In a mission to combat the issue of waste disposal faced by India, three Master of Business Administration (MBA) students from Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore (IIM-B) have developed a bio-degradable packaging material. This is to substitute single-use plastic.Jinit Dharia, Mit Parekh and Yash Parekh won the national finals of ‘The Ultimate Pitch 4.0’, a competition organised by Reliance Industries Limited.
“Our product is a packaging material made from agricultural waste and Mycelium, which is the vegetative part of mushroom. It will act as a glue and bind the substrate together. It is fully bio-degradable as compared to thermocol packaging, which take years to decompose,” said Yash.
The team from IIMB has won a cash prize of INR 4.5 lakh, including INR 50,000 for winning the campus round, mentorship under the Reliance Jio GenNext Hub, interaction with the Reliance chairman’s office, pre-placement interview and a trip to the refinery at Jamnagar.
“We will take the help of two national incubation centres and scientists to create a commercially viable product. The incubators will help us source raw material to create it. Developing a product prototype will take another three months,” he said. Once they scale it up, the students plan to promote the product among microentrepreneurs in rural areas surrounding industrial belts in the country.
Source: New Indian Express
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