Agastya Buoyant Pvt Ltd is a startup that has gained expertise in design and development of inflatable products for different fields of applications in India. Read on to find out what the founder, Prantik Sinha, has in store for the future.
What is the flagship project that Agastya Buoyant is working on?
Agastya Buoyant is committed to designing and developing a trash boom for the Clean Ganga Mission drive under the Government of India through its rich technical skills acquired and resources developed. Water surface cleaning for the River Ganga have already begun since January 2016, under the aegis of the National Mission for Clean Ganga at different scales using appropriate technology. Agastya Buoyant has recommended the use of trash boom for the above requirement in addition to the skimmers being deployed to enhance the efficiency of the cleaning. The development of home-grown trash boom technology could bring to surface customized products for different use cases, facilitate technology upgradation without replacing existing infrastructure and save a lot in terms of time & foreign currency.
How did you deal with the Covid-19 Crisis?
Last month we launched two new products which we believe will help people cope with the pandemic, especially front line workers. One product was the long lasting sanitiser, which contains 0% alcohol. Incessant use of sanitisers in the last 4-5 months iis creating an invisible negative effect on our bodies. Our steriliser is natural, made of 97% water and 3% nanoparticles, which kill bacteria and virus. People can spray this on surfaces and maintain high levels of hygiene. More than anything, we will be reducing the wastage of water significantly.
Our second product is a breathable and washable anti-viral PPE suit which will not only reduce the medical waste generated, but also prevent front line workers from facing skin problems because of long hours of wearing these suits.
What sets Agastya apart from other startups?
Firstly, we are keeping the overall scenario in mind – we are not only catering to what the pandemic needs, but also keeping other environmental factors in mind. All in all, we cannot ignore other effects like high volumes of medical waste and wastage of water in the process of dealing with the pandemic. The pandemic and subsequent lockdown made us realise how the startup ecosystem needs to work collaboratively to create a better and healthier community. So, we collaborated with various startups for execution. For example, we partnered with Abstract Ideas from IIT Bombay and Nawork Innovations from IIT Delhi for the PPE suits and steriliser. We also partnered with an IIMCIP incubatee, Brickcell Technologies for projects in aquaculture, and with Cleanergy for a plug-and-play model of a bio-gas plant. Collaborated with Mohan Merchandise for providing one stop solution to Biofloc FIsh Farmers.
What impact did you have on people during this time?
Our products definitely changed the way people looked at the PPE’s, since they were having to regularly use both PPE suits and sterilisers as the ‘new normal’. Moreover, we tried to employ migrant workers at our Kolkata and Mumbai factories to help manufacture these products. We employed 40 extra workers. The textile workers also had very little business, and our startup instilled their hope. 10% of our workers are women. In a situation where citizens were losing jobs, our employees were earning between INR 8000 to INR 10000 monthly.
Agastya Buoyant is looking forward to revolutionizing the underwater salvaging systems among the fishing community in India, which has always been deprived of newer technologies. They effectively pivoted their model to serve their community. Furthermore, the startup collaborated when they could, only to grow their impact 3x and build products that are more relevant today.