M2M ITC Challenge

Problem Statement:

Development of low cost drip irrigation system for sustaining small farmers’ profitability. (Suitable for Wheat & Potato).

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

India has the largest irrigation network in the world yet the irrigation efficiency is not more than 40 per cent. In absence of new irrigation projects, bringing more area under irrigation would mostly rely on the efficient use of water. In this context, micro irrigation (through drip or sprinkler irrigation) could play a key role in higher productivity and increased water use efficiency besides fulfilling sustainability mandates with economy in use and higher crop productivity.

Adoption of this might help in raising the irrigated area, productivity of crops and water use efficiency. Additionally, drip-fertigation, where fertilizer is applied through an efficient irrigation system (drip method), nutrient use efficiency could be as high as 90 per cent compared to 40-60 per cent in conventional methods.

Although drip irrigation is an acceptable technology by the Indians farmers, its rate of adoption is sluggish in annual crops due to involvement of initial high capital cost and flexibility of fixed set up using for multiple crops.

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

For successful adoption, a technically feasible irrigation method should also be economically viable for easier adoption.

Hence, developing low cost drip systems would provide an option for reducing system cost and justification in promoting the low cost drip systems.

Critical Parameters to be considered:

• Cost effective – below Rs. 20,000/- per acre
• Easy to install and handle.
• Durable.
• Moveable - shifted from field to field.
• Flexibility in terms of suitability to different crops & cropping system (at least 3 spacing options).
• Emitters Uniformity – Effective solution for uniform emitters delivery rate.
• Low Pressure operating system: Should have a low pressure operating system.
• Low maintenance: Reducing the maintenance requirement due to clogging & other repairs.
• Matching water application pattern with planting pattern: Flexibility in spacing the emitters suitable for different crops and cropping system.

Solution Needed:

Users:

Agri-Businesses

Expected Outcomes:

Low cost drip system suitable across production environment and flexibility for using across multiple crops

Enhanced yield & quality, Water use and Nutrient use efficiency through fertigation.

Reduced cost of cultivation and Improved profitability.

Impact:

Enhanced crop productivity along with quality raw material supply meeting the sustainability goals with more crop per drop.

Improvement in socio-economic status of small and marginal farmers.

Problem Statement:

Develop sensors and smart nutrient delivery system (Nanotechnology based input) for reducing the input costs with enhanced farm productivity along with quality. (Wheat & Potato)

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

India is an agrarian economy with agriculture supporting 60% of our population. Indian agriculture is highly dependent on human labour and good rainfall. While most developed economies have mechanised farming and reduced dependency on rains through state interventions and good planning.

The sustainability of current agricultural production system is also under threat due to the overexploitation of natural resources.

This stagnant state of affairs could be effectively addressed by introducing modern technologies viz., use of sensors for precise & effective scheduling of inputs as per crop demand coupled with use of modern nanotechnology based inputs for further reduction in input cost by improved nutrient use efficiency.

Technology Revolution in India is already catching and there is also a growing opportunity in the agriculture sector that stands to improve lives, make India a true leader in Climate-Smart Agriculture and revolutionize the way farmers plant, fertilize and harvest crops.

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

Data driven decision making by microclimate & disease forecasting - Predicting the ideal growth conditions, resource requirements including irrigation, sprays, fertigation and other preventive measures which will in turn result in saving 50% of disease management cost and 50 % of irrigation and fertigation costs.

Product losses prevention by controlling weather conditions to adequate harvest times.

Increase water and nutrient efficiency.

Reducing the carbon foot print and global climate change.

Critical Parameters to be considered:

Solution Needed:

Users:

Agri Business

Expected Outcomes:

Customized solutions of sensors that records a variety of growing conditions on the farm and nanotechnology based inputs for optimising the inputs as per crop demand.

Climate smart precision production farming options for realising higher yield and quality with reduced cost of inputs.

Optimizing farmers daily tasks by automating processes.

Getting real-time alerts about crop’s conditions to make adjustments to reach optimal growth conditions.

Impact:

Quality raw material availability at competitive cost. Help farmers grow more and grow better with more crop per unit of input.

Problem Statement:

i-SMART Research Scholar

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

Significant amount of Scientific research gets updated every day in public domain, which makes the process of reading, analysing and interpreting - complex and almost impossible to collect salient points from all of the relevant papers.

The objective is to develop an AI-based tool with high accuracy that takes keywords as input, web-scrapes all the related research documents, summarizes in a finite number of lines and groups together similar ones. In case of buying a research paper, the tool should recommend which ones to buy.

The tool should also identify critique points (major findings/inadequacies) and develop comments on the document; it should also create a profile of the author basis web-scraping and ranking topics of author’s research in domains.

The software/research tool should empower/find quickly & accurately and should be able to evaluate large number of data (irrespective of format/source like public domain information, publishers website, blogs, pdf, word, html, xml, excel, jpeg, ppt, videos, audio files etc).

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

Collecting highest amount of relevant data in the most efficient manner for Research scholars.

Critical Parameters to be considered:

Solution Needed:

Users:

Scientists and Technologists at ITC Life Sciences and Technology Centre.

Expected Outcomes:

A desktop-based UI with options to upload keywords, documents, etc. and –

1. Display summary
2. Classification to be based on “impact factor” of journal- High to low
3. Give critique points(major confirmed findings, inadequacies, insufficiencies and limitations, document peer-reviewed or board-reviewed, etc.) and generate a critique score
4. Identify related research documents based on similar keywords, co-authors, similar journals, topics, etc., get the document through webscraping and repeat the process
5. Create Authors’ Profile- domain-wise, journal-wise clusters of research papers, give a rating based on “impact” and “science citations received”
6. The tool should be able to classify/sort out the results based on ranking/type. For ex:
1. Main subject or central topic / near-subject [(a). Nutrition, (b). Nutrition+diabetic, (c). Nutrition+diabetic+functional food like wise] b) Sentiment/emotion wise (based on positive / negative sentiments / independently expressed opinions among customers/participants - Survey kind of results/comments deeper analysis) (c) Publisher wise (top publisher - based on journal ranking) (d) Publication wise (top publication - based on impact factor). (e) Author wise (based on citation / h index) (f) Category wise (Journal article, book chapter, proceedings, white paper, patent, conference presentation, blog, etc), (g) Publication year wise (h) Publication affiliation wise (Organisation/University) (i) Type of publication (HTML, pdf, word, excel, video, audio, image, ppt etc.
7. Also the tool should help to remove duplication and automated clustering of near-duplicates to give scientists a high level sense of the data landscape.

Impact:

Significant Increment in processing capability of research papers from ~100’s in a month to 1000’s daily

Problem Statement:

Smart Drones for monitoring people on factory campus.

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

AI is venturing into identifying abnormal behavioural patterns by analysing footages from drones in real time.

We could reimagine future with all our campuses being secured through the use of highly precise drones that can traverse fixed paths and identify outsiders, abnormal behaviours like standing for a long time at one place, health emergencies, littering around, etc. and generate alerts at a central security station. The drone could communicate with the person under observation and fly stationary at a safe distance to ensure execution of changes suggested.

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

Augmenting Security personnel with Smart Drones to monitor larger areas efficiently.

Critical Parameters to be considered:

Solution Needed:

Users:

Security Departments at all Campuses.

Expected Outcomes:

A drone prototype that would traverse predefined paths at specified frequencies, analyse the footage in real time, identify outsiders, abnormal activities and send alerts to the Central Security system with high accuracy and precision on multiple types of events.

Impact:

Augmenting Security personnel for higher and smarter security monitoring

Problem Statement:

Alternative packaging solutions for foods & other packaged goods to increase sustainability & regulatory compliance in the wake of restrictions on plastics

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

Primary packing material (laminate) that comes in contact directly with the product is one of the largest consumed raw material in the FMCG industry. They perform a crucial role in protecting the shelf life of products while also offering an opportunity for brand engagement. However, post use littering, by consumers, causes a serious solid-waste management problem. Focus on environment friendly & sustainable packaging materials has been accelerated worldwide. We can envisage stricter norms and regulations on current plastic materials in the not so distant future. This poses an existential crisis like problem for all FMCG companies since they are heavily dependent on such plastics due to their low cost, wide availability, customisability and also easy machinability to match the scale of operations & product volumes. Hence, there is a need to develop alternative solutions which would still offer the shelf life protection for FMCG goods while being cost effective and replicable.

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

Development of effective, environment friendly, cost effective & packing-machine runnable, packaging material solutions as an alternative to current plastics (laminates) widely used in FMCG industry

Critical Parameters to be considered:

Solution Needed:

Users:

All FMCG industries

Expected Outcomes:

1. ) Identification of easily recyclable* alternatives that also serve the following purposes:
         - Shelf life protection
         - Replicate imagery used on current packing material by various brands
         - Machinability with existing Packing machines & technology
         - * recycling without combustion
2. ) Building a cost effective manufacturing process for the same material

Impact:

Huge carbon footprint & greenhouse gas emissions reductions can be realised if the alternative is developed

Problem Statement:

Reduction in Quality testing time for key Raw Material –Packaging Material (RM/PM)

Problem Category:

ITC

Problem Description:

Large scale manufacturers usually have multiple consignments of major RM such as Maida, Oil, sugar, leavening agents, emulsifiers, Cocoa Powder, Skimmed Milk Powder, Laminate, CFCs etc… delivered at high frequencies. Several tests are done to ensure that the incoming RM/PM meets the strict norms. However, many of these tests end of taking a lot of time during and increases the loading/unloading costs associated with the trucks. Hence, there is a need to revamp testing methodologies for quick testing & unloading times while ensuring the food safety norms are not compromised.

What Exact Problem is being Solved?:

Reduction in overall testing time while ensuring food safety norms are met for top 10 most frequent RM-PM in Biscuits manufacture

Critical Parameters to be considered:

Solution Needed:

Users:

Foods Business

Expected Outcomes:

1. ) Create an index taking into account the testing time per material and the no. of consignments of that RM per week
2. ) Perform a Pareto analysis on this index to identify which tests on which RM have most impact on truck unloading times
3. ) Develop Test Kits using alternate testing/methodology to reduce testing time for the same

Impact:

Faster unloading times