We have invented an instrument that can help save more than ₹1 lakh crore annually for the country, with the investment being less than ₹500 crore per annum. Additionally, this innovation has the potential of bringing over ₹1,800 crore from exports to the world every year. Through evaluation of eyesight for night blindness, this instrument also has the ability to screen for the deficiency of Vitamin A, and therefore has applications in many sectors such as transportation, public health, defence, education, etc. It is known fact that Vitamin A deficiency can lead to more road traffic accidents, industrial accidents, skin infections, respiratory tract infections, reduced immunity, high maternal and child mortality, blindness and much more harmful effects on health. The instrument will be very useful in prevention backed with decades of research and development, this revolutionary idea has the potential to provide a significant boost to the country’s growth and secure its future. We are seeking financial and strategic support to reach every corner of the nation. The principal of instrument is to measure the amount of light required in terms of millilux for an individual to identify the object in a machine. It is now desirable for various organisations to come forward and support this idea to put into practice. While instrument will cost Rs 1 lac the recurring cost will be less than Rs 1 per 10 test.
- Vitamin A deficiency has a high prevalence in India (~30% in kids, ~10% in adults)
- The deficiency leads to preventable blindness, lower immunity, weakened eyesight, complications during pregnancy etc
- Existing test methods for determining the deficiency of Vitamin A require blood samples and are resource intensive (cost, time, facility etc.)
- The lack of a quick, efficient, and inexpensive testing instrument for the Vitamin A deficiency causes many direct (e.g. pregnancy complications) and indirect (road accidents)
- Night blindness and dark adaptation time are massively impacted by the Vitamin A levels in the body
- A digital instrument prototype has been created to evaluate the presence and extent of night blindness as well as dark adaptation time
- With a specific procedure being followed, this instrument can be used to detect the existence of the Vitamin A deficiency
- This instrument enables the formation of a solution which is portable, fast, cost effective, reliable, and can be used for a diverse set of applications
- While the first version of the device may utilize a standalone and wired electronic system, numerous technical advances can be executed to massively enhance the capabilities of this instrument.
- A completely wireless electronic system will be developed, in conjunction with a smartphone application to control, communicate, diagnose, and update the instrument.
- Anonymous & secure data collection as well as cutting-edge machine learning models will be deployed on the cloud to improve the effectiveness while also creating a pathway for diverse use-cases.
- There are numerous applications for this solution such as an eyesight evaluation for driver’s license issuance, Vitamin A deficiency detection for at-risk population, part of the fitness test for armed forces etc.
- A subscription approach (on a number of tests and/or amount of time basis) is preferred over the sales, but a combination can be adopted
- Assuming the annual subscription cost of ₹1,00,000 and a 10% coverage of government facilities (RTOs, Anganwadi, and Hospitals) with at least 1x instrument per facility on average, an annual revenue of ₹1,000Cr can be projected.
- Within the private sector, a 10% coverage of hospitals with 1x instrument per facility, an annual revenue of ₹40Cr can be projected.
- Alternatively for the sales model, a one-time cost of ₹5,00,000 and annual maintenance cost of ₹10,000 can result in ₹5,000Cr of one-time revenue and ₹100Cr of annual revenue from the government sector.
- Assuming similar numbers for the private sector under the sales model, the figures become ₹200Cr one-time revenue and ₹4Cr annual revenue.
- With a robust design, solid engineering fundamentals, and a forward thinking approach - the actual maintenance cost can be kept much lower (<₹1,000/device/year), which allows for the funds to be utilized for continuous R&D, sustainable scaling, and sensible vertical integration.
Benefactors
A wide-scale adoption of this technology will create waves of impact, leading to a number of direct and indirect benefits of massive significance across a vast variety of sectors.
- Even a mild extent of night blindness can result in severe consequences for the Indian Armed Forces.
- All three branches - Airforce, Navy, and Army can utilize this instrument to monitor, track, and improve the vision of soldiers.
- The portability, ruggedness, and cost effective attributes can allow this instrument to be deployed in numerous locations with diverse environmental conditions.
- Additional modifications such as energy generation from the solar panels, can be easily introduced to enhance the capabilities of this device even further.
- The improvements brought by the deployment of this instrument on a sufficient scale can play a vital role in maintaining and even improving upon the superior efficiency & effectiveness of the Indian Armed Forces.
- Due to the crucial role of Vitamin A in immunity, growth & development, vision, pregnancy, reproduction, skin-care, and vital organs’ functioning, the timely detection of its deficiency will enable individuals of all ages and from all socio-economic sectors to take necessary steps and improve their well-being.
- On the flipside, the ability to quickly rule out the possibility of Vitamin A deficiency will allow the government organizations to save significant resources (funds, manpower, transportation, and efforts) by not having to administer Vitamin A to crores of children.
- The importance of immunity has become very apparent following the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since even a subclinical deficiency of the Vitamin A reduces the immunity, it creates an opportunity for widespread infections to take place within numerous communities and wreak havoc on multiple fronts. Through the virtual nullification of the prevalent deficiency of Vitamin A, the likelihood and extent of such events taking place in the future can be reduced by a great extent.
- Strong vision is the foundation to safe transportation - whether by road, rail, water, or air. Human eyesight is very sensitive to the Vitamin A levels, and our ability to see in low lights is directly correlated to the concentration of the Vitamin A in blood.
- It is a well-known fact that most of the fatal road accidents occur in low light conditions. It can be estimated that around 10% of all such accidents take place due to Vitamin A deficiency attributable vision impairment.
- Dark adaptation as well as amount of light required to have a clear vision - both are worsened very significantly by Vitamin A deficiency.
- With ever-increasing demands from the transportation industry, it is of crucial importance to implement robust & viable measures to ensure the safety, reliability, and efficiency of all modes of transportation.
- A procedure improvement can be introduced, where a license to operate any vehicle is only allowed after successfully passing the tests performed by this instrument. Additionally, periodic checks can be mandated to ensure the continued ability of the operators to safely control and command the vehicles.
- With a minimal cost, the aforementioned change can be implemented and our nation’s backbone - the critical infrastructure - can be bolstered in a very significant way
- Several occupations with exposure to extreme light levels (e.g. high intensity during welding, very dim light during night shift at warehouses) create a risk for the workers and/or the valuables for which they’re responsible for.
- Such risks are magnified with a potential Vitamin A deficiency, due to the severe limitations imposed on the vision.
- These can lead to accidents which may result in loss of capital, goods, machinery, and most importantly - human lives!
- The probability of such adverse situations taking place can be alleviated when a thorough vision evaluation is performed and monitored for all responsible individuals using this technology.
- Children are thrice as likely to be suffering from Vitamin A deficiency than the adults and as such, the growth can be hampered from multiple directions.
- While the physical growth & immunity have very obvious ways of constricting a child’s journey in education, the less obvious is the weakened eyesight in low light conditions.
- In the resource constrained settings where the students often have to study in dimly lit environments, the same students are also prone to suffer from the Vitamin A deficiency. Consequently, their performance and efficiency will be facing a major challenge, on top of already existing factors.
- Even in light-rich environments, because the night blindness is essentially hidden, the uncured Vitamin A deficiency will continue to exist for a long time, resulting in severe health issues eventually.
- With the students nowadays spending so much time on screens, poor vision is already a huge concern within the education sector, and the lack of adequate levels of Vitamin A would only make things much worse, much faster!
- As the fastest growing economy with the widest pool of youth ready to bring India to new heights, physical and mental health are of paramount importance.
- An inhibited physical growth will not only create inherent limitations on the capabilities of the most valuable asset of the country - its youth - but also, it will lead to several unavoidable mental stressors
- One of the highest priorities of the youth today is skin-care, as it is evident from the latest trends & statistics surrounding fields such as dermatology, plastic surgery, as well as the market valuation & growth for skin-care products. While the deficiency of Vitamin A worsens the skin health and consequently lowers the self-confidence, the blind & substantial administration of Vitamin A doses create a significant threat of Vitamin A toxicity. This toxicity can not only adversely impact skin, but also damage vital organs such as the liver and kidneys.
- The massive impact of Vitamin A deficiency on fertility & pregnancy doesn’t only increase the possibility of shortage of youth in face of growing demand, but it also leads to substantial and chronic frustration for the affected individuals.
- This combination of degraded physical and mental health across its youth is a direct & major threat to India's ambitious growth plans, and therefore it can not be ignored.
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