ENTREPRENEURSHIP Meeting a Quadruple Bottom Line
Credit: Peter Sheik
Adithya Medical Services, J. Karthikeyan Sankalp Category: Healthcare Inclusion
Diagnostic x-ray generation systems have not changed much since their discovery by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895. The system involves capturing high-energy penetrating x-ray beams on a photographic film and processing the film to get a negative of the patient. Adithya Medical Systems is revolutionizing this system. Driven by the failing quality of x-ray machines entering the Indian market, Adithya created a solution. By directly converting x-rays into digital images, Adithya has eliminated costly x-ray film. Using their patented technology, they have reduced the cost of digital imaging 90%. Says Mr. Karthikeyan, one of the founders of Adithya, “By breaking the price barrier, we are making this high-end technology affordable to the diagnostic center next door.”
Adithya currently targets government hospitals, small hospitals, and standalone diagnostic centers in semi-urban and rural areas as potential consumers of its product, where x-ray film often runs out. While medical technology companies have revolutionised the industry, Adithya has taken this one-step further by creating a quadruple bottom line product. Adithya delivers high quality health care at low cost by working with reduced capital and operating costs. It protects the environment by eliminating liquid pollution, reducing radiation, and saving energy – there are no consumables used compared to the film-based x-rays and operators are less affected by radiation. It has deskilled opera-
tions and made it possible to employ unskilled youth – the product is highly user friendly and can be operated even by a 10th pass (high school) student, opening up employment opportunities in several rural and semi-urban areas. And it has created a profitable and salable product because it can be added to existing x-ray generators. Additionally, Karthikeyan says, “By going digital, access to high quality diagnosis is made possible. The images can be digitally transmitted across the world for diagnosis by an expert radiologist.”
Finding the Missing Link: Value for Producers and Consumers Industree Crafts, Neelam Chhiber Sankalp Category: Agriculture and Rural Innovations
While globalization and international trade have reduced barriers between countries in the past quarter century, domestically, in India, these barriers still remain erect. India’s urban and rural markets are still poorly connected, but Industree Crafts is playing its part to reduce these barriers. Industree connects two ends of the spectrum - the rural artisan and the urban market. “Industree was set up as a result of our realization that the craft sector in India is badly organized. The quintessential thing to be done to improve the lives of the craftsmen, who are the most exploited lot in the whole value chain, was to create a dedicated craft brand for the products of rural artisans in the most remote of Indian villages, and to provide them training to improve the marketability of their products,” says
Neelam Chhiber, Industree’s Founder and Director. Sustainability is at the core of Industree’s mission and work. According to Chhiber, the most important aspect of Industree’s work is “empowering primary producers – providing them with the necessary skills, institutionalizing them, and helping them move up the value chain.” At Industree, artisans own equity in the production and the retail of their products; there is no stronger way to build self-esteem. Industree works through a hybrid model that includes a for-profit component, Industree Crafts Private Limited (ICPL), and a non-profit wing, Industree Crafts Foundation (ICF). Industree focuses both on domestic re-
Credit: Srinivas Rao
tail and export markets in its quest for expanding markets for sustainable production. In 2007, though, it scaled up its presence in Indian retail, as this market is less prone to demand fluctuations, easier to understand for the company, less risky, and demands lower capital investments. Essential for long-term social change, Industree is upholding its commitment to remain a sustainable and fair trade brand and continuously spreads awareness on sustainable consumption.
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