Lovely Professional University announced on Wednesday that they have signed an agreement with Ojaskar Solutions India Pvt Ltd, a leading LED lighting company in India, for the technical know-how transfer of 20Sec4Life, an innovation developed by the students of LPU to combat COVID-19.
In June this year, LPU’s BTech student Prabin Kumar Das along with Dr Lovi Raj Gupta, Executive Dean of Science and Technology and a team of professors at LPU had built 20Sec4Life, an IoT device to time hand washing, that will glow, beep and play a musical tone for 20 seconds to ensure people disinfect their hands properly as per the WHO guidelines for COVID-19. Ojaskar will now commercially produce this innovation and take it to the masses, keeping the price as low as Rs 80 approximately for each unit. LPU will provide consultancy, training and research for usage, development and commercialisation of the product. 20Sec4Life is expected to hit the market before the end of 2020. The product is relevant for both urban and rural markets and ensures people follow hygienic handwashing guidelines.
Speaking about how the product is effective, Prabin explains to us, "Washing hands properly is the most important precaution we have been asked to take. The WHO guidelines to wash hands for 20 seconds to prevent the virus from entering our body has been retold to us over and over again. People don't have a timer always, so to provide an effective and reliable solution, we developed this simple battery-run product that can be attached to any handwash bottle and it will be ready to go. You just need to press the handwash bottle and it will accompany the process with soothing music for 20 seconds, and you need to wash your hands until the music stops. So that way you make sure that you washed your hands properly."
The six-person team took over a month to develop the final product. Prabin seemed quite excited about the fact that a student-developed product will be available in the markets soon. "I have only heard about the mind to market journey but this time I was very lucky to be a part of the whole process, witness the final result. We have tried to keep the cost low for everyone to easily use it," he adds.
Ojaskar will pay Rs 10 lakhs and a 10 per cent royalty to LPU on the sale of the product on an ongoing basis. Arun Prakash Gour, Director of Ojaskar Solutions India said, “We are very impressed to see this frugal innovation developed by the researchers of LPU. Maintaining hygiene and social distancing are the only ways to keep ourselves safe from this deadly virus currently. We believe this product has great potential in both the rural and urban markets as well as abroad. We hope to take it to the market before the end of the year.”
