Mysuru students come up with sustainable cooking solution to help street food vendors
A sustainable cooking solution designed by two class 10 students of Mysuru, which seeks to help the street food vendors by reducing fuel consumption and minimising environmental impact, has qualified for funding by the Ministry of Education to not only develop the product, but also for its commercialisation.
The cooking solution — Agnipath — was designed by Shruthakeerthi V. and Aditi V., students of Excel Public School (EPS) in Mysuru. It was pitted against close to one lakh entries from across India in the latest edition of School Innovation Marathon (SIM) organised jointly by Union Ministry of Education, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Niti Ayog.
The cooking solution won a grant commitment of ₹82,221. According to EPS, the students have already received the first tranche, and are expecting the second tranche in late May following submission of the progress report. The funding will enable the students to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), test variants, and target market launch in the next 12 -14 months.
The SIM is considered as India's largest school innovation challenge that brings together students from across the country to identify community problems of their choice to develop innovative solutions in the form of working prototypes.
Project Agnipath is a flame guide system designed to enhance the cooking efficiency of gas stoves. The innovation primarily targets street food vendors and small eateries by reducing their fuel consumption and lowering environmental impact.
Shruthakeerthi and Aditi developed Agnipath over four-and-a-half months while being mentored by Gopinath Subramaniam, Research Specialist at Excelsoft Technologies, who provided hands-on guidance in research methodology, design principles, prototyping techniques, and pitch preparation.
The students began by interviewing street vendors to understand fuel cost and inefficiencies in day-to-day cooking. They conducted research at the school's Innovation Centre, studying various existing gas stove designs. They discovered the problems with the existing design to be poor heat utilisation, high LPG consumption, and inefficient flame distribution caused by factors like large gaps between the burner and pan, and the lack of insulation. This has significantly increased costs for vendors, sometimes up to 20% of their earnings.
To address these issues, the students sketched initial designs that optimised flame distribution and reduced heat loss. The prototype featured a flame guide crafted from different heat-insulating and heat-retention materials. They tested it using an iron kadai (pan) on a single-burner stove, conducting several trials and iterations to refine the guide's shape and maximise heat transfer.
Agnipath achieved 13.6% saving in gas, directly resulting from its customised flame guide design.
Following funding support, the students are looking forward to receiving detailed guidelines from the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell regarding incubation support and mentorship, which are expected by late April 2025.
Building on their progress, Shruthakeerthi and Aditi plan to refine Agnipath's design and expand testing to larger commercial burners. The team is looking at launching two variants of Agnipath priced at ₹5,000 and ₹7,000 by August 2026. They are targeting sales and distribution through vendor networks, retail channels, and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon.
Excel Group Chairman and Managing D. Sudhanva appreciated the 'commendable feat' of the students at SIM. 'Our goal is to mimic a lab-to-market architecture that allows for ideas to scale from prototype to viable products. With 300-plus innovations to date originating from EPS, our aim is to place Mysuru on the national map, as a hub for student-led innovation,' he said.
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