck cancer. By identifying patients who are at specific high or low risk of treatment failure before treatment, therapy can be tailored to their anticipated risk.

What We Are Looking For

There have been several machine learning models that have tried to address the above problem or an allied problem of similar nature. However, most of the algorithms do not succeed in replicating the model across different data sets (standardisation of solution is not always achievable). HCG would like to take this opportunity to explore the most appropriate solution to address this problem and become a game-changer in this industry.

The desired solution should fulfil the following requirements:

  • The solution combines feature extraction from medical imaging. It uses deep learning to fuse data analytics to iteratively optimise one with respect to the other. In other words, deep learning provides radiomics models with optimal features and optimal data analysis for a specific clinical problem.
  • A deep learning algorithm that learns from existing datasets and suggests probable treatment protocol for similar patient characteristics.

The expected development roadmap is as follows:

  • Phase I: Develop a response prediction model based on an existing dataset
  • Phase II: Implement the data model on a real-life application
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Challenge Owner(s)Capitaland India
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Infrastructure

Capitaland

Capitaland has an extensive presence in India, operating multiple business parks, warehouses and data centres across the country.

They have several Safety Management Systems (SMS) in various facilities and development sites. These systems have been in place for the past five years to achieve zero fatalities and prevent serious injuries at their worksites.

However, as Capitaland expands its real estate portfolio, there has been a crucial need to build on these existing systems to shift from a reactionary approach to a more stable and scalable model that can be applied to all their pre-existing and upcoming facilities, through the adoption of innovation and automation.

The main cause for injuries and death in India is falls from height. Despite sufficient personal protective equipment and safety protocols in place, there are challenges in fostering a culture of safety amongst workers. Some of the current safety protocols include “Kaizen” initiatives, incentives for hazard identification, safety promotional activities, online work permits, and online training modules.

Facade cleaning is an area of interest. At present, operations are carried out using two methods:

  1. “Spiderman”, which due to building designs and other external factors, is the primary method used by Capitaland for facade cleaning
  2. Cradle or gondola

What We Are Looking For

Capitaland wants to develop a solution to improve safety for work-at-height, utilising existing technologies to protect workers and prevent fatal injuries. Proposed solutions could also utilise behavioural science to drive behavioural change and embed a safety-first mindset.

The solution should consider the following features:

  • The reduction or elimination of the need of a human operator in current protocols;
  • The application of computer vision technology, video analytics, and drone-based monitoring;
  • Video analytics to track and understand operator behaviour; and/or
  • The application of behavioural analytics to educate and train operators.
  • For a facade-cleaning solution, consider that Capitaland’s facilities have a ratio of 60% flat and simple surface structures to 40% complex surface structures. Being able to cater to complex surface structures is a big plus.

Solutions that mitigate the risk of injuries/death from the above methods are welcomed.

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Briefing Session:

Date: 8th December 2022
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 Singapore Standard Time

Register Here